GRACE ALWAYS WINS

The Lord spoke to Paul and said “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness:  Paul replies, Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”[1]

Matthew West, a talented song writer and performing artist of contemporary Christian music, wrote an extremely powerful song entitled “Grace Wins.”  The lyrics say:

“In my weakest moment I see you
Shaking your head in disgrace
I can read the disappointment
Written all over your face

Here comes those whispers in my ear
Saying who do you think you are
Looks like you’re on your own from here
‘Cause grace could never reach that far

But, in the shadow of that shame
Beat down by all the blame
I hear you call my name sayin’ it’s not over
And my heart starts to beat
So loud now, drowning out the doubt
I’m down but I’m not out 

There’s a war between guilt and grace
And they’re fighting for a sacred space
But I’m living proof
Grace wins every time

 No more lying down in death’s defeat
Now I’m rising up in victory
Singing hallelujah
Grace wins every time 

Words can’t describe the way it feels
When mercy floods a thirsty soul
A broken side begins to heal
And grace returns what guilt has stole
And, in the shadow of that shame
Beat down by all the blame

I hear you call my name sayin’ it’s not over
And my heart starts to beat
So loud now, drowning out the doubt
I’m down but I’m not out

There’s a war between guilt and grace
And they’re fighting for a sacred space
But I’m living proof
Grace wins every time 

No more lying down in death’s defeat
Now I’m rising up in victory
Singing hallelujah
Grace wins every time 

For the prodigal son, grace wins
For the woman at the well, grace wins
For the blind man and the beggar, grace wins
For always and forever, grace wins
For the lost out on the street, grace wins
For the worst part of you and me, grace wins
For the thief on the cross, grace wins
For a world that it lost

There’s a war between guilt and grace
And they’re fighting for a sacred space
But I’m living proof
Grace wins every time

No more lying down in death’s defeat
Now I’m rising up in victory
Singing hallelujah
Grace wins every time
Every time
I’m living proof grace wins every time”[2]

I have written and spoken many times about how the enemy uses guilt to bring us down and attempts to distract us from the victory we have already been given.  That victory is the result of grace given freely and willingly by our Heavenly Father.  Often defined as “unmerited favor,” grace is the result of what Jesus Christ did for us on Calvary.  God’s perfect plan included His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, living a perfect life; he was tempted just as you and I are tempted yet he remained perfect; demonstrating the power of Jehovah God to heal and to raise the dead as well as save the outcast and unwanted in the world.  He was accused of crimes He did not commit yet He was found guilty and sentenced to death on the cross.  Jesus anguished on that cross to pay my sin debt and not just for a period of time but for all eternity!  It is extremely difficult for me to soak this in simply because I know I am not worthy of God’s grace. Yet He extends it to me just the same.  There is a wonderful hymn that says “Grace, grace, God’s grace, grace that is greater than all my sin.”  It is grace that makes me clean in God’s sight.  It is grace that makes me a new creature when I accept a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  It is grace that gives me the ability to rejoin my heart with God’s.

The fact is there is nothing that I can do on my own to save me from my sins and as long as there is unconfessed sin in my life I cannot have the kind of relationship God wants to have with me.  Grace is not something we can earn or perform good works to deserve; it is a gift of God that cannot be bought or earned.  It is His love gift to you and me so that we can have a personal relationship with Him in this life but in addition, an eternal relationship with Him forever and forever.  Paul gives us a good description of this very issue when he wrote “Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation.  However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.  David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:  ^‘Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.  Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.’”[3]  When we try to earn God’s grace we can very quickly have our focus removed from God and turn to self.  You see works is about what we can do grace is about what God can do!

As Paul trained Timothy to carry on the ministry he tells him “You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”[4]  You see the enemy would like for us to believe that grace ends at the altar of salvation yet nothing is further from the truth.  Grace begins at the altar of salvation and gives us power in our lives as we grow in our walk with the Lord.  As we grow in our faith we learn not only to receive God’s grace but to extend it to others.  Let me close with a powerful passage of scripture that sums up what I am trying to say.  In the book of Ephesians we are told “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.  All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.  But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast.”[5]  Are you living in God’s grace?  Are you demonstrating to others the same grace that God has extended to you?  Grace is power and it is the power of God living through us despite our weaknesses.  Oh thank you LORD that when I am weak, You are strong!

[1] 2 Corinthians 12:9.  All scripture used in this article is taken from the NIV translation of the Holy Bible unless otherwise noted.
[2] Artist Matthew West on his album “Live Forever” released in 2015
[3] Romans 4:4-8
[4] 2 Timothy 2:1
[5] Ephesians 2:1-9