Pastor Breck Ladd
Lakeside Baptist Church, Birmingham
Not long ago my children were playing in a creek behind our home. They had spent the afternoon skipping rocks, making mud pies and getting seriously covered in mud.
When I arrived home, my wife gave me the task of retrieving them for supper. Sounds like a pretty simple task for a man to accomplish. I decided I did not need to change out of my dress clothes, which included a stark white shirt.
I made my way to the creek to find my mud-drenched children. When my kids saw me they squealed, “Daddy!” They ran toward me to greet me and to welcome me home from a day at the office.
At first I was excited and had the desire to move toward them. Then I remembered my white shirt. I did what any good Daddy would do. I ran home yelling, “Catch me if you can.”
I am so thankful that God does not respond to us that way. We are covered not with mud, but with sin. Romans 3:23 declares, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” What we deserve is punishment (Rom. 6:23).
However, what He gives us is grace. He is our heavenly Father who runs not from us but to us. He longs to embrace us just as we are. It is this thought that makes the beautiful old hymn “Just As I Am” one of my favorites. This is God’s amazing grace.
God does not ask us to clean ourselves before we eat at His table as family. He does not ask us because we cannot do it.
The Psalmist declared, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (Ps. 51:10). Paul taught, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8–9).
What is so amazing about grace? God forgives and saves us through the work of His Son, Jesus Christ. He looks at us and sees every one of our failures, but He does not run from them. Instead, when we accept His grace by faith, He cleanses us and restores us to a right relationship with our heavenly Father.
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