God Is Gracious

“The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exodus 34:6-7)

Grace – we often hear it defined as “God's Righteousness At Christ's Expense.” Wonderful! Amazing! Undeserved! And yet, these words often ring cheaply in our ears. We fail to grasp the extend of our unrighteousness, the height of God’s righteousness and the depth of Christ’s expense. Donald Barnhouse captures the idea well:

In the slums of London, there was a social worker named Moorehouse was walking down the street when he saw a little girl carrying home a pitcher of milk. But when she was a few yards away from Moorehouse, she suddenly slipped and fell. The milk spilt into the gutter, and the pitcher shattered into a million pieces. As you can imagine, the little girl burst into tears: “My mommy’ll whip me!”

Moorehouse bent down and fitted several pieces back together. The little girl dried her eyes and beamed with hope. That is, until Moorehouse knocked it over, and into a million pieces both the pitcher and the girl went. Again, the team bent down to reassemble the pitcher. They put the entire pitcher back together, except for the handle. When the little girl attached the handle, all she did was knock it over again. Tears, tears, and more tears flowed from the poor child, but Moorehouse was determined.

Finally, he picked up the little girl, carried her to the store, and bought her a new pitcher. Then, he bought fresh milk and carried the pitcher to the little girl’s home. Opening the door and placing the pitcher in her hands, Moorehouse asked, “Now, do you think your mother will whip you?” “Of course not,” the girl beamed, “because it’s a lot better pitcher than I had before!”

Herein lies a picture of God’s grace. The unrighteousness of man cannot be patched together, nor can we ever be returned to what we were in the Garden. The Scriptures say that we were children of wrath, dead in our sins and transgressions, following the prince of the power of the air. But God! But God! He lavishes His grace upon us by raising us with Christ and seating us in heavenly places. He does not give us the old picture of sin and death; instead, He gives us new life, fills us with His Spirit, and places us at the doorstep of His home. This is “God’s righteousness at Christ’s expense.”