As I was driving around this afternoon, I heard Relient K‘s song, Be My Escape. As it has in the past, the line that says, “the beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair,” stood out in my mind. While it is true that, as believers, God’s grace results in a sort of unfairness in our favor, as we are undeserving of it, this statement errs in its explanation as to why grace is beautiful. The beauty of grace lies not in the fact that it makes life unfair. Rather, the beauty of God’s grace stems from the act through which He made it available to His sinful creation – Christ’s death on the cross. As Adam quoted John Stott to me a few minutes ago, “it reconciles His love with His righteousness.”
In John 15:13 Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” If the greatest expression of love is portrayed through a person’s death for someone he considers a friend, how much greater and purer a love is shown through Christ’s death for “children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3) – the ungodly, the sinners, those who will never acknowledge Him as Lord while on Earth.
I always thought that the meaning behind the quote, “”the beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair,” is that it’s not fair that Jesus died the death that was supposed to be mine and since He did, I can have enternal life. That is the beauty of grace and that is why it makes life not fair…I’ve always thought that it was all rolled into one.
This line absolutely caught my ear the other day when I first heard this song.
If you remember the scripture verse that God “causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust…” that is what this means.
If there were “true justice” according to our worldly, human standards, then it would only storm on the heathen. Bad things would only happen to bad people. Treachery and tragedy would only come to unbelievers.
Praise GOD that the beauty of his grace is that it does make life unfair, for each and every one of us is a heathen at some point – making a bad choice in life, forgetting to confess our sin, living beyond our means, backbiting and slandering. That IS the beauty of grace – it is available to all (especially to me when I need it the most!), whether we think it is “fair” in this world or not.
Remember, folks, some day when we stand before God at the Judgement, we will ALL be equal. We are all going to be right about some things, and every one of us will be wrong about some things in our lives. What’s in your heart?
I always heard it like this.
The beauty of Grace is that it makes life not fair.
Jesus Died on the cross to give us the ability to accept Him and be able to follow Him into heaven upon our death. To serve, love, and worship Him.
The life we as Humans deserve, however, is an earthly death and being thrown into the pits of Hell. Only by Gods Grace and love do we escape that.
Therefore Gods grace gives up hope for things we dont deserve. or fair