Discovering Grace
When we start dealing with our sin, we can start to be overwhelmed by it. That can lead to guilt, which can lead to shame, which can lead to running from God and people in order to hide it.
We see that as early as Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve sinned and tried to hide in some bushes from God. We do the same thing! We feel shame and run from God, and hide our real selves and struggles from the people that love us. God doesn’t want that for us! He can handle our sin. God is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love! (Ex 34:6-7) He’s like a really good dad; he loves his kids no matter what, he’s forgiving and kind, he wants us close to him, and he wants to help us walk through this life, guiding us as we go.
Yes, we must deal with our sin but we can take great comfort in the fact that God has already dealt with our sin! He knows us better than we know ourselves and still loves us. In fact, the Bible says, “while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). He didn’t wait till we got our lives together, he found us worthwhile even at our worst. We can trust him. As we strive to walk his path we can take great joy in God’s robust, strong, never-failing love and grace for us.
Grace is an undeserved gift. It’s undeserved favor, undeserved mercy, undeserved love and kindness, and it’s God’s free and joyful gift to us! God has been known as gracious from the very beginning, as you’ll notice from the verse just quoted from Exodus 34 (the second book in the entire Bible!). It goes on to say that God lavishes love on a thousand generations and forgives wickedness, rebellion, and sin while also maintaining justice. God’s people have always known him as that. We see it time and time again in the Old Testament in how God deals with his people. The Israelites continually fall short in keeping their end of the deal, and God continually welcomes them back, restores them, and keeps his promises. God has always been kind, he has always been gracious; he didn’t change all of a sudden in Jesus, but rather Jesus gives us the clearest picture of God’s gracious heart!
Ruler of all, dying for the weakest of all.
The only perfect one, dying for the wicked.
Creator, dying for the created.
As he was being crucified Jesus prayed “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Sin is a problem. One we can’t overcome on our own. This world is hard and challenging. But God gives us grace, undeserved gift after undeserved gift. And because of that, we can be confident, it’ll all be okay. That’s what this lesson is about.
*a couple helpful notes…
asking for your inheritance while your father is still alive was just like saying, “I’d rather you be dead so I could have your money! That’s all you’re good for to me.” Yikes! This son would have been completely disowned by the family.
Jewish men didn’t run. It was humiliating, degrading, and embarrassing in their culture.
the father giving the son the best robe, a ring, and sandals symbolized his belonging to the family again - honor, authority, and sonship.
- Recap this story, what happened?
- What stands out to you?
- What does this tell us about what God is like?
- What was the older brother like?
- Do you tend to think of God more like the Father in this story or like the older brother? Why?
- Do you find it difficult or easy to believe God SO loves the world? Why?
- What does this verse say God really wants for us? How is that different than how some people view God?
- Go back through this, what is he saying?
- What does this tell us about God?
- How do we get grace?
- What does this verse teach us about the role of “works” in a Christian’s life?
- Do you ever feel like you have to be “good enough” for God? Why or why not?
“So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land! That’s what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we’re going in our new grace-sovereign country.”
- If we have grace, why should we stop sinning?
- How does grace give us a new life and what’s so great about it?
Think through your whole life, from the very beginning, what are all the gifts God has given you at each stage. Write them down!
Bonus: Watch the Bible Project video - Character of God - Grace