Grace, grace, show us your grace!

I woke up saying this to the Lord out of a sleep and then wrote, “As we seek your face, may we receive grace!”

I was reading earlier in the morning from the Psalms, “You welcomed him back with success and prosperity. You placed a crown of finest gold on his head. He asked you to preserve his life and you granted his request.” (Psalm 21:3-4)

The word welcomed him back is the Hebrew word qadam, Strongs #6923. It means to rise and go to meet someone, being in front and waiting. It is also used in Psalm 79:8, “Let Your compassion come quickly.” And in Psalm 59:10, “My God of loving devotion will come to meet me.”

Jesus thought this was so important for the people of God to understand this concept that he told a parable about it. He shared of an older and younger brother. The younger brother demanded his inheritance and then left with it, abandoning his family to have a good time. He squandered everything that the father had worked so hard and sacrificed to give him.

Then when he lost everything and was miserable, experiencing the consequences of his own sin, he turned around and hightailed it back home. He wanted to experience the comfort and care of his father again. He came with nothing to show or nothing to give, just pure misery.

The father embraced this son. Not only embraced him but had welcomed him home, qadam, by running out to meet him. When he returned, the father put the finest articles of clothing on him, giving him a robe of honor and a ring of authority, then threw a big party for him.

The older brother became jealous that the younger brother had squandered everything and still ended up well in the end. He was not only fully restored by embraced with great joy and provision. The father told the older brother, all that I have owned has always been yours but now rejoice for your brother returned. In other words, the older brother already had a robe of honor and ring of authority. Out of the rich abundance that he had been supplied, he wanted him to show compassion to his younger brother who returned.

This parable is about being deserving. In it, neither brother was deserving or earning of what they had inherited. The older brother thought he was and worked to be good enough while the younger brother clearly did not. In the end, both ended up with a robe of honor and ring of authority.

John 1:16 says, “From His fullness we have all received grace upon grace.”

Grace, charis, Strongs #5485 means blessing, kindness and favor from someone who is inclined and leaning towards us to share their benefits. In this verse in John, they are speaking of Jesus. From His fullness, we are the beneficiaries both of the robe of honor and ring of authority.

Whether we are like the older brother who is self-righteous and struggle with pride from trying to earn His benefits, or we are squanderers who have gone out and wasted all that we have been given but now are coming back because we realize He has all we need – we are loved. Not only loved but Jesus, like the father in the story of the Prodigal son, waits at the doorstep for us to welcome us and wrap His goodness around us. And with those who have not wandered and squandered, He says that all that He has is ours. From the day that we entered into His Kingdom, we have his robe of honor or ring of authority. He is willing!

In Psalm 57:10, David proclaims, “For your unfailing love is as high as the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.”

Do we really see how good He is and how limitless His love is for us? We don’t start out in His Kingdom by working the ground and earning our place. We don’t have to work our way up. Rather we receive His goodness like the prodigal son because He deeply loves us.

At the same time, just like the prodigal, if we are living far from God and squandering everything we have been given in sin, we will not reward us for this. We will experience the consequences of our sin and be left dry and hungry. It is when we return and turn to Him that He runs out to meet us with His goodness.

In Psalm 58:11 David says, “There truly is a reward for those who live for God; surely there is a God who judges justly here on earth.”

David learned to live in this place of abundance and goodness of living in His Kingdom. He deeply valued it. He wore the robe of honor and the ring of authority with joy and responsibility. He saw that the Lord gave him authority and honored him out of His unfailing love.

David proclaims in Psalm 59:16, “But as for me, I will sing about your power. Each morning I will sing with joy about your unfailing love. For you have been my refuge, a place of safety when I am in distress. O my Strength, to you I sing praises, for you, O God, are my refuge, the God who shows me unfailing love.”

