Luke 15:20-24 (NKJV) “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.Have you ever heaved a sigh of relief when the worst-case scenarios didn’t happen because someone extended grace to you?
Grace is unmerited favour—something shown to us when we are not entitled to it or are worthy to receive it. Unfortunately, we live in a society that demands entitlement, and we often become aggressive when we don’t get what we perceive is due to us. In fact, we can become so immersed in this culture that we may not even think it’s wrong to behave this way.
As the story of the prodigal son unfolds, our hearts begin to ache for the father, who is a personification of grace here. Because grace is unmerited favour, it means there is nothing that we do, have done or not done, that can cause the person to love us more or to love us less. God loves us unconditionally, and His love and grace towards us has nothing to do with us, but everything to do with His choice of extending it to us. While it may sound simple and natural to extend grace to our children, it is often easier said than done because we have emotions. Therefore, we need to deal with the flesh to prevent us from retaliating in words or deeds when something negative happens. In fact, it is unnatural to extend grace, which is why we need to learn from the father in this parable, and to choose to extend grace as we model our lives after Christ.
However, we won’t be able to extend grace to others until we have fully grasped the unmerited favour of God, and we won’t be able to love others like God does until we have understood the love of God with our hearts. In other words, we won’t be able to do unto others as we want others to do unto us until we have understood His grace for us. In fact, many of us will profess that we understand the grace of God, but we won’t really know if we do until the situation warrants us to extend it. Truly understanding the grace of God is the key to living out our lives differently.
Sermon Series: Extending Grace
了解恩典
路加福音 15:20-24于是起来往他父亲那里去。相离还远，他父亲看见，就动了慈心，跑去抱着他的颈项，连连与他亲嘴。儿子说，父亲，我得罪了天，又得罪了你，从今以后，我不配称为你的儿子。父亲却吩咐仆人说，把那上好的袍子快拿出来给他穿。把戒指戴在他指头上，把鞋穿在他脚上。 把那肥牛犊牵来宰了，我们可以吃喝快乐。 因为我这个儿子，是死而复活，失而又得的。他们就快乐起来。
你曾否松了一口气，那最糟糕的一幕总算没有发生–只是因为某人施恩与你？
恩典是不配得的恩惠 – 当我们无权或不配得领受它时却被赐给了我们。不幸的是，我们生活在一个要求享有权利的社会里，当我们没有得到我们认为应该得到的东西时，我们就变得咄咄逼人。事实上，我们可能沉浸在这种文化中，我们甚至不会认为这样做是错误的。
随着浪子故事的展开，我们的心开始为父亲感到痛苦，他在这里是恩典的化身。因为恩典是不配得的恩惠。这意味着不管我们做什么，做或没有做过什么都不会使那个人对我们的爱有所增加或减少。神无条件地爱我们，祂赐予我们的爱和恩典，与我们毫无干系，而是完全出于祂的选择–施恩给我们。施恩给我们的孩子说起来简单又自然，但是知易行难，因为我们都有情绪。因此，当一些负面的事情发生时，我们需要处理血气，以防止我们用言语或行动报复。事实上，施恩是不自然的，这就是为什么我们要向这个比喻中的父亲学习，选择施恩与人，因我们效法基督，活出祂的样式。
然而，除非我们全然了解那我们原本不配得的上帝的恩惠，否则我们将无法施恩与人；除非我们打心底理解了上帝之爱，否则我们将无法像上帝那般爱他人。换言之，除非我们理解了祂对我们的恩典，否则我们将无法以己之所欲施与人。事实上，我们中的许多人都会声称我们理解神的恩典，但我们无法知道我们是否真的理解，直到需要我们施恩的情况发生。真正地理解神的恩典是我们活出不一样的生命的关键。
讲章系列：延伸恩典