PRAYER instead of guilt and failure
Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines Him to bestow benefits on the undeserving.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Have you ever had a rough day? Are you having one right now? During this time in my life, all days seem to be rough. Perhaps you can identify with my pain, or maybe you are swallowed up in guilt—committing that same sin you had repented of only to find yourself ensnared in it again and again. Or maybe you feel overwhelmed with failure in your life. I have good news—no, I have great news for you today. We can be overwhelmed by guilt and failure, or we can be overwhelmed by God’s grace. Grace (God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense) is God’s gift to us. It is unmerited favor: giving to us what we do not deserve.
God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us from our sins. It’s impossible for us to cleanse ourselves from sin, so God had to do it for us. When Jesus died on the cross, He wiped away, with His precious blood, all the stain of our sinful nature and poured His grace over all of our transgressions. He paid the penalty for our sins so that we didn’t have to, and He sealed our redemption with His resurrection, assuring us that we would be in heaven with Him at the end of this journey on earth. Jesus’ self-sacrifice was definitely an expression of God’s amazing love and tender grace, as the apostle Paul so aptly expressed:
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8).
Grace is a gift. We don’t do anything to merit it. But like any gift, in order for it to become ours, it must be received. If we have received Christ as our Savior, we have received God’s grace—and when that is true, instead of being overwhelmed by guilt and failure, we can choose to allow God to overwhelm us with His grace.
We are all sinners; we are all unworthy. Because of our fallen nature, we will continue to be that way. But by the grace of God, He is at work in our lives. As we yield to the Holy Spirit, we will progress in our faith and in our Christian walk.
Satan’s goal and desire is to condemn each of us. But because we as believers have the person of Jesus Christ living in us, it is His job to keep us in His power. The apostle Paul confirmed, through the testimony of the Holy Spirit, that in every city he visited, “chains and tribulations” awaited him. Yet he continued by saying, “But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:23-24).
This verse is packed with truth and significance for us as well. When the grace of God covers us, nothing is going to move us—not a divorce, a teenager running away, a business going under, a car accident causing injury or death, or a church having a split. No, nothing is going to move us away from the grace of God. Just as it did for Paul, the grace of God will keep us steadfast in our Christian journey, even during times of trial, and will sustain us in our race and ministry—ultimately with the goal of testifying about His grace.
For His glory and as a testimony of His grace, God wants us to shine from the inside out. He created each of us according to His perfect plan and for His specific purposes, and He continues to mold us into His image on a daily basis. As Paul described in 1 Corinthians 15:10, God’s grace toward us is not in vain: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” This abundant grace, at work in us and for us, serves a purpose and will continue to work in and through us until heaven becomes a reality.
You are a child of God—a son or a daughter of the Most High God—and you are the apple of His eye. Yes, you might be poor in this earthly life. Yes, you might get fired from your job. Yes, you might get divorced. None of that changes who you are in Christ—that is, your identity in Him. His grace covers all your failures, all your guilt, all your transgressions and all your tribulations. Difficult to humanly comprehend, this grace of God is powerful. As Paul writes to the Corinthians, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work” (2 Cor. 9:8).
God’s grace abounds toward us so that we have what we need to accomplish all the good works He plans for us; that’s an exciting gift. This grace also takes into consideration our weaknesses; it is “sufficient” for us, as God’s “strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). Many of us feel like we are failing time and again. Mercifully, God’s grace does not leave us in that place of failure. Yes, we need to be in fellowship with the Lord. Yes, repentance is crucial. But it is God’s grace that establishes us:
But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you (1 Pet. 5:10).
In other words, God is going to perfect us—doing His work through grace. He is going to, once again, strengthen us with His power. He is going to establish us, and we are going to be strong. God certainly uses our failures. In fact, often they are stepping stones that bring us to the grace of God.
I am always amused to see the credence some people place on a dog’s pedigree. If a dog doesn’t have the perfect genealogy, it can’t even enter a dog show. For most of us, our own genealogy doesn’t cross our minds or enter our day-to-day thinking, although some do find it interesting to investigate their roots and see where their family line takes them back in history.
Lineage and genealogy are often mentioned in the Bible. There are two different types of genealogies: There is the royal genealogy, and there is the bloodline genealogy of man. The book of Matthew follows the lineage of Joseph, whereas the book of Luke follows the lineage of Mary. Both show a direct connection between Jesus and David, which is important because it was foretold in the Old Testament that the Messiah would come from the line of David. So in Matthew’s account, Jesus inherited the throne through his adoptive father, Joseph, commencing with Abraham and then from King David’s son Solomon following the legal line of the kings to Joseph. Luke’s Gospel goes back to Adam through the bloodline of Mary. In this way Jesus fulfills the prophecy by being a blood descendant of David.
