A conversation joined in progress…
“…she never brings anything to a potluck dinner, they just show up. He never comes to a church work day. They don’t attend Bible studies or prayer meetings.”
“But what’s that to you?”
“I think we’d all like to know if they’re all in.”
“Why do you need to know that?”
“Because it would be nice to have a conversation with them that wasn’t superficial; that wasn’t just all about the weather and the school their kids go to. It would be nice to know where they stand.”
“Why don’t you just ask them? Say, ‘So what’s God been doing in your life lately?’ Or, ‘What’s God been teaching you lately?”
“You can’t just start a conversation cold like that.”
“Maybe not at the grocery store, or with a relative stranger, but this is church, you sit in the row behind them every single week.”
“It would be awkward.”
“So here’s a question for you: Was Jesus ever the recipient of grace?”
“Wait. What?”
“Was Jesus ever the recipient of grace?”
“That’s just wrong.”
“Did Jesus ever experience grace?”
“Grace is for sinners. Jesus was without sin.”
“Are you a sinner?”
“I was a sinner; but now I’ve passed from death into life.”
“Have you ever sinned since? Maybe even this week?”
“Yes. Absolutely. So have you.”
“Does the grace of God meet you in that place?”
“Yes. But that’s different; second Corinthians 5:21 says, ‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’ He had no sin, or some translations say he knew no sin.”
“You just happen to know that verse?”
“It was on a Christian radio on Friday while I was driving to work.”
“And you memorized the reference?”
“My sister’s birthday is 5/21 so that helped. So when did Jesus experience the grace of God?”
“What is grace?”
“Grace is unmerited favor with God.”
“So the answer is, ‘At his baptism.’ A voice from heaven, the voice of God, says, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.'”1
“And…”
“He experienced the favor of God even though he hadn’t done anything yet. This was the outset2 of his public ministry. He hadn’t taught anything, he hadn’t called disciples, he hadn’t healed anyone. It was unmerited in the sense that he hadn’t commenced his spiritual work.”
“But he had been alive for 30 years at that point. He always had the favor of God. Luke 2:52 says, ‘Jesus grew…in favor with God and man,’ so this was something he had earned over time.”
“But the people at the Jordan River didn’t know all that. To them, he was simply one of many being baptized for the forgiveness of sin and then God says he is ‘well pleased’ with him. We tend to think of that as more of an end-of-life pronouncement from God, as in ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ 3 In other words, he has already been made a recipient of the favor of God.”
“But that has nothing to do with works, he was well-pleasing to God because of who he was, not according to anything he did. It’s the same with us, like that verse that says, ‘Not by works of righteousness that we have done…but because of his mercy.’4 There’s nothing that we do that ultimately earns us the grace of God. It’s who we are not what we do.”
“Exactly. So maybe it wasn’t grace in the sense of being freed from punishment because Jesus was, as you said, without sin. But it was a favor with God that preceded everything he was about to do over the next three years.”
“Okay. You could think of that way I suppose, but how did we get on this topic again?”
“The family that sits the row in front of you at church…”
“…Oh…yeah…”
“Could it be the grace of God is working and operative in their lives in ways you just don’t realize?”
“…Hmm…Maybe we need to get to know them a little better…”
Christianity 201 