Contemplation #109
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ . . .” Galatians 1:6

God’s call to us, that we might become reunited with God and enjoy the love and blessing of divine life, is accomplished through the merciful action done in Christ. Grace is the action God takes out of mercy and love, and this work in Christ for us is the grace of Christ. We are not speaking solely of the cross, but of the birth in the manger, the holy life of selflessness, the example of goodness and holiness, the righteousness lived to God, and the death that gives us what we do not deserve. The grace of Christ’s birth, life, and death is a gift of mercy and the means of God bringing us to himself. This grace of Christ is what calls us and into which we are called . . . so that we live by grace, through grace, and unto grace.

Contemplation #110
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ . . .” Galatians 1:6

Why would anyone desert the grace of Christ? What could be more appealing, more compelling, more filled with hope than Christ’s grace? The answer is simple . . . self. The grace of Christ has nothing to do with us, but is all about God through Christ accomplishing the work of God. To be called by the grace of Christ is to lose any place for self, and to be enter of life that is centered on God because it is life by and in grace. To live with self-respect, self-esteem, self- concern, self-confidence, selfish ambition, and self-sufficiency is always more desirable than grace.

Contemplation #111
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ . . .” Galatians 1:6

The grace of Christ tolerates no rivals and no exceptions. God’s grace is so all-consuming that it leaves no room for any other way of living. Therefore, any move to live by means other than grace is a desertion of God’s merciful action in Christ. This is why our abandonment of grace can come quickly. We do not slide gradually from living by grace, but at the first turn to something other we immediately abandon God and the way of grace. The nature of grace means, though, that my quick desertion of it is not the same of God’s removal of it. Paul instructs us to return to the grace that we so quickly leave, living intentionally once again in that which we left, though which did not leave us.

Contemplation #106
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.” Philemon 25

Paul’s benediction to Philemon invoked a prayer for the abiding presence of grace. To find that one’s spirit is accompanied constantly by grace, is for us to live in, to be nourished by, and to ultimately administer God’s merciful action. Grace is not what we receive at only specific moments such as in forgiveness or some blessing, though we do experience events of gracious outpouring, but we are to live in the company of grace. To live with grace is to live a new life from a divine source.

Contemplation #107
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.” Philemon 25

The “grace of the Lord Jesus Christ” recalls to our minds the historical, on-the-earth, and in-specific-places stories of Jesus as found in the gospels. We could talk of the grace of God to the Israelites, or the grace poured out over the centuries of the church. Grace is not theoretical, but concrete as experienced by the people of God. Paul reminds us that the grace that accompanies us and shapes our lives is the same grace seen in the gospel stories. We live in the presence of the grace of Christ. Both that he enjoyed and that he gives.

Contemplation #108
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.” Philemon 25

Grace with our spirits. The human spirit, which has been renewed and gifted to us by God, our spirits with which we commune with God’s Spirit . . . this is particularly where Paul speaks about us living in grace. When my spirit lives in grace, so does my mind, my will, my emotions, my actions, and every last part of my being. My spirit is the essence of life that God gives, and here grace accompanies and renews me.

Contemplation #103
“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10

Our lives in Christ become, through God’s gift, the means of grace to others. To be people of God we must be gracious, for God from the beginning reveals himself as the “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God . . .” (Exodus 34:6). So let us ask ourselves how we are to become the administers of grace to others, and we will see that grace gives birth to grace. We are “graced” so we might “grace” others. We inherit the Abrahamic promise of being blessed so we might be a blessing.

Contemplation #104
“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10

Grace necessitates the death of self. There is nothing self-seeking or self-serving about grace. The nature of being recipients of the gracious gift of God teaches us to think only of others and to forget ourselves. Grace is the action born out of mercy and compassion, the selfless concern for the welfare of others. To contemplate God’s grace, to reflect on what we have received, will lead us away from selfish concerns into giving ourselves for the sake of God to be blessings in the lives of others.

Contemplation #105
“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10

Peter teaches us that grace has many forms. As we reflect on the grace of God to us, we begin to see how many ways God’s compassion is experienced as a gift and we begin to understand the numerous ways we are to live gracious lives. Mercy, acceptance, forgiveness, kindness, peacemaking, generosity, love, and every good thing is a gift, unearned by us and which others do not have to deserve to receive from us. These are graces, or the many forms of God’s grace. As those being formed into the image of Christ we administer all these.

Contemplation #100
The fruit of mercy is gentleness and the ability to nurture the hurting. Mercy gives us the capacity to restore the fallen and direct them lovingly back toward God. Spiritual direction is impossible without mercy. If another person has some weakness, concerning which we have the strength of grace, without mercy we will judge and despise his or her failure. At the same time we are forgetting that we stand only by grace. When we have the mercy of God, we are enabled to lift up lovingly and without condescension all others who are not resting in the grace we presently have received. At the same time, we honor the grace of God and are thankful.

Contemplation #101
Mercy and legalistic thinking are incompatible. Confidence in one’s ability to keep God’s laws righteously leads to soaring pride, harsh judgment of others, and the rejection of all who do not perform according to one’s personal standards. Mercy strikes a death-blow to legalism, undermining its whole foundation because mercy is tied to grace. It is impossible to be legalistic about mercy, being merciful in a dutiful and obedient way. Mercy is not an action, but the actions of a compassionate heart. In mercy we are called to abandon any thought of confidence in careful obedience and to become wholly people of gracious hearts.

Contemplation #102
When we combine personal humility, acceptance of grace, selfless love, and faith in God, we have all the ingredients for becoming merciful people. The process, though, is not entirely linear – that is, progressing orderly from one godly virtue to another. The Spirit may give one person greater impulses to mercy in a very direct way, which then enriches his love, while another experiences a deep sense of God’s love quite purely through some experience, which brings about in her greater mercy. Be assured that God will direct us all to hearts of astounding compassion, but the manner or way we cannot predict. However, seek and cultivate the other graces as well, and mercy will find its place.