Grace or Guilt?

My sweet friend Laura has a wonderful relationship with God. If you read her comment to my last post ("A Lent Perspective"), you might also know that she has a long running love affair with guilt. On Laura's behalf (and on behalf of thousands of us, who are just like her), I decided to do a little exploring about guilt.

According to my NIV Study Bible, the word guilt appears in the Bible 6 times. Conversely, the word grace appears in the Bible 130 times. Hmmm... makes you wonder doesn't it? Do you think God is trying to tell us something?

To explore this idea a little further, I pulled out my trusty bible dictionary (Unger's Concise Bible Dictionary) and looked up the words guilt and grace. Grace is defined as "the manifestation of God's love and mercy toward sinful men" (I'm pretty sure that includes women too!). Here's what Unger's has to say about guilt: "Guilt is liability for sin committed or wrong enacted. Divine grace has triumphed over sin by removing the guilt of all who trust in Jesus Christ's atoning death (Rom. 8:1)". Amazing! Grace is included in the very definition of guilt.

No wonder grace appears 124 more times than guilt; by it's very definition God's grace is greater than any guilt (self-imposed or otherwise) we can ever imagine. One of the most incredible thing about grace is that we cannot earn or buy it. In our church we have an acronym for Grace: God's Riches At Christ's Expense. Grace doesn't come at our expense. Jesus Christ already paid the price. All we have to do is accept it. It seems that to do anything less is to deny Christ's sacrifice for us.

Christ has purchased us the gift of grace. God is holding it out in front of us offering it to us. It's an enormous gift. So, in order to receive it, we have to set aside the guilt package we are carrying and open our hands to receive God's love and mercy.

So what choice will you make? Grace or guilt? It's totally up to you.

I can promise you that grace is definitely the better choice. Of course that's easy for me to say... it only took me 24 years of wallowing in guilt and unforgiveness before I was ready to choose God's grace. I hope for your sake, you're a much quicker learner than I was.

"...My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9

My prayer:

Jesus, thank you for paying the price for my sin and guilt. Give me the courage and strength to let go of my own self reliance and guilt, and accept the gift of God's mercy and love through His all sufficient grace. Amen.