"DEAR GOD, YOU SURE DON'T ACT LIKE YOU'RE ALIVE" - Day 27

Day 27 – the grace of God

Grace is the free, undeserved goodness and favor of God to mankind.   –MATTHEW HENRY

On this, the second leg of our religious journey, we have surveyed the landscape of the universe to determine what it says about the nature of God. Beholding the design therein, we have concluded that God must be active and creative, all-powerful and all-knowing, volitional and sovereign. He is a God who has chosen to act in power and knowledge to create the world. This much we have gleaned from the Argument from Design. Furthermore, we have observed how we as humans tend to be universally bent toward justice and have acknowledged that God must also be moral—a holy and righteous Lawgiver who has planted within us a moral compass. This we have deduced from the Argument from Fairness.

And now, from the Argument from Supernatural Belief, we have come upon something that defies description, that this same magnificent God has chosen to make us aware of His existence and, to some extent, His character. In no way was God obligated to make us aware. So great is He—and we, His creations, so small in comparison—that it would have been easy for Him to keep Himself hidden from us. But history reveals just the opposite. Men and women of every age and culture claim to know of Him and to interact with Him. Though there are limits to our awareness—limits that are a function of His Infinity and our finitude—no one can deny the presence and persistence in the human psyche of belief in God. And the only explanation that seems to make sense is that this transcendent God has chosen to reveal Himself to us and, in so doing, to relate to us.

If you analyze the divine attributes summarized in the preceding paragraphs, you will find that they can be divided into two groups. The first consists of parts of God’s character that are a function of who He is. His power, knowledge, and morality fit this category, for all are characteristics that are basically inherent in Him. In other words, it would be impossible for God not to possess them. He did not choose to be powerful—He is powerful. He did not decide to possess such knowledge. It is a part of who He is. Similarly, He did not have any other option than to be moral and righteous, for this is intrinsic in Him. But there is a second group of characteristics that are a function of what He chose. He did not have to use His power and knowledge to create the world, including us, yet He chose to do so. He was not obligated to plant a moral conscience within us, but He did this nonetheless. And, as we have noted in the last few days, He did not have to make us aware of His existence and nature. But He decided—the theologians say, “It was His will”—to so reveal and so relate.

With this, we touch just the outskirts of that wonderful activity of God called grace. It is something given to us that we did not earn or deserve. The life He bestowed upon us, the universe He formed around us, the Moral Law He placed inside us, the revelation He sent toward us, and the relationship He established with us—all of these can be attributed to His grace. They are inexplicable gifts from God, acts of unmerited favor toward us. We have them only because He chose to grant them to us. It was His will to do so.

We, not in the least worthy, have become the beneficiaries of God’s grace. Let us fall to our knees and give thanks!      

Daily Quotation
Quoted in Mark Water, The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations, 444.