It's a Gracious Thing

May 7, 2017                                                                    Senior Day

It’s a Gracious Thing

1 Peter 2:19-25

Synopsis: “Grace” is a simple word, but it’s meaning is not easily explained.  It is a word that is better illustrated than analyzed.  It takes a lot of stories to bring grace to life. 

      In secular Greek, grace is simply “what delights,” but Peter uses it in the context of suffering, even suffering wrongfully, without cause.  “Because Christ suffered for you.”  I have a little plaque in my office that reads “Grace is when God gives us what we don’t deserve.”

      Peter’s primary audience in the first century were servants and slaves.  There were as many as 60,000,000 slaves throughout the Roman Empire at that time.  They fulfilled many roles in day to day life, but they were always considered property.  Peter was calling them to look beyond their life circumstances to realize their heavenly position in Christ Jesus.

      Remember: very few people ever look up the meaning of grace.  The only grace some people will ever know is what they see illustrated in you.  Believers of every age and station of life are charged with finding their own way of expressing grace in every situation.

Text: 1 Peter 2:19-25, ESV