1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian The Colours of Grace - Week 2 | Page 3

MONDAY
Romans 8 v 35 – 36
I know that for many people the above passage has proven to be a great source of
encouragement and inspiration. The theme of these few verses can quite well be
termed “The Dimensions of God’s Love”.
When I consider the dimensions of God’s love I cannot help but relate it to humanity. It
never ceases to amaze me that God’s love can GO SO LOW. When we read the story
of Jesus and His interactions with sinful human beings we never cease to wonder at
how low His love can go. In Matthew 9 v 9 – 13, Jesus has a remarkable conversation
with a man who would have been regarded by many as a sinner of note. His name was
Matthew and he was, of all things, a tax collector. Matthew, by virtue of his vocation,
would have been considered to be a money grabber and a conman. He used his
Jewish heritage to rip off his fellow Jews as he worked as a sell-out to the Romans. As
far as the people of the day were concerned, tax collectors were as low as you could
go. Yet we see Jesus having this most remarkable conversation with Matthew and
despite the horror of His fellow disciples, Jesus invited Matthew to come and follow
Him. I am sure that this outraged His disciples as they would not have wanted to have
had anything to do with someone as “low” as Matthew. I am sure that there were many
concerned looks on their faces when Matthew was invited to join them as a disciple
and these looks would have turned to looks of disgust when he accepted the call to
follow Jesus. Many of them I am sure would have said, “Jesus, are you sure you know
what you are doing? Don’t you know that he is a tax collector?!” But Jesus, with quiet
assurance, would have reassured Matthew that he was welcome in His group of
followers. Matthew must have been overwhelmed at the thought that Jesus would have
even wanted someone like him, but apparently God’s love can go that low.
In contrast to how low God’s grace can go, God’s grace also embraces “good” people.
In Luke 23 v 50 we read that Joseph of Arimathea, the man who requested Jesus’
body and buried Jesus in his own grave, was regarded by the gospel writer as a “good
man”. Isn’t it amazing the extent to which God’s grace can stretch, from the “lowness”
of a “Matthew” to the height of a “Joseph of Arimathea” and everyone in between.
How different all of this is to the philosophy of the world today? We live in a world
where we are confronted daily by socio-economic, gender, racial and so many other
forms of human prejudice. How refreshing it is to find that we have a God whose love
and grace embraces them all. Notice that in John 3 v 16 (the most commonly quoted
verse in the Bible) we read that “God so loved the world…” we do not read that God so
loved the good; He also loves the bad and the ugly as well.
Prayer Thought: As you pray today, won’t you celebrate the broadness of God’s love
and the fact that there is no-one who is living or has lived that is outside of the bounds
of His amazing grace.