Grace Is Greater Than Our Mistakes

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The English language is ever changing, especially in America. Words that used to be commonplace are now forgotten. Words that used to be slang are now part of our everyday life. And new words are getting created all the time. Here are some new words that have been added to the dictionary in recent years.

Does anyone know what phonesia is? It is when you call a friend in your contact list and just as they answer you cannot remember who you were calling. Has that ever happened to you?

What about disconfect? When you drop a piece of candy on the floor, pick it up, and blow on it attempting to blow away the germs, you are trying to disconfect it. I guess this is now part of the 5 second rule.

Has anyone experienced blamestorming? This is when a group gathers for the purpose of assigning responsibility for a failure or mistake. My brother and I would blamestorm all the time and never knew that is what we were doing. We called it “getting our story straight.”

Unlike these words, grace is a word that we have heard many times in our lives. We have heard it so often that it no longer seems to feel very amazing to us. During the next 3 weeks we will delve into what grace really means, versus what we think it means. God’s grace is more beautiful, freeing, and altogether greater than anything we could ever imagine.

We start today with the story of the Samaritan women at the well. We have discussed this story found in John 4 several times. Jesus travels to Samaria and sits beside a well. When a Samaritan women comes to the well, He asks her for a drink of water.

She is amazed that a Jewish man is talking to her. Jewish men did not talk to women in public and Jews did not talk to Samaritans at all, because they had been taught to hate them. Jesus then told her that if she only knew who was talking to her, she would ask him for Living Water…meaning the salvation that only He could provide. They continue to talk as Jesus reveals that He knows all about her past, her present, and even the desires of her heart.

²⁸ Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the men, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could this be the Messiah?” (John 4:28-29, HCSB)

God’s Grace Helps Us Recognize the Ugliness of Our Sin

Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, said in reference to his anti-smoking, anti-obesity, and gun control issues, “I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.”

Some people, like Mayor Bloomberg, mistakenly believe that God has this great scale of justice where he weighs our good and bad and if we have done more good or if we do a few goods that are really spectacular that we get instant access to heaven. But when we understand grace we begin to recognize just how imbalanced that scale would be.

If it is possible to work our way to heaven, then Jesus is a fool. After all, Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) Just in case we somehow we weren’t able to understand that we could only get to God through Jesus, Isaiah wrote this, “All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted [menstrual] garment.” (Isaiah 64:6)

Our very best good deeds are like a filthy, blood-soaked rag. Do we really understand then just how filthy, how ugly our sins must be to God? We work hard at convincing ourselves and others that we’re not really all that bad, but the truth is we are far worse than we ever imagined. It is only because of God’s grace that these horrible sins can be forgiven. Our ability to appreciate grace is in direct correlation to our acceptance that we need it.

God’s Grace Is More Beautiful Than Our Brokenness

Like we see in the story of the woman at the well, “When God’s grace and mercy collide with our shame and guilt, it’s messy but it’s beautiful. Jesus knows everything you ever did, but he wants to make sure you know that his grace is greater” (Kyle Idleman)

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“The worst thing that could happen is that you spend your life trying to outrun God because you think he’s chasing you to collect what you owe—when he’s really chasing you to give you what you could never afford” (Kyle Idleman]

¹⁵ When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said to Him, “You know that I love You.”

“Feed My lambs,” He told him.

¹⁶ A second time He asked him, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said to Him, “You know that I love You.”

“Shepherd My sheep,” He told him.

¹⁷ He asked him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?”

Peter was grieved that He asked him the third time, “Do you love Me?” He said, “Lord, You know everything! You know that I love You.”

“Feed My sheep,” Jesus said. ¹⁸ “I assure you: When you were young, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don’t want to go.” ¹⁹ He said this to signify by what kind of death he would glorify God. After saying this, He told him, “Follow Me!” (John 21:15-19, HCSB)

God’s Grace Redeems All our Past Regrets

Here we see Jesus and Peter talking together after Jesus was resurrected from the dead. To understand what Jesus is trying to teach Peter, we need to go back to a time before the crucifixion of Jesus. It started at the last supper when Peter claimed that he would never deny Jesus and was informed that on that very night before the rooster crowed that Peter would deny Jesus 3 times.

When Jesus was arrested, Peter fled and was trying to not be noticed by anyone as one of the followers of Jesus. He was afraid that he too would be arrested. Three times he was asked if he was one of those that was with Jesus and Peter replied three times that he was not one of them and did not know Him.

Now Jesus asks Peter 3 times if he loves Him. The same number of times that Peter denied Jesus. The purpose of this was to let Peter know that through grace he had been forgiven. To let him know that even in his regret, God’s grace is greater.

“Our regrets should lead to remorse. That’s the right response when we are confronted with our sin. God’s grace won’t leave you there, but that’s where God’s grace will most often find you” (Kyle Idleman)

God’s grace helps us recognize just how ugly our sins are, but His grace is more beautiful than our brokenness and it redeems all of our past regrets.

What about you? Are you still lying to yourself; telling yourself that you’re not really all that bad? Are you trying to work your way into forgiveness, hoping that your good outweighs your bad? If so, then I have good news for you today. You no longer need to hope that you can somehow make it to heaven. God’s grace is available for you. By accepting His forgiveness and agreeing to let Him be the boss of your life you can know for certain that you will spend eternity with Him in heaven.

Have you been wallowing in your brokenness? God loves you so much that He has sought you out and is calling you to come back to Him.

Are you so filled with regret for the things that you have done that you have become immobilized; unable to move forward in life? You don’t have to stay there in your regrets. God’s forgiveness is available for you.