Amazing, Truly Amazing Grace!

Bishop E. Earl Jenkins

"By Grace you have been saved" Ephesians 2:5 NAS

Have you any idea of the mess you were in, or moving toward, when God reached down and saved you? Perhaps an illustration may help you get the picture. If you took your children to a petting zoo and a little lamb came running towards you, you probably wouldn't be afraid at all because lambs are harmless. You might even reach out your hand and let the lamb lick it.

But let's say you're at the zoo and the alarm goes out that a lion has escaped from its cage. If you're standing there and that lion comes running towards you, you'll be terrified and start to run because you know what lions can do. But just suppose that the runaway lion corners you in one part of the zoo and comes up to you - but instead of attacking you it gently licks your hand the way the lamb did. If that happened whose gentleness would you appreciate more, the lamb's or the lion's? You'd appreciate the lion's gentleness more because you know that he could just as easily have destroyed you without violating his nature as a lion.

Well, grace is God's kindness and gentleness to us when He could have backed us into a corner as guilty sinners and destroyed us without violating His holy character. But God wanted to make us His children, so instead of expressing His wrath against us, He poured it out upon His own sinless Son on the cross. Jesus took our punishment so God could embrace us. Hence, we have a brand-new relationship with God through grace. Isn't that amazing!