OK ... a Methodist primer about grace ... (really not Methodist, we Methodists are just really into the subject of grace)
Grace = getting what we don't deserve from God.
Preveient Grace - God's seeking grace that precedes our conversion. (Rev. 3:20 "“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.") God seeks people. And He teaches us to be seekers (fishers of people) along with Him!
Justifying Grace - God's grace that accepts those who accept Him (as Lord and Savior) and choose His path. No pre-qualification here. We come to God dirty, flawed, broken, and guilty. Not by anything we do but by God's nature of grace, love and forgiveness, God chooses to make us justified before a righteous God (pretty good). We know we are guilty and God declares us forgiven ... hey, He's God, He can do that kind of stuff.
Sanctifying Grace - This is the grace that grows us, makes us stronger in Christ and allows us to go deeper into God and God's kingdom 'on earth as it is in Heaven.' Wesley also called this sustaining grace or perfecting because we are sustained by an attitude of pursuing God and God's disciplines (prayer, study, fasting, worship, giving, serving).
None of these types of grace are deserved or warranted by our good deeds, our good behavior, or our following of a set of rules. We couldn't do enough to earn God's favor if we had the entire world at our command. They simply flow from God's nature of being a giver ... a lover ... and a sower of seeds that He expects to grow.
Sunday we will work some other parts of grace, particularly that God's grace is enough to get us past/over/through all we face ... whatever life brings.
As a summary ... God seeks/calls us ... God saves us ... God grows us. Today I was reading the name of one of our praise songs ... "Lord Reign in Me." I read it wrong and read "Lord Rein Me In." I decided that the way I read it was so appropriate to the way we can experience God's grace ... get out of God's way and let Him work. AMEN
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