Parents give to their children. Let's be honest. Many times children don't deserve it, but we bless them anyway. Why? Because we love them.

There were times when my son, Raymond, was very young and would do something disobedient. But just because he would break something in the house or be out when he shouldn't be out, did that mean I wouldn't bless him?

The mother of the worst criminal in prison is there loving her son, nurturing him, helping him. Why? Because he deserves it? No, it's a mother's grace. Parents give grace to their children.

God's Grace To Us
God is no different. Once we are born into the kingdom, God wants to give to us. We don't deserve it, but He loves us and He wants to give to us anyway.

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
(Matt. 7:11)

The scriptures say, "While we were yet in sin He loved us." When God looks at us, He doesn't see all the things we've done. He sees the blood of Jesus. He sees us cleansed by the blood.

He has all abundance. John Avanzini said, "God wants to prosper you if for no other reason than He's got so much stuff. He's got to put it someplace, and He wants to put it with His kids."

If you've got a lot of stuff, where do you want to put it. You wouldn't say, "Well, I'm going to write out my will. I think I will give this to my next door neighbor's dog." No, that's not what you'd do. You would give it to your kids. Why? Because they deserve it and because they're so great? No. It's because they are your kids!

Well, we're God's kids! He has all this stuff for us and we can receive it. How? By grace. If we say, "Well, I'd like to take it, but I just don't deserve it," that's religiousness and works.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
(James 1:17)

Isn't that good? People say, "Yeah, Brother Larry, that's great. You're out here teaching grace and you're telling people there's nothing they can do that really is going to make much difference. You're not teaching holiness and righteousness and all that stuff. You're basically telling people they can do whatever they want to do and God will bless them. You're just giving them a license to sin."

Do you know most people don't need a license to sin? They'll just do it anyway.

Teaching Through Grace
Let me tell you something. You can teach one of two ways. You can either teach through condemnation or you can teach through grace. You can condemn your child or you can build up your child.

By God giving us grace, the natural reaction is for us to want to be better. That's the natural reaction. Condemnation does not make us quit sinning. If anything, condemnation makes us madder and meaner and more determined to do the bad things we were doing to begin with.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
(John 3:17)

If you tell your child, "You're an idiot. You can't do anything," and slap him up the side of his head, what does that do? It teaches by condemnation and tells him you consider him worthless.

But if you say, "Hey, look, you did your best. I love you. You're okay," and then teach with love, that's going to make the child want to do his best next time. That's the natural instinct God has put within us. God teaches us through grace.

Paul ran into the same situation. People were complaining because he was teaching about grace. He said in Romans 6:1, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound? Just to show that God has grace, let's just have a big sin party. That will prove that God has grace because He'll forgive us."

Wrong! Romans 6:15 says, "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace?" Then he adds two words, "Certainly not!" No way!

Encouraged To Do What's Right
The natural reaction to grace is to want to live up to the standard, not to live in sin. Wow! The truth is, if we understood grace, we'd be encouraged to do what's right. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things become new."

Old things pass away, all things become new. How do all things become new? Our spirit man is born again, re-created. We are new. We are fresh. We are clean.

Verse 19 says, "That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing [or counting] their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation."

In other words, Jesus didn't take our wrong things and put them on our account. He didn't pick up a ledger and say, "Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad." He's not counting these things against us as bad, but He's covering us with His grace and saying, "Okay, I love you. You're covered by love."

The law of the New Testament is what? The law of love.


Source: The Power of Grace by Larry Ollison
Excerpt permission granted by Larry Ollison Ministries