We return today to Daniel Whittle’s
hymn “I Know Whom I Have Believed”. The
first stanza of this hymn contains the key idea for God’s unmerited Grace. Whittle wrote, “I know not why God’s wondrous
grace to me he hath made known, nor why, unworthy, Christ in love
redeemed me for His own.” Unworthy
clearly states our condition. Grace
clearly states God’s response.
Why was God moved to save sinners
such as us? Was it our good looks? Was
it our natural abilities? Was it our
keen intellects? Was it our good
conduct? Was it our financial
standing? Was it our important standing
in the community? Was it the good benefits that we could offer Him? Obviously these were not the reasons. Paul
told the Corinthians that God did not choose the wise, the mighty, or the
noble. Rather, God chose the weak, the
foolish, the despised and those which are accounted as nothing.
We bring nothing to God. Our best efforts, Isaiah said, are just a
pile of leprosy infected rags. Peter
said our money can’t buy God’s blessing of Jesus Christ. Paul said that we can’t bring God our works
or we would have something to boast about.
We come to God naked, poor, needy and sick. We come to God as completely tainted
failures. We come, as Daniel Whittle
said, unworthy.
That is what makes grace so
wonderful. We do not merit it. God gives
it. God pours out His matchless love,
His matchless care, His matchless provision not in response to our value but in
response solely to His grace. Such a
gift is too high for us to comprehend.
Such a sacrifice is too great for us to understand. Our comprehension or understanding, however,
is not necessary. What God wants is for
us to receive His grace. He wants us to
take the gift He offers. He wants us to
become His children. He wants to display
His grace to the world by displaying His grace in us, unworthy, unfit, unclean
sinners who have been changed by the grace of God. Let us respond to this great grace by having
our lives conform to the familiar words of Elvina Hall’s great consecration
hymn “Jesus Paid it All”. The third
verse and chorus read, “For nothing good have I, whereby Thy grace to claim.
I’ll wash my garments white in the blood of Calvary’s Lamb. Jesus paid it all;
all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson
stain; He washed it white as snow.”
Thanks be to God for His unmerited grace.
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