Likewise Grace....

Been thinking alot about Grace these days!  Especially as we see it in the story that Jesus tells about the loving father with two sons... one wayward and one loyal.  And how the loving father throws a party and extends grace to the wayward son when he comes back home.  But the loyal son is offended by the show of grace and refuses to particpate in the party thus misses out.

The question this left me is... Can we find oursleves outside God's Grace?

And the answer as far as I am concerned is yes we can!  But not by God's desire or design, but by our choosing.  The loyal son refused to go in... the loving father came out and begged him to come in, but he didn't.  It was his choice!

So often we are like the loyal son... we like to have grace extended to us but we struggle to extend grace to others or see it extended to others who we deem unworthy.  Yet Grace by definition is unmerited favor.  Something we get but don't deserve.   We would rather spend our time pointing out how people are outside God's grace.

Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 18:21-35 in response to Peter's question, "How many times must I forgive a brother?"  Seven times?  "No" says Jesus, "seventy times seven times."  His point is that forgiveness (which is a form of grace) is unlimited.  Then he tells the parable of the "unmerciful servant".   At the end of it, Jesus says that if we refuse to extend forgiveness to others God will not extend it to us.  

I think the whole point of Jesus' parable is not to point out who is in and who is out... but to remind us that we all are able to recieve God's grace in our lives and LIKEWISE we are to extend that grace to others.   That is likewise grace!  And it is why Jesus came ... to show us likewise grace and to call us to extend grace likewise to others.

Imagine what a different world we would live in if we all worked more at practicing likewise grace than outside grace!