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Grace Isn't Fair

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9

This verse from Ephesians 2 underscores that grace is at the heart of the gospel.  Is there a richer or more comforting idea in all the world than grace?  I don’t think so.  The only word that comes close is its first cousin “love,” and yet, for me, grace is more intriguing.  Love is often – usually, in fact, reciprocal.  We love those who love us. We love those we like and those like us. 

Grace, on the other hand, is indiscriminate and totally undeserved.  Grace comes free of charge to people who do not deserve it, and I am one of those.

My thoughts today can be reduced to this single three-word sentence: Grace isn’t fair.  That is the message of the morning.

What is Grace?

Grace is the English translation of the Latin term gratia, itself a translation of the Greek word “charis” meaning “gift.” Grace is a gift, and all of that is set against a backdrop of Hebrew words such as compassion, care, kindness, longsuffering.

God looks with favor upon us.  In spite of all our faults and failures, he has nothing but our best interests at heart.  In the New Testament the word “grace” is of central importance.  It is the keyword of Christianity.  Grace is what the gospel is all about, for we are “saved by grace through faith” (Ephesians 2:8).  What a concept . . .

No matter how much we have or who we are or what we know, we can never gain nor merit what is freely given by God.  God is gracious, not because of who we are, but because of who he is. God is love and love must be expressed.  By grace, we are the objects of his love.       

You see, we are broken and grace alone is the glue. 

Morality can’t mend us, personality won’t fix the problem, education can’t restore what lies in pieces on the carpet of creation, and prosperity does not hold the power to restore humanity.

Grace alone is the glue.

The attraction of grace lies in the understanding that grace is something you can never get . . . but only be given.  One cannot earn it, nor deserve it, or bring it about.  We can only receive it and be thankful. Grace is God’s undeserved favor, his unmerited love. 

As such, grace is God acting in spontaneous goodness to save sinners: God loving the unlovely.  Though we possess nothing within us to merit God’s favor, he favors us, nonetheless. In the opening chapter of the Gospel of John we read, “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.”

Frederick Buechner suggests that grace is the “crucial eccentricity” of the Christian faith.

If you are buying a house and have a mortgage with a bank, your payments are probably due on the first of each month.  But should you fail to make a payment on that date, you may have until the 15th to get it in before receiving a penalty.  This extra time is called a “grace period.”

Christians too have a grace period.  But it is different from what the bank extends to its mortgage holders.  The bank system is not grace in the full sense of the term; it is merely a temporary reprieve.  The bank's favor comes to an end on the 15th.  Full payment is then demanded or a penalty will be added.

By contrast, what we owe God by way of indebtedness for our sins has been fully paid by Jesus' death on the cross. In the book of Romans the Bibles says: “But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more” (Romans 5:20). 

The Christian’s grace period puts us on the receiving end of God’s unending favor.  It calls us to a live in such a way that we bring glory to God.

Illustrations of Grace from Jesus

Jesus had a lot to say about grace, most of which he said through parables.  He told stories to illustrate what grace is all about. For example:

(1)      He tells the story of a man who is having a great party.  His invited guests refuse to come, so he sends his servants out into the streets to invite the poor and the broken to the banquet.

(2)      He tells the story of a younger son who, out of selfishness, takes his portion of the inheritance and wastes it all, only to come to have his waiting father welcome him home with open arms.          

(3)      Or how about the parable of the hired workers?  A certain man hires workers for his fields; some begin at six in the morning, others at noon and still others at three in the afternoon.  At the end of the day, all of the workers are paid the same.   What kind of math is that?  That’s not fair for some folks to work all day and then have others who show up just before quitting time get the same pay. 

Well, let me tell you that grace cannot be reduced to “generally acceptable accounting practices.”  You see, none of us gets paid according to merit.  If the world could have been saved by good bookkeeping, it would have been saved by Moses, not Jesus. It would have come down to just keeping all of the commandments.

But grace does not rest on merit or performance, and therefore grace really isn’t fair - but that, of course, is the point.  If it were fair, if everyone got what he or she deserved, where would we be?  No one could find favor in God’s sight; so he throws the whole idea of merit out the window as a prerequisite, and substitutes grace.

This is a hard thing for us to grasp; for the world in which we live operates on a different economy, which says, “It can be yours if you buy it or earn it or deserve it in some way.”

Therefore, it is only natural to our thinking to believe that we have to do something in order to be accepted by God.  In response to that, grace sounds a startling note of contradiction and freedom.

Grace overcomes all things: sin, indifference, human limitation and failures.  You can be good or bad, and either way there is grace; it’s not fair, but I guess that’s the point. 

Conclusion

It is God who takes the initiative—as a lovesick parent who runs to meet a prodigal son, or an employer who pays eleventh hour workers the same as the first-hour crew.  He is the God who goes out into the highways and byways of this world to invite undeserving guests to his banquet.

“Amazing grace – how sweet the sound” 

Amazing Grace . . . how sweet the sound.  Grace isn’t fair, and aren’t we glad?

- Dr. John Bowling is currently serving as Interim President at Nazarene Bible College.