Christian Living
Sin and Grace
By Rev. Katherine Appello
We hear about girls being sugar and spice and everything nice and boys being whatever they are supposed to be, but truth is that once the first humans gave into carnal nature and came out from a purely spiritual view of the world and living, under the full glory of God, none of us is sugar and spice and everything nice, not one.
In some capacity, on some level each and every day we all sin, whether it is a white lie as we call it, or an angry thought about someone. Whatever it is, every one of us sins daily and cumulatively, if we did not have the grace of God, come judgment day, weÕd all be in hell, every single one of us. We often think of the other person as the sinner and view ourselves as sinless, seeing only the sugar and spice and everything nice we do. Not to say we donÕt have our virtues and our positive moments, we do, but that doesnÕt negate the not so sugary moments when we engage in anger, selfishness, so on and so forth. God is patient, he is a very loving father and though at times in this life, he may allow us to learn some harsh lessons and go through trials and tribulations, he is always there with us, to cry with us, and to hold our hand as we walk through the fire. One may ask what is Grace exactly. LetÕs examine that briefly.
Grace as relates to God is part of his core character, his desire to bring us fully into communion with him, in spite of our short comings and our stumbling at times. This is different than deliberate pattern of sin and basically saying Òscrew you God, I donÕt care about your teachingsÓ. He has grace to get that we will stumble and fall, but wants to offer us a hand to get back up. He doesnÕt wish to leave us there on the ground, in tears, lost, confused, alone, even when everyone else has done so. His grace is so huge, that we can barely begin to comprehend it. Can we really grasp fully the notion of loving us so much that he took on human form, then in that form, took on all our sins and paid the ultimate price, so we could be adopted into full communion with him? I am not sure we can ever fully grasp this. Grace has various forms of expression, as we can glean from the gospel.
There is the common grace that all mankind is afforded by providing testimony in and through Christ to all the nations for their salvation. Saving grace is the grace we have when we embrace Christ fully and the sacrifice made at Calvary, which helps to bring forward sanctifying grace that helps us grow and become Christ-like in our lives and relationships with others. Then we have sustaining grace, that grace which keeps us going through trials and tribulations.
You canÕt by grace from God or bribe God to grant you grace, as it is a gift he gives from his heart. Also, grace is never an excuse to keep sinning, as pattern of sin is a deliberate slap in the face to God, which is not the same as occasional stumbling or error. Deliberate pattern of sin is not excusable just because God has put forth grace. Grace is never an excuse to go out and sin, even a Òsmall sinÓ. Yes there are levels of sin and in this respect I admire the work of the Catholic Church is putting together the list of sins in various categories. Remember always that grace is a gift that can not be earned, but must never be abused or used as an excuse to just do what you wish, to indulge your own pleasures.
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