From time to time in my morning Lectio Divina I write a reflection on the Scriptures I have been reading. Lectio Divina has four parts: Read the passage, Reflect on its meaning, Respond to God, and Rest in His presence. My Response this morning is to humbly give thanks for the riches of His grace.
It is God our
Father who says to us, “You are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love
you” [Isaiah 43:4], “even when we were dead in our trespasses” [Ephesians 2:4].
We were loved at the very lowest point of our lives. It is there that He finds
us. Those who will admit no need cannot be found. That is true of me, and it is
true of all of us.”
“By grace you
have been saved,” occurs in verse 5 and is repeated in verse 8. We are saved by
grace, God’s unmerited favour, not by faith. It important to realize that faith
is not another work, but is a response on our part to God’s grace which
initiates our salvation. Faith is essential, but without God’s initiating grace
it has nothing to hang its hat on.
What is said of Isaiah is true for each of us, “The
LORD called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name”
[Isaiah 49:1]. Paul repeats the same theme in Romans 8:29 “For those whom he
foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order
that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” And note that we are
individually foreknown and predestined to be part of the family of God, not to
stand alone.
The focus is on God, and his work, not on us and our
faith. Grace is God’s loving kindness towards us; the unmerited favour which he
extends toward us. Our faith is only the connecting link, the channel through
which grace flows. There is an important theological paradigm at work here: God
initiates, Man responds. God’s steadfast love has been extended to you from the
moment you were conceived. That is why St. Paul emphasizes that, “this is not
your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
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Ephesians 2:4-10 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of
the great love with which he loved us, 5
even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ -
by grace you have been saved - 6 and
raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he
might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ
Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through
faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may
boast. 10 For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we
should walk in them.
