Into this Grace

Lyn Cooke
Published Jan 16, 2013

The words leap off the page and come alive before me. I have read them a hundred times over the years, but this time they take on a new dimension.

I read them again aloud and my voice breaks for the beauty…

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Romans 5:1-2

Such incredible words…justified…peace…access. Done for us by One who offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice. To make a way for us.

For us. The far-off ones. The outsiders.

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Ephesians 2:11-22

We, who lived in the futility of our own understanding.

We, who were in darkness.

We, who had no position.

We, who could never get this life-thing right. Or do right. Or be right.

We have been given a Savior who is the Way. God’s own Son takes us by the hand and escorts us straight into the throne room of Grace. To the Father.

And by this Way we are made children of the living God. Family.

I was blessed to have a close relationship with my grandmother. We lived next door to her for most of my life. I wore a dirt path from our back door to my grandmother's back porch. I was her constant shadow.

Most afternoons I would find her sitting in her chair, which was a perfect opportunity for me to plop down at her feet and lay my head in her lap. I would get in just the right position for her to stroke my hair and after a few minutes, all my cares would melt away.

This is the relationship we have with God the Father through Christ. This intimacy. This closeness. This affection. This favor..

How then does God become my Father? According to the Scriptures it is like this. Christ ‘came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power (i.e., authority) to become the sons of God’ (John 1:11, 12). You become a child of God only when you are born again. . . . Believing in [Christ], we receive a new life and nature and we become children of God. Then we can know that God is our Father; but not until then. He will also give us His Holy Spirit, ‘the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father’; and the moment we know this we can be certain that God as our Father adopts a specific attitude with respect to us. It means that, as my Father, He is interested in me, that He is concerned about me, that He is watching over me, that He has a plan and purpose with respect to me, that He is desirous always to bless and to help me. Lay hold of that; take a firm grasp of that. Whatever may happen to you, God is your Father. . . .