Love in Action
An extract from Grace by Maurice Fuller Smith.

If I say I love you but continually act ungraciously towards you, then I guess you have the right to question the depth of my love. Actions speak louder than words.

Grace is not a word we use much today. Perhaps the most common use is when we talk about being given 'a period of grace'. We cannot pay up in the required time so someone decrees we do not have to pay our dues right away. We are let off. And I suppose that healps us understand grace a little more.

God took action and sent His son into the world to reveal the Father's heart to us. God knows we are way behind with our payments, with our ability to be all that is desirable towards our fellow man, and He takes action. We cannot pay up and He lets us off. Again and again and again. Not just until we can pay; we owe nothing because the debt is completely cancelled.

Christianity is often portrayed as a set of laws or rules that should govern our behaviour. The law (to use a biblical term) sets a standard of behaviour and seem to demand that we do something for God. But grace means God does something for us. That is it in a nutshell. God does something and He does it entirely on His own initiative. He loves us, forgives us and excepts us exactly as we are.

This has nothing to do with anything we have done for Him. It has nothing to do with having earned anything or with getting what we deserve. In fact I am often very grateful I do not get what I deserve!

The classic definition of grace is 'free unmerited favour', and that is exactly what we receive. Not surprisingly, this invokes love in return from us, both towards God and our fellow man. When we experience God's grace, love wells up in spite of our many unanswered questions and all the terrible suffering we see in the world and the pain we personally bear. We begin to live with the paradox.

Strangely enough, in the end, God is paid back, but not out of duty or by coercion. It is a glorious side effect of His own unconditional act of love. There are no strings attached.