Recently I have been thinking a lot about grace. Grace, as I have often heard defined, is “getting something good you don’t deserve.” Obviously, the best and most obvious example of grace is salvation that has been afforded us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yet oftentimes, this is where our consideration of grace ends.
John 1:16 however states that through Christ we have received “grace upon grace” (ESV). God’s ultimate grace comes through repentance and faith in Christ, but God’s grace is lavished on us through the fact that the sun shines another day, through the encouragement word of a friend, and through the comfort He provides the brokenhearted. God’s grace is abundant. And as the Psalmist often writes his “steadfast love endures forever” (see Psalm 136). God’s grace and love are extravagant, abounding and eternal.
What this has reminded me of is that we can be tools of God’s grace. Again, while the most excellent example of this is sharing the Gospel, we can also be instruments of grace by being quick to forgive, by showing love to those who don’t show love to us, and by serving others even when we can’t rightly expect anything in return. To do these things, and to do them for the sake of Christ, makes us ambassadors of His grace. And as we pour grace into others life, we will appreciate the grace that God gives us even more.