G is for...

Grace

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
~Ephesians 2:8,9

I used to have a very different picture of grace in my head. I used to just think of it as a free gift. Through God's grace, I'm saved. It wasn't until later that I linked it back to God's forgiveness. By grace I am forgiven as well. This is when I put the "undeserved" in my definition. Grace isn't just a free gift, but a very much undeserved free gift.

That's like if I had a giant wonderful home. And a son. And some punk meets my son on the street and kills him. Instead of being bitter, I forgive the punk and invite him to live in my home and I feed and clothe and take care of him the rest of his life. The punk is never thankful and oftentimes destroys parts of the home and even lies, cheats, steals and murders even more peoples' sons. But, I let him remain. And I love him. And I keep my promise to take care of him and provide for him forever.

Uh....what?

Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
And they made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,
And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,
Because He poured out His soul unto death,
And He was numbered with the transgressors,
And He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors.
~Isaiah 53

Yeah. That's grace. Undeserved salvation through an undeserved sacrifice.

Goosebumps.