God's Grace

2 Corinthians 12:7b-10 - Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

God’s grace is rightly defined as His unmerited favor. It is by grace that we have been saved. Today we are living under God’s grace; not according to the law. Our hearts are influenced and our attitudes shaped by the grace of God. His grace is a help to mankind. God’s grace is a gift given to us through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. God’s grace denotes suitableness, graciousness, kindness, and a liberality of joy. God’s grace trains us to renounce ungodliness, gives us freedom. And in this scripture passage we see that God’s grace is a strength for us.

John Gill says of Paul, “he is content things should be as they were, since he had such a promise of a sufficiency of grace to bear him up, under and through whatever was the pleasure of God concerning him; and since the strength of Christ was made illustrious through his weakness, so that Satan was not able to make any advantage over him, he is willing to remain in the same posture and condition:”

The grace of God is a wonderful blessing. Yes, it is His favor but in application, it can be understood so much more deeply. As Dallas Willard once said, if we understand God’s grace only as His favor, we are missing so much! I liken it unto the scripture that tells us that the Father will supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory (see Philippians 4:19). Many of us were raised to consider this verse in a financial context. And certainly, God’s “riches” do include unlimited financial resource. But to limit our thinking, and more grievously – God, to only having a wealth of financial riches betrays a limited knowledge of the sovereign God.

So in this verse, where the strengthening power of God’s grace is highlighted, I delight. I greatly desire the unmerited favor of God! It is by His precious grace that I am saved. But I am further encouraged to understand His grace in more contexts than just that of salvation.

We live by God’s grace. His powerful grace is seen throughout our lives in many different ways. His wonderful strengthening, inspiring, wisdom-giving, graceful, favoring grace is a theme weaved throughout our existence on earth and one we will see in the ultimate culmination when we are eternally reconciled to God and live with Him eternally.

Praise God for His grace!