how sweet the sound

The Word for today:
Ephesians 2:1 -- 2:22

mark this: 
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Ephesans 2:8-9)

I teach Bible classes. I break my brain and drain my heart in preparation for that hour. But I limp home now and then.

Once, a student asked, "What's the difference between grace and mercy?"  I trotted out a lengthy reply, with some stuffy scholarly annotation thrown in to dress it up--and didn't answer the question at all.

When I got home and told Shelley, my wife, about my lame answer, she said, "Here's how I understand it: Grace is when we get good things we don't deserve. Mercy is when we don't get bad things we do deserve."

You could search 443 theology books and never find a better explanation. I know, because I did.

We're saved by grace, amazing grace. Grace comes from the heart of God, Who so loved (your name here) that He found a way to pay the wages of sin for (your name here) when you had no way to pay for yourself.

You are so important to God--so wildly, unquenchably, incomprehensibly loved--that the Creator of the universe took your place on a cross meant for you, because that's the only way He could rescue you.

That's amazing. That's grace.

There's a cross that had your name on it. I googled and googled and found a picture of that very cross. You can see it up above.

Scripture--and Shelley--taught me that mercy means you're not on that cross.

Grace means that God was.

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