“From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another.” John 1:16 NIV

Grace…it is the central part of the beautiful story of redemption that God has written for us. He is the master composer of this story. He is the instigator of grace. It is from Him that all other grace flows. John 1:16 says that “from the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.” The ESV translation of the same verse says that we have all received “grace upon grace.” Alexander MacLaren, an English preacher from the 1800’s, wrote in his Expositions of Scripture, “The unconditional, undeserved, spontaneous eternal, stooping, pardoning love of God. That is grace.” He went on to say grace is “the whole sum of the unmerited blessing which came to man through Jesus Christ.” 

So, what is Composed Grace? It is learning to live and breathe the story of who God created us to be. It is learning to live practically and be at peace as God unfolds this story to us day by day. It is learning to walk in Grace and Truth, understanding what Grace really is, and how it calls us to be graceful. To live composed in him, and confident in whom he created us to be; assured that he will complete the work that he began in us, trusting that he will guide our every step, understanding his Word is central to every part of our story. It is the plan book and has power to change our heart day by day though his Spirit. MacLaren said, “the risen life of Jesus is the nourishment and strengthening and blessing and life of a Christian. Our daily experience ought to be that there comes, wavelet by wavelet, that silent, gently and yet omnipotent influx into our empty hearts, this very life of Christ himself.”

Part of the story that God has written is that he loved us so much—you and me–the world, that he gave his one and only son Jesus, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) Jesus was the instrument of God’s grace to us. He IS the grace. And because he rose again, his Spirit is not only the agent of this grace to our salvation by faith, but also to his outpouring of his grace on us day by day. “For from his fullness we have all received “grace upon grace.” Psalm 68:19 says similarly, “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits.”

Dr. David Jeremiah’s idea of grace was to picture the waves of the sea as they come to shore. They come one after another, on top of the other. It is the constant reception of one evidence of God’s grace replacing another.

One of my favorite songs from Austin Stone Worship says, “Your grace, like rising seas has swallowed death and sin in me.” (Glorious Grace-Aaron Ivey, Brett Land, Kyle Lent). When I sing this, I envision a huge, uncontrollable wave of the sea—out in the open ocean. It has the power to destroy anything in its path. It roars and foams just like in Psalm 46. It is totally uncontrollable except by God himself. It rises and falls because that is how God created the sea. But Psalm 46 also teaches us that the God who has power over the vast, uncontrollable sea is our very refuge and strength. And that is how we see his grace in this wave. Jesus’ love and mercy, shown to us on the cross, flows over us & swallows the sin in us and the spiritual death we deserve. He will do that for you if you believe in him through faith. Jesus is the redeeming action of God’s mercy.

 You can’t do anything to earn this gift of grace: it’s a free gift for us who believe, but it surely wasn’t free for God. He sent Jesus to pay for our sin to redeem us to himself. Hebrews 2:9 says that Jesus “suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. God has shown us mercy by offering us grace. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Our sin requires a penalty of death. Mercy commutes the sentence– It becomes a “life” sentence—eternal life– not a death sentence, because Jesus died in our place and rose again to sit on the throne of Grace. Hebrews 4:16 says, “let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” What is this throne of grace? It is a place—a gift of salvation/life we don’t deserve. A place where we can commune with God. A place we are invited to boldly come, not because of our own worth or work, but because the work is finished on the cross.

God began this work in us and Philippians 1:6 says, “being confident of this, that he who began the work in you will be faithful to complete it.”

So. Composed grace. I want to write the stories of how God has and is composing me and you into who he designed us to be and to learn to walk in that grace day by day while and learning to live “composed” in the midst of his work ,“being confident of this, that he who began the work in you will be faithful to complete it.” (Philippians 1:6)

I hope you will join me on this journey.