Unmerited Favor
I am likely not the only one who doesn’t understand the recent national bailout program that just cost us $700 billion. From my perspective, it appears that several companies made a mess of their businesses and because of their mistakes it is going to affect us all. The government is going to simply provide enough money to bailout these companies so the United States doesn’t go under.
There are some parallels in the national crisis with our spiritual lives. Take a look at Romans 3:22-24, which says:
“This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
In God’s eyes, sin is sin. There are no small or large sins. When we accept Christ as our Savior, He imparts His power to us to be better equipped to overcome the sins of this world. Yet, we still stumble and fall short and certainly don’t deserve a second, third or fourth chance. However, God, in His wondrous love, looks at us and says, “Even though you’ve made a mess of things I’m going to bail you out one more time.” This is what I call grace or simply unmerited favor from the Lord.
His grace abounds and Christ’s mercy is new each day so we can start fresh with a clean slate. If you are still carrying the weight of your past sins, let me encourage you to let them go. Once you have asked Christ for forgiveness and have repented of those sins, He is faithful to forgive and forget, allowing us to live brand new lives every day. Now that’s what I call a marvelous bailout plan!
