Word of the Week: Grace

On Sunday we started our summer sermon series on the Ten Commandments. However, we didn’t start off immediately with the first commandment – because that’s not how God himself starts. Before commanding his people to have no gods before him, God reminded the Israelites how he had delivered them from Egypt. What God did for them preceded what God’s people did for him. His favor came first; their obedience came second. Not the other way around.

Do you know what we call that? Grace. The Ten Commandments, which are the epitome of biblical law, are a document of grace. Until we understand that, we’ll always misunderstand and misuse the Ten Commandments. We’ll either puff ourselves up in judgment over others or we’ll beat ourselves down for failing to measure up. Instead, his grace should motivate us to follow his commands.

How exactly does the grace of God motivate us to obey him? In the Israelites’ case, they remembered how God rescued them from slavery and, in doing so, proved himself to be more worthy of their love and obedience than anyone or anything else.

But in our case? We have something even better. We have the cross. In Romans 8:32, Paul asks this question: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” Who but God would give up something as precious as his Son to rescue his enemies? No one, that’s who. If God has been so gracious that he wouldn’t even withhold his Son from us, why would we withhold ourselves from him? Because God has shown us this grace and delivered us from sin and death, we worship him and him alone.