Nancy Hughes: The fine print

“For 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.”

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)

When my oldest daughter became engaged, she immediately attended every wedding fair and bridal show within a 200-mile radius. Part of the attraction of many of the booths were free drawings for everything from a honeymoon to wedding photos to cakes.

The only requirement for each one was to sign your name, address, and phone number on entry tickets. So, she signed up for literally hundreds of “free” offers. There was only one problem – but it ended up being a big one.

A free signup for a wedding dress had a very small sentence with an even smaller font at the end of the form which stated, “The signer agrees to switch his/her phone service to Rainbow Phone Exchange.”

My daughter had not read the fine print of that sentence and had signed her name along with my home phone number. Imagine my surprise when, a month later, I received my phone bill from a new company with double the rate of the previous one.

It occurred to me that Ephesians 2:8-9 does not contain any hidden fine print, but I often act as if it is there when it comes to God’s gift of grace to me.

My human thinking says that somewhere in the Word there must be tiny letters at the end of a chapter that state “Come to me after you have taught a Bible study and fed the poor and not missed a day of church and not sinned for an entire day, and I will accept you.” In other words, after you have done a certain number of good deeds, you will have earned your salvation from God.

Nowhere in the Bible are there hidden conditions to God’s gift of grace. When you become the “signer” and hand your life over to the Lord in faith, you do not have to fear the hidden fine print with a list of “must be good enough first” items. Grace cannot be earned and is not deserved. But it IS a gift of love given to us, through faith, from our Father.

It took several days of long phone conversations for me to get my phone returned to the original company and the form with the fine print to be deleted. But it only takes an act of faith to receive the gift of grace from God.

Father, I do not understand your love gift of grace but I accept it now and thank you with all my heart. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

R.A.P. it up . . .

Reflect

· Have you ever felt like you needed to “do” something to earn grace from the Lord?

· Does Scripture say anywhere that grace must be earned?

Apply

· Journal Ephesians 2:8-9 and underline the word “grace.”

· Thank the Lord that salvation does not depend on you but rather on God’s desire to save you by His grace.

Power

· Ephesians 2:8 (NIV) “For 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.”

· II Corinthians 12:9 (NIV) “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’”

· Romans 11:6 (NIV) “And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.”

(For more of Nancy Hughes' writing, check out her blog, Encouragement from the War Room.)