Grace is the multi-faceted thread which runs throughout our Christian lives. We are saved by grace through faith (Eph 2:8) and the grace that comes from Jesus Christ continues to uphold us every day of our lives (see John 1:16-17). Paul describes God’s provision of grace as abundant (Rom 5:17) and James reassures us that ‘He gives us more grace.’ (James 4:6) In other words, grace comes in many different shapes and forms, as individual to us as we are unique creations of God.
Eugene Peterson remarks that ‘the “deadly sins” can be numbered; it is virtue that exhibits the endless fertility of creation.’ (‘Working the Angles’, P 163) and goes on to quote C.S. Lewis’s comment that ‘heaven will show much more variety than hell.’ (‘Mere Christianity’) Once we have been on the Christian road any length of time, we soon appreciate the truth of Eccl 1:9: ‘What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.’ Our mistakes tend to have a depressing sameness about them! In the world of the Spirit, however, ‘the forms of grace are not repeated.’ (‘Working the Angles’) God is able to shower grace upon us in new forms, to surprise us by His ingenuity and the sheer variety of the many ways He finds to bless us. Grace may be the common word we use to describe God’s unmerited favour towards us, but it’s a sheer delight to explore the many ways He has of bestowing this on us every day of our lives.