June 26
DebDay 104: That is Grace
On (yet) another rainy Friday morning, and with my wife out of town, I find myself having received a needed perspective. My reading took me to consider, even imagine, even try to conceptualize God's grace to me in Jesus.
What was the price tag on that grace?
Philippians 2:6 says that "though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped" (held on to, protected.)
He willingly gave up His place and position and rights (equality) as God, in order to save me. From myself.
So what did that look like for Him? What did it cost Him? He became human, with all its physical limitations.
Isaiah 53 says, "For he grew up before him (as the Father looked down from heaven) like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him."
Jesus gave up "looking like God," being limitless and all-powerful; being beautiful. The perfection of perfection.
But there's more to it.
"He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not."
His arrival resulted in sorrow and grief for Him; the depth of grief that comes from no one liking you, wanting to be with you, or valuing you. The very people He came to save didn't want Him or His salvation.
In His darkest moment, He was abandoned.
And He was killed.
"But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us...peace, and with his wounds we are...healed."
Philippians 2 goes on to say that through and after His sacrificial death, Jesus rose from the grave, conquered the finality of death, and returned to the Father triumphant.
No longer limited by human likeness, God the Father highly exalted Him, and gave Him the "name that is above every name;" the One before whom, ultimately, everyone (even those who rejected Him) will bow.
The price tag for that grace was more costly than I can possibly imagine.
As the song goes, "How can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood?"
How could He extend that grace, that mercy, to one so undeserving as me? How could His costly grace result in peace with God and healing from sin effects for me?
Because Jesus willingly paid the price I could not pay. He fulfilled the demands of the Law. He conquered sin and death. The One who was rejected has not rejected me.
Undeserved.
That is grace.
-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church | Juneau
