Grace: (in Christian belief) the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings.
That is how Google defined grace when I typed the word in the search engine. It is a pretty simple definition that is easy to understand. I think if you were to ask most Christians what grace is they would give a similar explanation. Perhaps not as eloquently put, but I think the gist would be the same. However, going beyond citing a definition, we don’t seem to understand it as well in practice: accepting God’s grace, who can receive God’s grace and offering grace to those around us. We speak of an eternal and everlasting grace, but yet we still try to place it in a box that matches what we are comfortable with.
I remember reading a story one time about a minister, Roy Ratcliff, who through his prison ministry had several conversations with the infamous Jeffrey Dahmer. He spoke to him about Jesus, forgiveness, and grace and in the end baptized Dahmer saying that the killer had become a born again Christian. The article was mostly talking about the backlash that the pastor had received after telling people what he had done. Many Christians around the world felt like Dahmer was beyond saving. They felt like it was just a publicity stunt perpetrated by Dahmer to get a little bit of sympathy. Even half of the pastor’s congregation left him after he made the announcement at church. People, Christians even, were not ready to accept that a man who had committed such horrible deeds could have possibly come to know Jesus and accept Him as Lord and Savior. The pastor attempted to assure people that even he had doubts about his authenticity, but after several conversations he was convinced that Dahmer was indeed saved and therefore went forward with the baptism. How do you feel about that? Do you think Jeffrey Dahmer was saved? Do you think it is even possible for a man like that to be saved by Jesus?
The answer for a lot of people would be no. They don’t think it is possible for a man whom society has labeled as a monster to possibly come to know the love of God. How could God even love somebody who had done such horrible acts? The answer is grace.
Perhaps that example is a little hard to wrap your head around right now, so let’s come back to that. How about people that spend their whole life as atheists or agnostics? They live their lives by their own rules; doing whatever they want and then in the last few breaths they come to know Christ. Do you think they were really saved? Do you think it is fair that they get to go to the same heaven that you do? Do you ever wonder how God could accept somebody that was only willing to dedicate 5 minutes of their lives to Him? Again, the answer is grace.
God isn’t trying to keep score of every wrong thing you have ever done. He isn’t keeping a tally of every sin you commit. He knows every sin that you have committed; He even knows about the ones you will commit in the future, but it isn’t part of your heaven scorecard. God is only concerned with the answer to one question. Do you know and accept my son Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Your answer to that question is all that matters. Let’s say you were back in high school taking a test. The person in front of you rushes through the test and turns it in, but it takes you another 10 minutes. The next day when the teacher hands out the graded tests, you got a “C” and the person in front of you got an “A”. You look over your test and realize you got all the answers right so you ask the teacher, “How did I get a “C” when I got everything right?” The teacher responds, “well, he got his test done before you so I couldn’t possibly give you both the same grade could I?” Would that be fair? Would you be ok with that kind of grading scale? No, of course not. So, why do you we expect a merciful and loving God to use a similar scale when offering grace?
What is it about their last minute decision that causes you so much distress? Are you upset that they got more wild and sinful years than you did? Are you upset that they didn’t really have to sacrifice for God like you did? They didn’t have to serve and tithe like you did? These may be true, but they also didn’t get to experience the overwhelming love of God like you did. They didn’t get to experience the peace and fulfillment you did. They didn’t get to receive the blessings you did. They faced hardships and struggles in life, just like you, except they didn’t have God to turn to. So who do you think really got the short end of the stick? You both received a gift of grace and salvation you didn’t deserve. You both eventually found the right answer to life’s test; you just turned yours in quicker than they did. Instead of being upset, you should be rejoicing that God was able to take them from Satan’s grasps even in their final moments. Satan thought he had taken another soul, but God had other plans. Revel in the fact that the plans of God can trump the actions of Satan; celebrate that a lifetime of Satan’s work and destruction can be undone in an instant by our Redeemer.
We have a natural tendency to want to hold grudges when somebody has hurt us deeply. We let the feelings of anger, disappointment, and betrayal linger and destroy our relationships. We don’t typically have problems forgiving the small transgressions, but if somebody really hurt us then we have a very difficult time forgiving them and letting go of those negative feelings we have been harboring. We feel as though we have the right to do this since they caused us so much pain with their actions. However, if you are a Christian, you are now holding the people around you to a higher standard than The King of Kings held you to. He didn’t demand that you apologize for your transgressions; He doesn’t take account of all the ways you have hurt Him before choosing if he should forgive you. “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) He offers grace freely to all that choose to accept it.
