“To say that someone deserves grace is a contradiction in terms.”

A thought by Andy Stanley (2010-10-19) from his book, The Grace of God. Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

But I thought everyone deserves it, don’t you?

But Andy says, “You can no more deserve grace than you can plan your own surprise party. In the same way that planning voids the idea of surprise, so claiming to deserve voids the idea of grace. You can ask for it. You can plead for it. But the minute you think you deserve it, the it you think you deserve is no longer grace. It is something you have earned. But grace can’t be earned. To earn something is to find an equivalent. There is no equivalent where grace is concerned.”

He then says, “Grace is the offer of exactly what we do not deserve. Thus, it cannot be recognized or received until we are aware of precisely how undeserving we really are. It is the knowledge of what we do not deserve that allows us to receive grace for what it is. Unmerited. Unearned. Undeserved. For that reason, grace can only be experienced by those who acknowledge they are undeserving.”

And therein is the key, none of us deserve it but God gives it to us and we in turn are to give it to others.  But they don’t deserve it.  And neither do we.  But you don’t know what they did to me?  And you are right, they don’t deserve it.  And again I say, we don’t either. 

I do a lot of driving on the LA freeways and I am having some attitude problems right now.  My grace is really lacking.  So I felt it was time for me to stop and really get a glimpse at my problem.  So I picked up this book by Andy Stanley to help you and found it was exactly what I needed. 

What about you?