Three Things Grace Does

God is teaching me week by week more and more about His grace. One of the things God has given me to do to better understand, experience, and share His grace is to keep a grace journal. This is journal in which I jot down moments of grace as I encounter them. It has amazed me how much grace I have seen and encountered on a daily basis.

I am also amazed how much grace is in God’s Word when you look for it.

There are three moments of grace in the book of Luke that are overwhelming to me.

The first is in Luke 7. Jesus and His disciples are entering the Village of Nain. He encounters a funeral procession. Jesus inquires about who the person was that had died. He finds out that it is the only son of a widow. In verse 13 we are told that Jesus had compassion on the woman. Jesus then goes over to the casket and raises the young man from the dead.

This was done without anyone asking Jesus to do anything. There is no faith on the part of anyone. This miraculous act is done based solely on the compassion of Jesus.

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Grace brings life.

Grace brings physical life. It is by grace that we all have physical life. We are born by the grace of God and our life is sustained by God’s grace.

Grace brings spiritual life. It is by grace that we have salvation and eternal life. Salvation comes only by grace through faith.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is through the grace of God experiencing life.

In Luke 9 Jesus and three of His disciples, Peter, James, and John, were coming down off a mountain where they had experienced a miraculous time with Jesus being transformed.

Jesus encounters a man who had a son who was demon possessed. The nine disciples had not been able to get rid of the demon. Jesus then orders the demon out and the young man is healed.

Grace brings healing. This can be physical healing. Anyone who experiences physical healing experiences that healing through the grace of God. The healing can be emotional. When a person experiences the healing of wounded emotions it is through God’s grace. The healing can be spiritual. When we are touched by God and are healed of spiritual struggles it comes by God’s grace.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing healing through God’s grace.

Grace also overcomes our human weaknesses. The disciples could not expel the demon from the young man. Jesus in His grace does what the disciples could not do.

The disciples had seen Jesus do it, but they were depending on a method or formula to expel the demon. Jesus didn’t depend on a method or formula, He depend on the power of the Father and His complete dependence on that power.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is recognizing the power of God and relying on that power and that power alone.

The third grace moment in Luke is found in Luke 19 where Jesus encounters the tax collector, Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus is curious so he goes to see Jesus as Jesus enters Jericho. Jesus stops under the tree where Zacchaeus is and invites Himself to Zacchaeus’ house for lunch.

Jesus takes the initiative to connect with Zacchaeus. He interrupts Zacchaeus’ life and by doing so leads Zacchaeus to salvation.

Grace doesn’t wait for us to get good enough. Grace meets us when we are still sinners. Romans 5:8 tells us that Jesus died for us while we were still sinners. If grace only came to us after we had become good enough none of us would ever experience grace.

Grace doesn’t wait for us to be good enough, grace makes us good enough.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing grace and grace make us good enough.

Grace Brings Life

Grace Restores

Grace Overcomes

Grace Makes Us Good Enough

By Grace, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                  Joe