Matthew 18:21-35 contains a story that actually explains this principle:
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold[b] was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
It doesn’t matter what anyone has done to you, the simple fact is: God has forgiven you of so much more already. He doesn’t demand you continue relationships with people that only seek to hurt and offend you, but he does tell us that we should offer grace and forgiveness to everyone. We don’t do it based on what they deserve just like God didn’t forgive us based on what we deserve. We forgive them because we accept that we have already been forgiven a much larger debt and therefore we are obliged to extend that grace to others.
I think the issue a lot of us face when it comes to offering grace is that we haven’t truly accepted the grace that God has offered us. In our heads, we know that the Bible says that we have been forgiven, but we still hold the guilt of our past mistakes. We still feel like we aren’t good enough. We can’t comprehend how anyone, much less a perfect God, would forgive the horrible things that we have done. If this is you, you may have some things in your life that you need to confess to God. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess ours sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We know that when we accepted grace, our sins were forgiven and we were given the gift of salvation. However, even in our new lives, sin can still cause separation in our personal relationship with our Savior. Our salvation isn’t in question, but as we sin and attempt to hide that from our heavenly father the relationship between us suffers, which gives Satan the perfect window to start planting seeds of doubt. However, if we confess those sins as they happen, God will remind us that we have already been forgiven and that relationship will immediately be restored; allowing us to be back in the loving arms of our heavenly father, exactly where we were meant to be. You also need to remember that it isn’t God that is bringing up all of those past mistakes over and over. In fact the Bible tells us that:
“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:12)
“You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19)
“as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12)
God doesn’t see your sin, when he looks at you. He doesn’t see your past mistakes. You have been covered by the blood of the perfect lamb and now He sees you as His perfect child. So all those doubts you have that say you may not be forgiven, the daily reminders of your past sins, all of that is coming from Satan and you need to remember you have the power through Christ to cast him out of your presence.
Moving back to the discussion about Dahmer, let me ask you again, do you think that Jeffrey Dahmer could have been saved after the horrible acts that he committed? There is a verse that I feel some people may use to say that he couldn’t be saved. The verse is 1 John 3:15, which says, “ Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” That verse at first glance would seem to support the idea that a murderer can’t be saved. However, what the verse is saying is that if you have received eternal life, if you have truly been changed by Jesus, then you wouldn’t kill anyone; it isn’t saying that if you have committed the act previously that you can no longer be saved. In John 1:29, John the Baptist sees Jesus walking through the crowd and says “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Notice that John didn’t say “some sins” or “certain sins” of the world. His words clearly imply that all the sins of the world would be washed away and Jesus doesn’t correct him. John 3:16, also doesn’t offer any limitations on who would receive eternal life other than belief in Jesus Christ. If you need more, there is also 1 Timothy 2:5-6 which states, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave his life as a ransom for all people.” Note the use of the word all, not some or many, but all. If you would say that you don’t believe that Jeffrey Dahmer could be saved then you would be placing a limitation on God, putting a cap on God’s grace and insinuating that Jesus’ blood wasn’t good enough to cover his sins. I can’t speak to the condition of Dahmer’s heart and therefore I can’t tell you if he was truly saved or not. However, I can without doubt or hesitation say that if he truly believed that Jesus was the son of God and truly accepted Him as his Lord and savior then he was saved by the blood of Jesus. He wasn’t disqualified because of his crimes, because God has no limitations.
Satan simply isn’t capable of damaging us beyond God’s repair. As long as you are breathing, it doesn’t matter what you have done, what you have said, how far you have strayed, or how damaged you are. All you have to do is truly believe in Jesus Christ and choose to accept Him as your Savior. That’s it. That’s all there is to it. If you do that, you are now forgiven and washed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and there is nothing that anyone not even Satan can do to take that from you. Are you sitting there wondering how it could be that easy? I have a feeling you already know the answer…
Grace!!!
If you would like to read more about Roy Ratcliff and his ministry to Jeffrey Dahmer, there is a book called “Dark Journey Deep Grace: Jeffrey Dahmer’s Story of Faith” written by Roy Ratcliff and Lindy Adams. I haven’t read it myself; although, it does seem to have positive reviews online.
Dark Journey Deep Grace on Amazon
Schroeder-
Another wonderful expression of God’s love ! We are all God’s children.
We are precious in His sight . “Jesus loves the little children of the world!”
Keep writing and sharing!
Thank you!