We would probably think that the lineage of the Messiah would be filled with nothing but pristine and honorable people, right? Wrong. Interestingly enough, God uses even the genealogy of Jesus Christ to show how the Lord identifies with sinful people. Yes, Jesus was completely God, but He was also completely human, except without sin. The Bible tells us that He was tempted in all ways just like we are, but did not sin (see Heb. 4:15). We should appreciate the fact that there are people in the genealogy of Christ who are just like us—fallible, sinful and full of failure. Even so, because of God’s grace in their lives, they are a part of His family tree.
We are going to take a close look at four women in Christ’s genealogy (see Matt. 1:1-17). At first glance, we might think these women are too “bad” to be in the line of Christ. After all, one acted as a harlot, another was a prostitute, another was a Moabite (from a nation cursed by God), and another was an adulteress. That’s quite a group, right? Yet God, because of His marvelous, abundant grace, had no problem identifying with these four women.
This truth is the golden nugget we each should take away for our own lives today. Do we believe that God is willing to identify with us, no matter what sinfulness we persist in or how much we have failed? God, in His grace, will always reach out to us—because grace is a gift that He is committed to and that He will never retract. Yet commonly, instead of accepting this gift of grace, we live with guilt because we neglect to seek after this God who loves us and gave Himself for us. So, let’s take a look at Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba.
In Genesis, chapter 38, we find an incredible story about a young woman named Tamar. She was married to one of the sons of Judah, who was one of the 12 sons of Jacob (the 12 tribes of Israel). Judah and his brothers had sold their half-brother Joseph into slavery because of their jealousy of him. After selling Joseph, Judah left his family, went to a foreign country, and married a Canaanite woman. He then had three sons.
One day, Judah decided to give one of those grown sons in marriage to a Canaanite woman by the name of Tamar. Unfortunately, this son was wicked in the Lord’s sight—and the Lord put him to death. After a time of Tamar’s grieving, Judah gave his second son in marriage to Tamar. Why? The law stipulated that when a husband died, the brother who was next in line would marry the wife of the deceased brother in order to carry on the older brother’s lineage. The second son didn’t like what had happened, so when he went to bed with Tamar, out of bitterness he spilled his seed on the ground. This action displeased the Lord, and God killed him as well for his wickedness.
After all this, Judah did not want to give Tamar his third son, thinking there was a chance he might die as well. Notice that it was Judah who was breaking the law at this point. He refused to obey the law instructing him to give his next son in marriage to Tamar. As a result, Tamar, wanting to obey God’s law and continue the family name (lineage), decided to take matters into her own hands.
Tamar found out that Judah was taking a short journey to cure the sheep and to sell them. So she removed her grieving garments, disguised herself by putting on the veil and clothes of a prostitute, and went to sit on the street and wait for Judah. When Judah passed by, he invited Tamar to come sleep with him. When it came time for payment, however, Judah didn’t have any money. When Tamar demanded that he give her his staff and signet ring as payment, Judah gave in to the request of this woman he saw as a harlot.
A few months passed, and then Judah heard a rumor that Tamar was pregnant. He went berserk. He drew her out in front of everybody and accused her of playing a harlot. But Tamar produced the staff and signet ring that Judah had given her, and she let all the people know that these items belonged to her father-in-law, who was in fact the father of the child she was carrying.
Now, what is the lesson in this story? Tamar wanted the right thing, but she went about it the wrong way. God knew her heart and, in essence, communicates, “I love this woman. I don’t condone or accept what she did, but her desire was to continue the line of Judah. So I’m going to put her in Jesus’ genealogy, and through her, my Son will come.”
Perhaps you can identify with Tamar. Maybe you want a good job, but you’re going about getting it the wrong way. Being married may be a lifelong dream, but trying to make it happen in the wrong way is disastrous. Getting out of debt is a noble goal, but being deceptive to accomplish it is the wrong way. The end never justifies the means. Here, God’s radical and abundant grace overflowed into Tamar’s reality, because even though Tamar had disgraced herself, God’s grace intervened, and she became a part of the lineage of the Messiah. Although Tamar took matters into her own hands (which was wrong), God chose to make her a part of Christ’s genealogy because she had more righteousness than Judah did, as he forsook obedience to God’s law.
Have you been jumping the gun? Have you been putting your foot in your mouth? Have you been trying to help God out? I challenge you to stop going after the right things in the wrong way. Let God’s grace cover your mistakes and, instead of taking matters into your own hands, allow the Holy Spirit to bring about God’s will in your life.
