Have You Experienced the Grace of the Lord?

Scripture: Genesis 4:13-15

Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is too great to bear! "Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." So the LORD said to him, "Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold." And the LORD appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him.

Insights: One of the themes we will observe throughout this calendar year as we preach through the Bible is grace.  In other words, the entire love story of God we are reading through revolves around His incredible love and mercy He bestows on us.  God’s story is a redemptive story.  In today’s verses we see Cain receiving grace from the Lord.  God’s standard and required punishment for murder is death.  Yet, just like Jesus and the woman caught in adultery, mercy and grace is dispensed.  God shows His love for Cain in His allowing him to live.  God goes even one step further and places a mark on Cain in order to protect him from the natural consequences from this world in regards to his death.  This act of love is exactly what the Father has done for us in Jesus.  We deserved death and eternal separation from the Father’s love because of our sin.  God, however, sent His Son Jesus to take the penalty for our sin.  Jesus bore the wrath which was rightfully ours.  He then extends to us the gift of salvation to all who will receive His love, mercy and sacrifice.  We receive this grace gift by entering into a relationship with Jesus.  We enter into that relationship by calling out to Him and acknowledging our sin and asking Him to enter into our hearts and to cleanse us of our sins.  He promises that if we do this and believe, that He will really save us.  What a picture of God’s redemptive story played out even in these early chapters of the book of Genesis.  Beloved, let us strive for a love relationship with the Lord and strive for His standard which is ruled and governed by grace.

Questions:

1. Have you recently experienced the grace of the Lord in your life?
2. Have you ever received Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

Prayer: Father, thank You that You do not give me what I deserve.  You are gracious to me and Your love is overwhelming to me at times.  Let me never take for granted Your mercy which You bestow on me.  Amen.