A story is told about the nineteenth century evangelist D. L. Moody. On one occasion he was meditating on the theme of grace and was so captivated by the thought that, flinging aside his pen, he dashed out into the street where he accosted the first man he met and demanded: “Do you know grace?” “Grace who?” asked the surprised man.

If we could but get a small glimpse of the amazing story of God’s grace as it is presented to us in the New Testament, and really begin to understand its meaning, we would probably all get as excited as Moody did. And our lives would not be the same again. If we were looking for a new title for the New Testament, then a good candidate would be “The Amazing Story of the Grace of God”. It may surprise many people to know that, athough it has much to say about the love of God, there are about four times as many references in the New Testament to the grace of God. Whatever the word means, and we will explore that later, it is obviously one of the New Testament’s major themes; yet how many of us have been gripped by its message?

Jerry Bridges begins the preface to his excellent book Transforming Grace (1) with the words, “The grace of God is one of the most important subjects in all of Scripture. At the same time it is probably one of the least understood.” This is very sad, as it is what the world needs and is what, even if unconsciously, so many people are looking for. Our lack of understanding of grace and our inability to live in the light of that understanding surely lie at the root of some of the personal problems we Christians face in our lives. Dr. David Seamands, says in his book Healing Grace:

I am convinced that the basic cause of some of the most disturbing emotional and spiritual problems which trouble evangelical Christians is the failure to receive and live out God's unconditional grace and the corresponding failure to offer that grace to others. I encounter this problem in the counselling room more than any other hang-up.

Selwyn Hughes, the author of the very popular daily readings Every Day with Jesus, which are read by nearly one million people in 130 countries, finishes his book The Scandal of Grace: God’s Amazing Gift (2) with the story of a rock festival held at Wembley Stadium. A scene from this particular festival was shown in the documentary made by Bill Moyers about John Newton’s popular hymn ‘Amazing Grace’. Several bands had gathered for this festival, which lasted for twelve hours. You can imagine the mood of the crowd by the end of that time, many of them high on drink and drugs. The festival concluded with a song from an opera singer by the name of Jessye Norman—a beautiful African American woman. She chose as her song ‘Amazing Grace’. Without any accompaniment she began to sing slowly:

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now I’m found;

Was blind, but now I see.

By the time she reached the last verse a strange power had descended on the stadium. All was quiet.

Hughes concludes by saying:

Non-Christians as well as Christians are amazed by grace. Though they may not realise it, that is what they thirst for. And when it is seen—not just sung—then all the world will fall silent before it. It’s amazing. Utterly amazing.

___________________

(1) NavPress, 1991, ©.

(2) CWR, 2004, ©.