Our second “bad girl” who found God’s grace is Rahab. Her story is told in Joshua, chapter 2. Rahab was a prostitute in the city of Jericho and was a very wealthy woman. Even though she was a prostitute, Rahab had the knowledge of God in her heart. She had heard about this God who opened the Red Sea and who fed three million people with manna, and she understood that He was the true God. She believed that no one could stand against this God. Rahab was aware that judgment was coming. Her home was in the direct line of the army of Israel, and she was afraid.
When God brought two Israelite spies across her path, Rahab hid the spies from the leaders of Jericho, reporting falsely that they were not there at her house. Then, when the leaders of Jericho left her house empty-handed, she told the spies that she was aware of God’s judgment over her city and asked them if they would save her and her family. The spies instructed her to hang a scarlet rag outside her window, promising her they would ensure that the Israelite army spared her home.
True to the spies’ word, when Israel attacked the city of Jericho, Rahab and her family were protected and taken out of harm’s way by the Israelite army. Rahab then left the life of prostitution and married an Israelite named Salmon; the couple ended up being the great-great-grandparents of David. Today we can read Rahab’s name in the genealogy of Jesus Christ as written in the Gospel of Matthew. That’s definitely God’s grace at work! Rahab was a God-fearing woman even when she was working as a prostitute and living outside of the community of God’s people. When it came time for her to choose sides, she sided with God and left her sinful life as a prostitute behind, having come to a personal faith in the Lord. Are we willing, as Rahab was, to leave our sinful lives behind and put our faith in Christ? If we are, then God will extend His grace to us also.
From the story of Rahab, we can gather that God is not afraid to be identified with a prostitute. So even if you’re in some identity-labeling sin now, you can cry out to God and He will begin a work of transformation. He will give you an opportunity to repent of your sin and to choose everlasting life with Him. Then He will proceed to work miracles as you walk out your days on earth. Even if you are not sure of anything right now, ask God to reveal Himself to you. He will! You will hear Him, and He is going to reach out to you. He is faithful to do that.
Rahab refused to betray those spies. She refused to have anything more to do with Jericho, and because of that, God rewarded her. Not only is Rahab listed in Christ’s genealogy, but she is also listed in the hall of faith in Hebrews, chapter 11, right along with Sarah—an incredible woman of God. By the way, Rahab ended up being the mother of Boaz, the man who married Ruth, our next highlighted “bad girl” touched by God’s grace.
Ruth was a Gentile, a Moabite woman, and her story is found in the Old Testament book of Ruth. Further back in Israelite history, the nation of Moab had been cursed by God because the Moabite people would not let Moses and the people of Israel cross through their country but instead forced them to go around. So the Bible was clear that the Moabites would be cursed and would never inherit the kingdom of God.
Even so, God’s grace was already at work in Ruth’s story. An Israelite woman named Naomi, along with her husband and her two sons, left Bethlehem to escape a famine and went to Moab. They definitely should not have been dwelling in Moab, but their mistake became a trophy of God’s grace. Ruth married one of Naomi’s sons, and another young Moabite woman named Orpah married the other son.
After a while, Naomi’s husband died. Ruth and Orpah helped take care of Naomi while managing their own families, but tragically, some years later, both Ruth’s and Orpah’s husbands (Naomi’s sons) died as well. Naomi told the young women to go and find husbands in their own country because she was returning to Bethlehem. Orpah chose to stay in Moab, going back into idolatry, but Ruth chose to follow Naomi, telling her, “Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you; for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God” (Ruth 1:16).
Ruth was not concerned about her race or her culture. She had tasted that the Lord God was good, and she wanted to stay by Naomi’s side, even though it meant leaving her own people, family and culture. It can be difficult to fit in when one is from a different culture and country, but in God, Ruth found a place to fit.
When Naomi and Ruth traveled back to Bethlehem, it was harvesttime. Ruth went to glean wheat in the fields, and as a result, she met Boaz, the man who would ultimately redeem her through marriage. Herein is seen a biblical principle: The moment we turn back to Him, no matter who we are or what we have done, God is going to show us grace and favor.
Although Ruth was from a country that had been cursed by God, she herself was redeemed—by one of the richest men in the city—because she chose to follow God instead of her culture. Maybe you don’t feel like you fit in with the people you are hanging out with. Maybe you don’t feel comfortable doing what your friends do anymore. Instead of blaming God for your circumstances, allow Him to overwhelm you with His grace, and choose Him over your nationality, race, creed, friends or culture.
We will look at one final “bad girl” of the Old Testament who was touched by God’s grace. Her name is Bathsheba, and her story can be found in 2 Samuel, chapter 11.
Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Uriah was a soldier in King David’s army, and at the time in question, he was out in battle. King David, who had come back from war—something he should not have done, by the way—was walking on the rooftop of his palace one evening and noticed Bathsheba taking a bath at her home nearby. The Bible tells us that Bathsheba was a very beautiful woman. It is obvious that David did more than just glance at this woman—his second mistake. The king then told his staff that he wanted Bathsheba brought to him. The text of Scripture doesn’t specifically state as much, but no doubt they tried to talk him out of it. However, David insisted that he have Bathsheba, and he committed adultery with Uriah’s wife.
Bathsheba ended up pregnant, and David tried to conceal his sin by calling Uriah home from the battle in hopes that he would sleep with his wife. But Uriah, being an honorable man, did not sleep with his wife, because he did not want to enjoy pleasure while his fellow soldiers were on the front line, fighting for Israel. As the next attempt in his cover-up, David wrote a note to Joab, the head commander in his army. In this note, King David clearly spelled out his murderous plans: “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die” (2 Sam. 11:15).
So indeed Uriah died, and David took Bathsheba as his wife. Ultimately, one of God’s consequences was that the baby Bathsheba bore became ill and died.
Let us reflect for a moment on how David’s sin snowballed and eventually affected other people—as sin almost always does. David started the whole tangled mess by not being where he was supposed to be; he should have been on the battlefield rather than in leisure at home. He then allowed himself more than just a passing glance at Bathsheba.
Furthermore, the sin of adultery that David and Bathsheba committed did not solely affect them. David’s great counselor, Ahithophel, was betrayed, and there would be future consequences for this man as a result. Joab was brought into the mix and was ordered to assassinate Uriah. Uriah, a faithful husband and valued soldier in David’s army, was murdered. Nathan, a prophet of God, was lied to by David. God eventually revealed the truth of David’s sin to Nathan, who boldly confronted the king with what he had done by telling David a parable that was specifically directed at him. Finally, the infant child of David and Bathsheba became ill and died.
In God’s abundant grace, good did come from this awful situation. After being confronted by Nathan the prophet, David humbly confessed his sin and repented before God, who forgave and restored him. Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die” (2 Sam. 12:13). What about Bathsheba? After all, because of David, her husband was murdered, her grandfather Ahithophel eventually committed suicide, her unborn baby died, and her reputation was disgraced. Through all of this, however, Bathsheba turned to God and brought forth a son named Solomon, who would end up being the next king of Israel and the one who would build the temple of God. Once again, God’s grace prevailed, and Bathsheba’s name is found written in the genealogy of Jesus Christ.
These four women are all found in the genealogy of Christ solely because of the grace of an amazing God who calls, loves, accepts and forgives sinners. Maybe you are like Tamar—wanting the right thing, but accomplishing it the wrong way and now feeling like God has rejected you. God sees your heart. He will never reject you. Or maybe you are like Rahab—being caught in your sin and looking for a way out. God will show you a way out through Christ. Or maybe you are like Ruth—seeming not to fit in. But you have a friend closer than a brother: Jesus. Or maybe you are like Bathsheba—hiding your sins and needing a God who will forgive you. Well, that’s the God you have—He’s more than willing to forgive you. The experiences of these four women powerfully illustrate that God put His hand on them and said, “I identify with you.”
Through His immeasurable grace, God is willing to identify with each of us today as well. I know this full well, as I have been a recipient of God’s unending grace. During one of my hospital stays a couple of months ago, I was not the most pleasant patient. I was angry at God and frustrated with my body, and I hate to admit that I vented my frustration on some of the nurses. I too fall down in sin, again and again. We all do. But with God’s grace, and through repentance and forgiveness, we can get back up again. I once again cried out to God, and He faithfully picked me up and placed my feet upon the Rock of Jesus Christ. I repented, apologized, and let the Holy Spirit change my attitude by giving me God’s perspective. His grace is truly sufficient and never-ending.
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. What four women are found in the genealogy of Christ, and why is it surprising that God included them in Jesus’ family tree?
2. Why did God choose to include Tamar in Christ’s genealogy?
3. Why did God choose to include Rahab in Christ’s genealogy?
4. Why did God choose to include Ruth in Christ’s genealogy?
5. Why did God choose to include Bathsheba in Christ’s genealogy?
Lord, thank You for Your grace in my life. Thank You that You pick me up again and again. You never leave me alone nor withhold any good thing from me. You want me to follow hard after You; it is Your desire that my heart would mirror Yours. Thank You for never giving up on me, even when I am lost in sin. Even then, You orchestrate circumstances and trials that draw me near to You. Thank You that You alone can make my life a trophy of Your grace. You are willing to get Your hands dirty and reach down to hurting and lost people. Work in my brokenness, I pray, helping me to see and experience Your hands all over my life. Thank You for Your grace that never lets me go. Amen.