Just how unfailing is the Lord’s unfailing love? The word unfailing from these verses is also translated loving devotion and living kindness. It is the Hebrew word checed, Strongs #2617 and it means this place of kindness that provides favors and benefits. It is not just a feeling, but it is action that is demonstrated. It is to show kindness and treat kindly by one’s actions. It implies all the benefits of the covenant behind it (see Deuteronomy 7:9 and 7:12).

We can see this in Hosea as well, the action of love as the Lord takes the people back to Him after they were unfaithful. It says that when Israel will wipe the many names of Baal from their lips and never mention them again as the prodigal child who squandered everything, the Lord will show His unfailing love and compassion by making them His, making a covenant with them and bring them back to Himself.

He says, “’In that day, I will answer, says the Lord. ‘I will answer the sky as it pleads for clouds. And the sky will answer the earth with rain. Then the earth will answer the thirsty cries of the grain, the grapevines, and the olive trees. And they in turn will answer, ‘Jezreel’—‘God plants!’ At that time I will plant a crop of Israelites and raise them for myself. I will show love to those I called, ‘Not loved.’ And to those I called ‘Not my people.’ I will say, ‘Now you are my people.’ And they will reply, ‘You are our God!’” (Hosea 2:21-23)

As Paul noted, covenantial love, is best described more like a marriage of Christ and His Bride. It is a love relationship and bond on both sides. Like the two sons who lived with their wealthy father, it gives the sons privileges when they live under the authority and protection that their father provides. They can choose to leave and lose the privileges at any time. The sons knew the benefit of eating at His table and also served from a place of privilege.

Psalm 23 speaks of this relationship more like a shepherd and sheep where the Lord tends to those He loves and provides them everything they need. He gives them protection, walks alongside them, uses a rod and staff to guide them and overflows their life with blessing. They are given a feast of abundance and pursued with unfailing love all their days. Not only this but David proclaims in the Psalm before that it is a generational covenant with generational blessing, He says, in Psalm 22:30, “Our children will also serve Him. Future generations will hear about the wonders of the Lord.”

In this is not only resting in the gracious care of the Lord, but this expansion of the blessing. When Abraham looked up, God spoke that he would be the father of many nations, as many offspring as the stars in the sky. From the one seed, was to come forth multiplication.

In the Kingdom of God, the way one exercises their authority is not to rule over others, but in the same way that they are cared for under this covenant—the way of love. And this ring of authority that is given as a covenant blessing and eternal promise, is the Holy Spirit. Putting shoes on our feet, He empowers believers to fulfill the great commission to bring the gospel to everywhere we plant our feet.

In Acts, Peter brings this multiplication and expansion up with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that resulted in many Gentiles being converted. Then defending the incredible and miraculous signs and wonders done through them among the Gentiles, James reminds the Jewish believers where it was written,

“Afterward I will return and restore the fallen house of David. I will rebuild its ruins and restore it, so that the rest of humanity might seek the Lord, including the Gentiles—all those I have called to be mine. The Lord has spoken—He who made these things known so long ago.”

As people come into the Kingdom of God, it is through sheer grace. Acts 15:11 says, “We are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.” And Romans 3:24 says, “Yet God, in His grace, freely makes us right in His sight.”

And Romans 5:1-2 tells us, “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of underserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing His glory.

God pursues us out of His great love for us. He runs to meet us with favor and blessing. But He does this not just for us to sit around and grow lethargic, but to exercise our authority given to us in living by the Spirit, freed from sin, and expanding His Kingdom.

As servants of this Kingdom, we partner with the Holy Spirit and share in His purposes for our lives in holy pursuit of the One who makes us holy. As any beloved son or daughter, we have a place in the Kingdom of God and a purpose. We have not only been saved, but we have been set apart for good works.

As Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “or it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.”

Lord, thank you for grace upon grace in our lives. Thank you for all the ways you not only pursue us with Your love but provide all that we need. You have placed a robe of favor and honor upon us as you have placed a ring of authority on our finger. Help us to live in Your Kingdom in a way that brings you glory.