The song I just did is a song by country singer George Straight that speaks about the love of a human father for his son. But that is not all. It also gives us insight regarding our Heavenly Father and the depth of His love. Listen to the words of the last verse:
One has to wonder why God would choose to save any of us. After all, Scripture teaches us that we are all, every one of us, sinners undeserving of God’s love, God’s mercy, God’s grace, and most assuredly, eternal salvation. Yet God chooses to give each one of us the opportunity to accept His gift, purchased for us by God the Son on the cross. If we think about it, if we search Scripture, we find that God does indeed have several reasons to provide salvation for us humans, His creation.
God loves you so much that He sends a sunrise each day to greet you. He sends a sunset each evening to kiss you “good night”. He sends you flowers each spring. He paints the trees different colors for you each fall. God wants you to know that whenever you feel like talking to Him, He will listen. Whenever you are suffering and hurting, He will comfort you. When you are joyful and celebrating, He will celebrate with you. And when you turn to Him, He will welcome you with open arms.
Do you still doubt that God loves you? Listen to Romans 5:8. “But God demonstrated His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” That is the awesome love that God has for each and every one of us! God manifested that total love for us through the death of Jesus Christ on that cross which opened the path back to the Father. He did it in order that we may come to Him, find peace in Him, and become heirs with Jesus to all that Heaven has to offer. The neatest thing about God’s gift is that there are no pre- existing conditions that you have to meet before you are allowed to accept it.
God has showered His gift of grace upon us in three different and distinct forms. They are, as the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, tells us, prevenient grace, justifying grace, and sanctifying grace. Now today we are not going to get into a long and deep theological dissertation on what these are. But it is important that we understand at least the basics. Because without these three forms of God’s grace, salvation and sanctification would not be possible for us.
First we have prevenient grace. This is God’s grace that exists before we come to realize that salvation is a gift of God that has nothing to do with human will, achievement, works, or even the pursuit of a Christian-like lifestyle. Salvation is the work of God and God alone. Not only has God done all of the work Himself (Christ’s work on the cross), but God also puts forth the effort to bring us to Him. God takes the initiative through His revelation of Christ found in the Bible, the proclamation of His Church, the witness of individuals, and life’s experiences to bring sinners to the awareness of their sins and the need for a Savior. God the Father reaches out to us through those means and the Holy Spirit uses them to awaken our hearts to the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to our need of repentance and forgiveness. Once we are aware of our sin and the remedy for it, we must either then reject the call of God, or accept it and turn to God in repentance and faith.
Once we have heard the call of God for repentance, God offers us His justifying grace. This is what God does for us through the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ. At this point, if we will declare our sinfulness and invite Jesus into our hearts and lives as our Savior and Lord, God will pour out His wonderful and gracious gift of immediate pardon and forgive us of all of our sins! The very moment that happens we are “justified” in God’s sight and set free from the guilt and penalty of those sins we have committed and those sins we may yet commit. The instant we take advantage of God’s “justifying grace” is the moment of our salvation. We do not then have to do additional works to “earn” our way to Heaven; our entrance is secured.
This brings us to the third type of God’s grace; sanctifying grace. It is here that many Christians get bogged down in their Christian journey. I believe that the Church itself carries a great deal of blame for that, because sanctifying grace has not been taught or preached sufficiently in the last 30 to 40 years. Therefore, since many have not heard about the gift of “sanctifying grace”, they have never been inclined to accept it as their own.
God’s loving gift of “sanctifying grace” is where God calls His people to set themselves apart from the world and turn to God’s will and purpose for their lives. Romans 12:1-2 tells us, “Therefore I urge you my brothers, in view of God’s mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your reasonable act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will.”
If we Christians are to be effective witnesses for Jesus Christ in this world, we must be distinguishable from non-believers. We must be set apart by righteousness, peace, joy, hope, faith and love. God wants His people to strive to become more like Jesus Christ through obedience, surrender, and service to God. As a whole, in these times, we Christians are falling way short in these areas. Why? I believe that, again, as a whole, we are relying far too much on our own human “ingenuity” and not nearly enough on the empowerment of Jesus Christ given through the Holy Spirit.
“Sanctifying grace” empowers us to surrender our will to the will of God the Father. It is this grace that gives us the courage and the strength to lay down our life, to pick up our cross and daily follow after Jesus. This “sanctifying grace” is not a one-time event. It is an ongoing process that continues throughout our lifetime only as long as we cooperate with the Holy Spirit and allow Him to work in our lives. It will continue only if we continue to seek a deeper and more intimate relationship with God the Father through Jesus, God the Son. Our journey to complete sanctification is, in the words of John Wesley, “the way in which we are going on towards perfection”. Sanctification is an unrestrained, purpose-led lifestyle of loving God, worshipping God, serving God and loving others as Christ loves us!
So let me conclude with this thought. Through God’s grace, prevenient, justifying and sanctifying, He has shown us how deeply He loves us. These gifts of grace from God are only accessible through Jesus Christ. If you have not experienced one or any of these gifts from God, won’t you put your trust in Jesus Christ today? Do that and you can claim these words from Charles Wesley written in his hymn titled, “And Can It Be”: