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Our society today doesn't understand grace.

Grace is both free and undeserved, yet that's very hard for us to understand. 

We live in a society where we're constantly trying to pay people back for favors and good deeds done for us.  We say things like, "I'll get you back," and "I owe you one."  Think about it, you and a friend go out for a movie and your friend totally surprises you buy offering to pay for your ticket.  You did nothing to deserve the ticket and there's no strings attached.  So often in those situations there's something within us, like a knee-jerk reaction that says, "Thanks, you don't have to do that.  I'll be sure to pay you back or buy for you next time."

All grace is like this.  It's free and undeserved and we have a hard time with that.  We want to somehow earn it.  Of course, the exception to that is if we feel we deserve it.  If we feel somebody "owes" us something, we won't try to repay it.  But that's not grace anymore, either, is it?

This semester, we're going to be looking at, studying, and learning to delight in the amazing grace of God.  God gives us much that is both free and undeserved.  Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that we are saved (from hell) by God's grace.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

To be saved, we need grace.  We can't earn salvation, and we don't deserve salvation.  We can't earn it because we need to be perfect, and the Bible (and our experience) tells us we're not perfect.  We don't deserve it because we've all sinned, rejected God, chosen to run after and treasure other things.

Ephesians 1:6 tells us that not only does God give us grace, he does so "to the praise of his glorious grace."  We are saved to display God's grace.  We are saved by grace to praise God's grace, that he displays through saving us!

This is grace: We deserve hell, but God saved us.  Jesus Christ was God in human form.  He came to earth around 2000 years ago.  He lived a perfect life (like we were supposed to live), never sinning and always obeying and treasuring God.  His obedience is counted or imputed to those who believe in him, so that we would meet the requirement of perfection.  He was punished in our place, for our sin, so that we might escape punishment.  As Ephesians 2:8 says, we are saved by faith - by trusting Jesus instead of ourselves to save us, and trusting that he can and will satisfy us more than anything.

This is amazing: we deserved eternal torment, but God has given us eternal pleasure.  We deserved to be punished, but God was willing to be punished in our place.  There's no way we can say, "God, you needed to do that for me" or "God, I deserve that" or "God, I earned that."  It's pure grace.  It's amazing grace.