The Connection Between Love and Grace | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: The Connection Between Love and Grace | Previous Challenge Entry
By Ebenezer Afolabi
09/17/14
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What shall deliver man from the slavery and tyranny of sin? Who will rescue him from the judgment he legitimately deserve? He is totally lost and eternally condemned; he groans and desperately seeks for someone to deliver him, but the deeper his search for a deliverer, the farther he was lost. Overwhelmed and totally entangled in the shackles of his sins, he cries for help but no one to help because he lives in the world of men who shares the same predicament with him.
His fate has been determined; he lives in hopeless gloom, and he is termed the “object of divine wrath.” How will he ever get out of his mess? What will he give as a ransom for his sins? He lives in total depravity and unable to save himself from the eternal condemnation sin has brought upon him. He literally has nothing in himself to help him alleviate the tedious burden of sin he carries about. He has nothing to offer than his sins. He has become a slave to sin. He is totally separated from his Maker.
Worse still, the law screams for judgment; it seeks justice for the act of violation of God’s spiritual and moral laws. It condemns man and demands that he is punished vehemently for his sins. Who will deliver him? What can atone for his many sins? At last LOVE surfaced and pleaded for him. When nothing else could do, love rescued man. Love does not condone the sins of man; neither does it condemn the sinful man.
The love of God does not deny sin neither does it overlook it. It does not rejoice in iniquity. It frowns at evil and demands absolute purity in every respect. Candidly speaking, one of the things that characterize the love of God is holiness and justice. On the other hand, the love of God also holds with it mercy and grace.
Therefore, since one of the qualities that characterize the love of God is holiness and justice, God’s holiness would not allow Him to simply overlook sin; His justice must be maintained (Rom. 3:25-26). As the God of love and justice, it is necessarily for Him to judge every sin, because sin (no matter how little) is the violation of His laws. Paul Little puts it this way: “In their transgression, Adam and Eve rejected God’s authority, doubted His goodness, disputed His wisdom, repudiated His justice, contradicted His truthfulness, and spurned His grace.”
However, in spite of man’s rejection of God, He did not withdraw in His love for man but decided to save him and restore him back to fellowship with Him. In doing this, He did not relegate justice and place mercy and grace above it because His justice must be maintained. But how did He do it and still able to extend the hand of grace to man? He did it through His Son Jesus Christ.
The apostle Peter writes: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness…” (1Peter 2:24, NIV). Since God’s holiness would not allow Him to overlook sin and His justice must be maintained, He has to punish the sin of man, which He did by giving His only begotten Son (John 3:16). God gave up His Son to atone for the sins of man. The necessity of this atonement, therefore, is the inner impelling of the very nature of God – His love, constraining love. Man did nothing to earn this love. He does not deserve a bit of it. There is nothing good found in him that could cause God to pour such an unquantifiable love on an underserving sinner.
Man receives this love not by merit but by grace. This therefore brings the connection between love and grace. As explained above, one of the components of God’s love is grace. Grace is the kindness which bestows favour on underserving sinners. It is not earned; it is bestowed.
A preacher once explained grace with this acronym:
God’s
Riches
At
Christ’s
Expense
Grace is extending kindness to the unworthy sinner. It is extravagant in nature and totally absurd to a natural man. By His love, God sent His Son to atone for our sins, so that we might be saved from His coming wrath, and by His grace He gave us the right of sonship. Therefore, without love there is no grace.

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