Little Acts Of Grace

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

Psalm 103:8

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Hebrews 4:16

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

Our God, the creator, is the embodiment of grace. Being gracious is part of how we understand God’s character; it is in fact an act of grace on God’s part that we can even understand this.

The single biggest act of grace in the history of the earth is that which Jesus did on the cross at Golgotha. Completely undeserved, he hung and suffered, the Son of God, humiliated in the worst punishment by death, separated from God the Father and God the Spirit – the Trinity temporarily undone – so that the punishment for OUR sins could be paid for, IN FULL, by Him.

No one else and, no one other act in human history has been prophesied about as much as this. This act of supreme grace was the fulfillment of multiple prophecies and entirely undeserved by us. And yet, we stand on the side of history that knows of and can testify to its reality, and we – as followers of Jesus – know the restoration of our relationship with our Creator as a result of this gracious act.

Whilst this was the culminating gracious act of Jesus' life, it was not the only one. Consider those who society said were not worthy – those shunned because of their social status, previous sinfulness, health status, gender, lineage. His lifetime of grace-filled acts towards others pointed to the cross and gave us an example to follow. 

As it was described throughout the gospel narratives, grace was...

restoring...

unifying...

life changing...

healing... 

loving...

undeserved... 

freely given... 

humble...

...often discrete with no fanfare or a request not to tell of it, grace required no payback – in fact, it insisted otherwise.

Jesus’ teaching was often a call to be gracious. His Sermon on the Mount is an exposition of how grace – as God intended it to be – should be embodied by God’s people. 

Legalism is gone, debts are not counted, shalom with the other, shalom with God, shalom with the world we live in, shalom with ourselves – these are the ways God has called us to live.

Julia Baird’s new book, Bright Shining, has just been released. It is a beautifully written book and is disarmingly honest about the world we currently populate. She observes the silos we have built to protect ourselves, damage relationship and push us to be more isolated. Julia insists this is “anti-grace” (my word).  

Rather than be weighed down by this, she suggests that “micro-gracious acts” (again, my term) are the key to the way the world will experience grace. Unwittingly, I believe she is making a very similar call to the ones Jesus made repeatedly in His life of actions and teachings amongst His followers.

Julia says, 

“Grace is, in most of its forms, fleeting and often overlooked. But these are the moments that illuminate and transcend. So the fundamental question must be: 

How different would our lives be if we were defined, or lit, by grace?”.

Yes, and Amen. While Julia Baird insists that grace comes from within (and to a certain extent, it is given to others most often through the physical acts of another person), as Jesus followers, we know Him to be the true source of perfect grace expressed to humankind. And that it is our dependency on Him that will bear the spiritual fruit that will give rise to the gracious acts we extend to others.

A little act here, a micro-act there. Maybe a big act next, and then a tiny, tiny one after that. Unnoticed, unheralded, unexpected, unasked for. 

Grace accumulates, it builds. It deals with differences that exist between us; it pushes us to unity. It gives back life where it is was being taken away. We can all do it, we are all called to do it.

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

1 Peter 4:10

My prayer is we seek to be a community of grace, mirroring the character of God in all we do with each other, in our words and deeds. Not just when it is easy, not just when others are looking. Every day, in every direction.

Shalom.