There is probably no Christian hymn more recognized around the world than “Amazing Grace.”
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.”
Those words have been sung for generations, but they are more than just lyrics to a beautiful hymn. They tell the story of humanity.
We were lost, but God came looking for us. We were blind, but God opened our eyes. We were separated from Him, but He made a way for us to come home.
That way is Jesus Christ.
Grace Came to Us
The amazing thing about God’s grace is that we didn’t earn it.
We don’t deserve it.
We can’t work hard enough to earn it, become good enough to deserve it, or somehow pay God back for it.
Yet God freely extended His grace to us through Jesus Christ.
John 1:14 says:
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory… the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Jesus came into this world full of grace and truth.
He came because God loved us enough to do what we could never do for ourselves. Jesus lived the perfect life we could not live, died the death we deserved, and rose again so that we could have new life.
That is grace.
Grace Found Me
I have shared parts of my testimony in previous posts, but when I look back at my life, I can see God’s grace running through my story.
When I was in high school in the 1990s, I was dealing with things that had a grip on my life. I struggled with fear, lust, rejection, and other things that I didn’t know how to overcome.
On the outside, people may not have seen everything I was dealing with on the inside.
But God knew.
And when I accepted Jesus Christ, something began to change.
I didn’t suddenly become perfect. I still had things to overcome. But I had encountered Jesus, and His grace began working in my life.
The Lord began to free me. The Lord began to save me. The Lord began to change me.
The person I was didn’t have to remain the person I would become.
That is one of the most beautiful things about God’s grace.
Grace doesn’t simply meet us where we are.
Grace begins the work of transforming us.
“By the Grace of God I Am What I Am”
The Apostle Paul understood this personally.
In 1 Corinthians 15:10, Paul writes:
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain.”
I love that statement.
Paul didn’t take credit for what God had done in his life. He recognized that everything he had become was because of the grace of God.
And then he said something important:
“His grace toward me was not in vain.”
God’s grace had produced something in Paul’s life.
Grace had changed him.
The same grace that saved Paul also empowered him to live differently, serve God, persevere through hardship, and continue the work God had called him to do.
And God’s grace does the same for us.
Grace Doesn’t Give Us an Excuse
Sometimes grace can be misunderstood.
Because we are saved by grace, that doesn’t mean sin doesn’t matter. It doesn’t mean we should continue living however we want.
Grace isn’t permission to remain bound.
Grace is God’s power to begin making us free.
When we truly encounter the grace of God, it changes our desires, our priorities, our thinking, and eventually the way we live.
We don’t obey God so that He will love us.
We obey Him because He already loved us.
We don’t pursue holiness so that we can earn His grace.
We pursue Him because His grace has already been given to us.
That changes everything.
Grace Is Still Available Today
Maybe you feel like you have gone too far.
Maybe you look at your past and wonder how God could forgive you.
Maybe you’re carrying guilt, shame, fear, addiction, bitterness, or regret.
Maybe you have tried to change yourself and have failed over and over again.
I want to remind you of something:
God’s grace is greater than your past.
Your mistakes don’t disqualify you from coming to Jesus.
Your failures don’t surprise Him.
Your weakness doesn’t make Him love you less.
Jesus already paid the price.
The cross is God’s declaration that He was willing to go farther than we ever could to bring us back to Himself.
This is why “Amazing Grace” is such an appropriate anthem for all humanity.
We were lost.
But Jesus came to find us.
We were blind.
But He came to open our eyes.
We were dead in our sins.
But He came to give us life.
Amazing Grace
When I look back at where I was and where God has brought me, I can honestly say:
Amazing grace.
Not because I deserved it.
Not because I earned it.
Not because I was good enough.
But because God is good.
His grace found me when I was lost.
His grace began changing me when I couldn’t change myself.
His grace has carried me through seasons of difficulty.
And His grace continues to remind me that my identity is not found in my past, my failures, or my weaknesses.
My identity is found in Jesus Christ.
That is the good news of the Gospel.
We don’t have to clean ourselves up before coming to God.
We come to Him as we are, and He begins the work of making us new.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.
The same grace that saved me is still saving people today.
The same grace that changed my life can change yours.
And the same Jesus who found me when I was lost is still searching for those who have not yet come home.
His grace is amazing. His grace is sufficient. His grace is available. And His grace is found in Jesus Christ.
If you have never surrendered your life to Jesus, you can come to Him today.
You don’t have to earn your way to Him.
Simply come.
His grace is waiting.
