What Is Grace?

Welcome to the A&Q series. Today's question is such an important one. I'm going to take a few minutes to unpack this biblical concept, but don't be surprised if along the way, more questions are stirred up. Stay engaged and keep leaning in. So here we go. What is grace? If you haven't seen it already, it might be helpful to look back at a previous video where we asked, what is sin? In that video, we talked about how every world religion acknowledges that there is a brokenness in our world and with humans. Each religion is trying to figure out how to fill that void. Christianity would say the problem we all have is called sin. Sin is what separates us from God. Sin is that void. So if sin is what stands between us and God, what will bridge the gap? The Bible says that only Jesus can do that. He offers to bridge the gap with grace. Grace isn't an object, but an action. When Jesus, the Son of God, was killed on the cross, He was paying our sin debt. Without grace, we're slaves to our sin and owe God more than anything we could ever pay back. We are in over our heads. We can't work our way out of this debt. But freedom is possible, only by payment of a ransom by someone else. Think about it this way. My husband and I bought a house. Well, okay, actually, the bank paid for the house because there was this huge gap between what we could pay and what the house actually cost. So we're now paying that debt month by month.

Imagine something happening to both my husband and to myself to the point that we could no longer pay that debt. We could no longer make our payments to the bank, and we had no one in our lives who could help us and no way to solve this ourselves. We would be facing certain homelessness. Now imagine that someone steps up and pays off the entire debt for us. This is someone who has no debt of their own and has the resources, and they come along and bridge the gap that we cannot bridge ourselves. That is grace. And this is what Jesus does. I can't bridge the gap of sin on my own. I'm too far gone. The debt is too great. Now without grace, this would be a depressing outcome, way more than just losing a house. But the good news of grace is that Jesus steps in and pays for our redemption with his life. He was sinless and perfect. He didn't owe God anything. So only Jesus could create a bridge between humanity and God. Now I'm sure that raises more questions because it seems backwards, doesn't it? Grace sometimes doesn't make sense. One writer says to show grace is to extend favor or kindness to one who doesn't deserve it and could never earn it. I've heard it put another way. Grace is atrocious math. Grace doesn't make sense logically because we're not getting what we deserve. Jesus died in our place. He paid an incredible price so that he could be close to us and fill that gap. So that he could move in close and do life with you and with me. So what is grace? I would say it's the extravagantly expensive gift from Jesus that makes a relationship

with God possible. But perhaps the next best question is, have you received this gift of grace for yourself? If not, what's holding you back from taking that step? Okay, now that was a lot and grace is a lot to take in, we know. So you probably have more questions being stirred up. So leave your thoughts and other questions in the comment section below. We want to hear those. And once again, thanks for watching. And if you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to our channel so we can let you know about new videos like this one.