Grace, grace is exactly and entirely opposite to that! The scandal of grace is that God saw us as His sworn enemies, as children of wrath, children of the devil, and with His image marred and trampled in the dirt, and while we were still shaking our fists at Him, engaged each day in cosmic treason and total defiance of Him, He was willing to pay the ridiculous ransom price of the death of this precious Son to redeem us.

It is not boring grace that saved us, as if God, paid the ransom price because He saw we were worth it – no, a thousand times, no. We are saved by unspeakable and amazing grace – a grace that makes all the angels aghast and perplexed that God would set His love on such hostile, rebel sinners! The devil never for a moment thought that God would be willing to pay this price… that Christ would endure the pain of the cross and absorb the punishment due to us rebels as the full fury of God’s wrath was meted out on Him. Who would ever have thought such a thing – the just would pay the price for the unjust? That He who knew no sin would be made to be sin for us, so that we may become the righteousness of God in Him? Who could have forseen this kind of love? But oh, what a love the Father has for us, a love He had for us from all eternity. And oh, what a perfect and wonderful Savior!

The saints of old knew this so well. They sang “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me”… and “Oh what a wonder that Jesus loves even me!”