Grace

Scripture

Genesis 6:8
"But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord"

Observation

Genesis 6 we see that God is getting angry with humanity. Scripture even says that "the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart (Genesis 6:6)". God could have easily just wiped out all of humanity and all of His creation and started over, but that isn't what happened. In Genesis 6:8 we see God show grace for the first time. This is the first time that the word Grace is used in the Bible.

Application

Around 8 months ago, I went through a season of growth. I had finally confessed some unrepented sin and was in a dark place emotionally. That is when I read the book a "Case for Grace" by Lee Strobel. After reading this book I wrote down my definition of grace. This is what I came up with:


"Grace isn't fair... Grace is something that is given freely from God to us, through Jesus... Grace is something that we as believers are supposed to give to others, freely... The hard part is that if you can't accept God's grace as being free, then you can't give grace to yourself and you definitely can't give it to other people...

To me grace is one of the most important aspects of our Christian faith and it is one of the hardest aspects of our Christian faith. Grace goes against everything that seems natural in "relationships". Grace is saying I forgive you and I accept you as family even though you have hurt me. Grace is showing someone unconditional love, instead of offering love with conditions."

God showed Noah grace because Noah was found to be righteous. For us today, the only thing that we truly have to do to be shown God's grace is "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9)".
It is interesting my friend Elle brought up a good point that the flood was like a large baptism, where God flooded the land and cleansed it. I think this is an incredible analogy, part of our journey as Christians is repentance, acceptance and then baptism. The symbolic washing away of our old selves. After we receive Jesus we are seen as righteous in God's eyes. Just the same as God saw Noah. The struggle is that we not fall into the same trap that Noah did and wind up falling into sin (Genesis 9).

Prayer

Gracious Heavenly Father,

Thank you for showing me grace, knowing full well that I don't deserve it. Father I pray that I am able to continue to live a life that is pleasing to you. Bring out the good in my life and continue to prune my life of the bad.