The Dawn of Redeeming Grace

I love the word “grace”.  This word has taken mine and Carolyn’s hearts for the last couple of years as we’ve read and studied and prayed and lived out our lives.

In the Christmas carol Silent Night, we find this simple phrase tucked near the end.

“With the dawn of redeeming grace”

The dawn of redeeming grace – just rest your eyes on that thought for a moment.

The birth of this infant in a manger in Bethlehem long ago brought forth this thing called grace.  Grace, simply defined, is unmerited favor.  To extend that further, we can add the words kindness, favor, mercy, mercifulness, clemency, and leniency.

We saw the beginnings of mercifulness and leniency with the birth of Jesus in that manger so long ago.

Have you ever needed a dose of lenience, or mercy, or grace?  I have, and I’ll spare you the litany of those moments in my life.

Now, add the word “redeeming” in front of the word “grace” and we are really onto something. 

Redeeming Grace.

Not just clemency, or benevolence or mercy, but redemption.  I like redemption.  I like being liberated, or released, or emancipated or saved.

You see, Jesus the Christ came into our world to liberate us from the traps and lures of the world.

God knows all about the human race, and that includes, Americans, Australians, and people from Poland, Russia, Spain, Iraq and Indonesia.

He knows we are prone to selfishness and that we like to follow our own whims, even when those whims will do us great damage.

And along comes redeeming grace – found in a manger in Bethlehem.

This baby, this infant about whom we sing and celebrate, grew up to become our savior – our redeemer.  He is offering each of us grace and redemption for now and for eternity.

And His grace reaches out to you and to me through the slats in the manger, through the mud and muck of our lives, through the selfishness and stubbornness that we often like to cling to, and through the closed-mindedness of our thoughts and ideas.  He reaches to us, longing to become our safe place, our grace place.  He offers us redemption.  He offers us a helping hand and a forgiving heart.

And He offers us hope – hope for our world, hope for our future, and hope for our eternity.

Jesus the Christ, once the Baby in the Manger, IS our Dawn of Redeeming Grace.

Merry Christmas!

P Michael Biggs

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