Grace For Me
By Jeremy Glaze
The saving grace of my life has been that my sins are forgiven. That God sees my life pure and holy through the blood of Jesus. And though I might stumble and fall everyday, I am able to get right back up and fall into the grace of our God. I get this. I have experienced this.
Thankfully, I have applied this to my life. But a problem that I have had is there have been times where I have applied this only to my life.
There are people who have offended me. People who have done me wrong. And there are some people who I just thought they were jerks. And these people I held offense to. I did not like them.
As crazy as it may sound, I viewed these people’s offenses different from my own offenses. I have offended many people, I have done people wrong, and just ask my wife, I can be a jerk. But again, the saving grace of my life is that my sins have been forgiven.
So who am I to hold a grudge toward people who have committed the exact same offenses that have been forgiven in my life? Why do I not like someone who is, well, who is like me?
You see, when it came to my screw ups, I wanted grace. When it was their screw ups, I wanted justice. That doesn’t make sense.
Did Christ die for me? Absolutely! Did Christ die for them? Of course.
So initially what I was saying to God is: “You gave your only son for them. Jesus, you gave your life for them. But that is not good enough for me.” ”Your blood covered me, don’t let it cover them”.
Gut-wrenching, right?
I said at the beginning “I get it”. But I didn’t. I discovered that the true issue was that I did not understand my own forgiveness. I did not live like I was redeemed.
Let us not hold someone accountable for the same offense that Jesus was held accountable for at His death.
So the next time I refuse to give someone a second chance, I pray that I will quickly remember how many chances I have received.
Jeremy Glaze
