Contemplation #121
“Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:13

The grace of forgiveness replaces our distress over past failures with the comfort of being cleansed. Grace transforms what has been that we are powerless to change. But grace is so much more. It so envelopes our life that is speaks not only to our past, but our future as well. Our confidence moving forward through life is the hopeful and sustaining expectation that there is more of God’s merciful action to be enjoyed. We are walking forward into a life that has become, because by faith we embrace God’s grace, the pursuit of grace. The grace which we have experienced makes us hunger for more and more grace. We live between the grace which we have received and grace which we will receive.

Contemplation #122
“Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:13

Peter encouraged his readers to look to the fullest revelation of Jesus, one which will be so clear and startling that the entire world will acknowledge him. This is the ultimate revealing of Christ in which mercy will be poured out in a new experience. Today, as followers of Jesus, we bring the future into the present— believing now what all will believe later. We know that the grace we have tasted is not the fullness of grace but only a beginning. Each time Christ is revealed more through our humble willingness to be instructed by God, we find new experiences of grace. Knowing the richness of grace, we look forward to more. We long for more. Our full hope is in grace yet to come.

Contemplation #123
“Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:13

Peter directs us to hope in grace and nothing more. There is nothing else in which we can hope as we look to the return of Jesus. We cannot hope in ourselves, our understanding, our accomplishments, our obedience, our religious traditions, or anything else. True and pure hope is fully centered on the merciful activity of God which is directed toward us in Christ. This hope defines us as people of grace through and through.

Contemplation #118
“My grace is sufficient for you . . .” 2 Corinthians 12:9

There is so much curiosity into the exact nature of Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh’ though perhaps it is God’s will that it remain a mystery. If we knew that Paul was speaking about a physical illness, or a temptation toward sin, or an inward struggle of the soul, we could easily conclude that grace is sufficient only in the area of his particular trial. However, since the nature of his thorn is unknown, the truth that grace is sufficient for all things is made clear. When I read Christ’s reassurance, my own struggle becomes the matter for which grace will suffice. Whatever my situation, I am reminded that God’s grace is enough, and that I will find life through depending on Him.

Contemplation #119
“My grace is sufficient for you . . .” 2 Corinthians 12:9

Sufficient. Grace alone, the merciful activity of God, provides all that is needed to address the difficulties of life. This is not forgiveness alone, but the work of God alone. It is like saying God is enough . . . nothing else is needed. Our insufficiency is made all the more apparent, the illusion of our capability swept away by the stark realities of what we encounter in life, and we come to see the only reassurance we can have – God’s grace. A life in grace, by grace, through grace, and sharing grace is the life of a Christian.

Contemplation #120
“My grace is sufficient for you . . .” 2 Corinthians 12:9

For you. God’s grace is not an impersonal divine activity that sweeps over us anonymously, but which comes to us directly, individually, and personally. In this way our particular struggles are addressed and strength is given for the exact nature of what we face. God in all his vastness and majesty is still very capable to give sufficient grace to each one of us. This is a tremendous source of comfort and joy, because in the rank aloneness we feel in times of distress, God comes near with merciful and loving help, the grace of Presence.

Contemplation #115
“From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.” John 1:16.

A God-driven perspective on life reveals that grace is the source of every blessing. The series of blessings that John mentions, culminating in the incarnation of the Divine Word as a human being, and the rebirth of sinful people to become children of God, has all emanated from the grace of God. In the very next verse he speaks of the law of Moses, itself a vehicle of grace which explains how those chosen by mercy are to live within a grace-given relationship with God, is not contradicted but even more fully enacted in the life of Jesus. The grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ was another blessing, like the law of Moses, that has come to us from the fullness of God’s grace.

Contemplation #116
“From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.” John 1:16.

These words of John remind us that the grace of God comes to us not all at once, but in blessing after blessing. Every good and merciful act of God is not received at one instant, because actually it would be more than we could bear. Instead, God gives us grace for each moment, strength and endurance, patience and perseverance, and all according to his wisdom. It is a grace when God shows me my sin, but I cannot handle the grace of that revelation all at once. So God gives blessing after blessing, a steady stream of grace flowing into our lives appropriate to our journey, and sufficient for the moment.

Contemplation #117
“From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.” John 1:16.

John speaks about the ‘fullness’ of God’s grace because there is so much more than the commonly accepted grace of salvation. Grace that forgives our sin is but one blessing from the fullness of God’s grace, though the other ‘graces’ have received less attention whenever Christianity has been presented as “what I will get” instead of “what I will give up.” God’s grace instructs, reforms, and molds us into the likeness of Jesus. In seeing the fullness of grace we understand how an instructive code like the law of Moses is full of grace, not of forgiveness, but of the reformation of our daily life so we learn to love God and our neighbor. Let us not only think of grace as that which forgives, but as the source of every action of God to instruct, discipline, heal, comfort, and forgive.

Contemplation #112
“Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly . . “ 1 Timothy 1:13-14

Grace is thoroughly undeserved. Our difficulty in understanding this fact leads us to read this autobiographical reflection of Paul as saying that his ignorance and unbelief were somehow facts in his favor that were the basis on which he was given grace. In other words, God knew that he was really a good guy despite his actions, and so God was gracious to him. On the contrary, Paul is not giving excuses but naming the exact nature of his failures. He was a violent man, a blasphemer of God who persecuted the faithful . . . and in addition he was ignorant and in living in unbelief. None of these are virtues to be admired, but statements of his own unworthiness. His failures were why grace was given – because he was ignorant and in unbelief. Grace is poured out on unbelievers so they might believe. We don’t deserve grace, and there is no reason to be merciful. We have no goodness to boast about.

Contemplation #113
“Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly . . “ 1 Timothy 1:13-14

To see how grace is given to us precisely because we don’t deserve it, we have to only read Paul’s repetition of how he received grace: “. . . Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy . . .” 1 Timothy 1:15-16. He received grace because he was the worst of sinners. Paul never cites a reason why God should have been merciful to him. On the contrary, he is clear in saying that grace is never deserved, and is the action of God toward us because of who He is and not because of who we are. The only qualification for grace is to be wholly undeserving . . . and that we all are!

Contemplation #114
“Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly . . “ 1 Timothy 1:13-14.

Ignorance and unbelief cannot be used as excuses, as Paul himself states in Romans 1:20 when he says all men are without excuse. Paul knew that his own “ignorance and unbelief” were not excuses but evidence of his unwillingness to see or hear God in anything around him. Paul, as a Jew and Pharisee, was even more responsible than the pagans, for the light which he was resisting shown more brightly around him than many others. By grace, God increased its intensity until he was blinded and knocked from his horse. Paul was shown mercy because he was stubbornly refusing God by living in the rebellion of ignorance and unbelief despite all God’s revelation. Grace is what we in no regard deserve.