Because God is Glorious, We Are LOVED
I pray you have been finding encouragement this Advent as you consider four eternal truths about God, which we call the “Four G’s.” These truths help battle unbelief in our lives and help us reorient our heads, hearts, and hands around some of God’s fundamental and powerful truths. Here they are once again:
God is great, so we don’t have to be in control.
God is glorious, so we don’t have to fear others.
God is good, so we don’t have to look elsewhere for satisfaction.
God is gracious, so we don’t have to prove ourselves.
This last week, we look at the fourth “G” and bask in the reality that God deeply loves us.
Now, before we go on, let’s define what we mean by the word ‘grace.’ We often use words in several different ways. Sometimes, there is only one specific definition to fit all circumstances. For example, when someone is very hospitable, they are gracious. When they are pleasantly kind, they are a gracious person. When someone is merciful and compassionate, we might describe them as gracious.
But when we say God is gracious, we say something slightly different. Look at this verse:
15 But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. (Psalm 86:15 ESV)
And again, but this time in Psalm 145:
8“The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. … 14The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. … 17The Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His works. 18The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth. 19He fulfills the desire of those who fear Him; He also hears their cry and saves them” (Psalm 145: 8, 14, 17-19 ESV)
In the context of these passages, “grace” means getting what we do not deserve. It is the idea of unmerited favor. It’s the idea that you get good when all you deserve is bad. You didn’t earn it. It’s a free gift.
Do you see how gracious God is to us? Read through those verses again, but slowly this time. Count all the ways God is gracious to us. Consider all the things he gives us that we don’t deserve. He truly is gracious!
But still, we try to work hard at getting God’s grace, don’t we? Often, we seek to prove ourselves to God. We think we can earn his blessing and favor by trying to impress him by being good, missional, and spiritual enough. And that can lead to us thinking that God owes us because we’re working so hard for him.
Maybe you don’t think you try to prove yourself to God. But what about proving yourself in other ways? We can feel the pressure to prove ourselves as worthy, someone significant, someone people should pay attention to. It may be a boss, spouse, parent, or friend we so desperately want to impress. We want that so much that we’ll overwork or compromise our health. The approval of others becomes the most crucial standard in our lives, so we sacrifice our beliefs and convictions so others will accept us. When others are our standard, we will always fail to find the approval and acceptance we long for.
We also seek to prove ourselves to ourselves. I want to look in the mirror and say I’m accepted and loved. I try to prove myself by working harder or acting better to feel better about myself. When I mess up and hear things like ‘idiot,’ ‘failure,’ and ‘loser,’ I feel guilty and ashamed. I don’t want others to see that, so I pretend everything is ok. I’ll wear the proverbial mask to hide my true self from others.
All of us struggle in some way with trying to prove ourselves. And living that way is exhausting. So what sets us free from living this way? It’s believing the truth about God:
- Who he is.
- What he has done.
- Who he has made us.
- How we can live in his life-changing power.
We’ve already seen that God is gracious. And what has he done? He sent his Son, Jesus, into our world to be our gracious Savior and King. Advent reminds us that Jesus is our Immanuel, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). He was born to save us from our sins and to give us grace upon grace (John 1:16).
We don’t earn God’s love. We don’t deserve God’s love. But love is precisely what God pours out upon His people. We spend our lives trying to prove that we’re worth something, that people should pay attention to us, and that we’re special. But once we realize that we can never earn God’s love, that we can’t try harder, that we can’t just be better, that we can’t ever really prove ourselves, but that, through Jesus, we receive it anyways, we step into the glorious freedom of grace. We don’t have to prove ourselves because we can find grace through Jesus. Jesus has given us what we don’t deserve, so we don’t have to continually beat ourselves over what others think. We don’t have to prove ourselves to anyone; we can have strength, security, fulfillment, and identity in the unshakable, never-ending grace of Jesus.
God is gracious, so we don’t have to prove ourselves. God is love and has poured out his love on us. We can now love God and love others because of his overwhelming grace!
–Pastor Wade
