Saving Grace

The Resurrection of the Lord

This Sunday, the second reading will be from Colossians 3:1-4. I’d encourage you to read on a little bit, to around verse 17 to get a more full understanding of the implications Paul intends for his words here.

The introduction of Grace to a person’s life changes him. His entire outlook is modified.

Before, when there was nothing to look forward to after death, he was concerned with the affairs of this world - with the mad scramble for power and money and fame - to amass as much as possible before departing this world. To win the rat race.


After he experiences the Grace of God, he realizes that the rat that wins is still a rat. After he comes to know the story of Jesus Christ, he finds out that there is a promise of something better, after death - the full, glorious, eternal life that mankind was really intended for. What he was designed to experience before the Fall. And he seeks that above everything else.

And in his changed state, he wants everyone he knows to come with him.

He’s not really willing to settle for doing this for himself and allowing everyone around him to die in their sins. He becomes infected with a missionary spirit. He experiences such joy in the promise of his salvation that he wants to do everything he can to advance that promise to all mankind.

And it isn’t a threat, for him. It’s a joyful promise, so spreading the good news is something he loves to do. He wants - desperately - to be about the work of the Lord in his days on Earth, and he will be just as pleased to go and be with God after those days are done.

The Grace of God changes you. The way you act. The way you speak. The way you think. Everything.

And suddenly a list of thou-shalt-nots doesn’t look like a list of arbitrary rules. They become the compass by which we lead a more joyful life than we ever had without them. We rejoice in the Law of the Lord.

Let’s Pray.

O Lord of mercy and grace, we remember your mighty work in salvation, accomplished for us on the cross, and made real to us in the empty tomb. We see the stone rolled away and the burial clothes laid aside, and we are amazed and grateful. We praise you for your awesome love in this great act of service to your people, and we give you thanks, O Lord, for your mighty work in this.