Haldor Lillenas’s great hymn
“Wonderful Grace of Jesus” is aimed at making one point very clear, the grace
of God is wonderful. Each stanza begins
with “wonderful grace of Jesus” and each stanza ends with “wonderful grace of
Jesus”. We have reached “W” and that
will be for the wonderful grace of Jesus.
What does wonderful really mean to
us? Its actual definition means to fill
with wonder. It could be used in a
negative way. At the end of a long day
at work the boss brings in a stack of papers that need to be finished before
you can go home. “Wonderful,” you mutter
under your breath. Of course, it fills
you with wonder at how the boss could be so inconsiderate to wait until 4:45 to
dump three more hours of work on you.
That would be a negative wonderful.
Then you see the sharpest, speediest
and most efficient worker in the office go past your door. She looks in and sees what has just
happened. She comes into your office and
takes off her coat and says, “We can probably get this done in an hour if we
work together.”
Wow!
You say, “Wonderful! Thank you so
much!” That is positive wonderful and it
fills you with wonder at the kindness, the concern, the care, the camaraderie
and the self sacrificing nature of your co-worker. You are filled with wonder that anyone could
do such an onerous task in your behalf.
It fills you with gratitude and joy and peace and thanksgiving. That is the wonderful grace of Jesus.
Jesus said, “Come unto me all ye
that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” He has taken the burden of our sin and nailed
it to Calvary’s cross. He has taken the
burden of our condemnation and carried it to hell and rose again to life for
our hope. He has promised to never leave
us or forsake us. He has promised to be
there as our burden bearer for all time and eternity. Isn’t that wonderful? He did all that for us when we were yet
sinners and opposed to him in mind, heart and body. He did it all by His wonderful grace.
We need to sing of His grace. We
need to proclaim such wonderful grace from the housetops. We need to respond in
genuine gratitude demonstrated in our daily lives for such wonderful
grace. Indeed we can sing with Haldor
Lillenas, “Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin. How shall my tongue describe it? Where shall its praise begin?” O the wonderful, wonderful exceedingly
wonderful grace of God.
You
may also enjoy this inspirational devotional book, The Gospel According to Molly,
available
here:
No comments:
Post a Comment