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Grace Upon Grace

In these days of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the things I’ve enjoyed over the years are no longer available to me or they have been severely curtailed.  I don’t know about you, but sometimes it just makes me feel empty. 

Feelings of emptiness are not necessarily indicative of actually being empty.  Thus it’s hard sometimes to figure out what is really going on.  In First Samuel 12:21 we find some help in defining what is empty:  “You should not turn aside after empty things that can’t profit and can’t deliver, since they are empty.”   Maybe it’s not a complete definition but it sure sheds some light.  Empty things just can’t profit or deliver – simple yet profound!  

Here’s another thing that’s simple, profound and flat out a reality for us - emptiness was handed down to us.  It came in the form of an “empty way of life”.  This empty way of life cannot profit or deliver.  In fact, it is so empty that we can’t dig our way out of it and have to be redeemed from it.  Spoiler alert, there is redemption!  “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”  (1 Peter 1:18-19)

Having put my faith in Christ, I can confidently say that I have been redeemed from that empty way of life.  I’m also given access to a full way of life, otherwise known as an abundant life (John 10:10).  Yet, that old empty way of life sometimes rears its ugly head and entices me.  And, if I’m honest, I’d tell you that I have made some brief foolish jaunts back into it.  And these are not the Steve’s big adventure kind of things but painful journeys from which I do not return unscathed.

After returning from one of those and feeling very beat up, wounded and empty, the Holy Spirit drew me to verse 16 of the first chapter of John:  “For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”  It was initially one of those compare/contrast type of things, that is, comparing and contrasting His fullness to my overwhelming feelings of emptiness and coming up way short.  But as I further considered that verse, several things began penetrating my dark cloud of feeling empty:

  • From His fullness, I receive.
  • What I receive from Him is grace.
  • The amount of grace incredible; it is beyond grace and is grace upon grace.

The Amplified Bible provides some additional wording that helps describe how incredible this grace is:  “one grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing and even favor upon favor and gift [heaped] upon gift.”

With grace upon grace washing over me, I looked up some other verses about grace and found the following:

  • God is the God of all grace (1 Peter 5:10)
  • We obtain access to grace through Christ (Rom 5:2)
  • There is a throne of grace where grace and mercy are available (Heb 4:16)
  • Grace is multiplied (Rom 5:20)
  • Grace overflows (2 Cor 9:8)
  • Grace is abundant (1 Tim 1:14)
  • His Grace is enough (2 Cor 12:9)

With all that wonderful, overflowing and abundant grace available to us, the question might arise of why not take more jaunts into that empty way of life so that when we emerge and feel wounded and empty, we can gorge ourselves on grace?

The Apostle Paul asks the question this way:  “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?”  (Rom 6:1)  But He also answers it emphatically:  “May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”  (Rom 6:2)

While the foolish jaunts into that empty way of life should definitely be avoided, the reality is that when I have taken them, I’ve needed grace and even more so, I’ve needed grace upon grace!  And I’ve been given it, entirely undeserved and unmerited.  I’ve also been reminded that there should be no thought of abusing it!


I leave us with this wonderful prayer/benediction:  “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.”  (2 Thess 2:16-17)

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