The Power of Grace

If you have tasted that the Lord is gracious…1 Peter 2:3

With you there is no “if.” You have personally experienced the grace of the Lord! Peter is writing to an unknown audience. He does not know who has been born again and who has not. So, he uses the “if.” Paul does the same thing.

You have progressed past the “newborn babes” stage, Verse 2. You have tasted the grace of God and are moving forward to being a “living stone”; verse 4. You are being built up as a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, verse 5. You are now ready to present yourself as a living sacrifice acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, verse 5 and Romans 12:1-2. 

There is no life without sacrifice. Under the Old Covenant, sacrifices were the blood sacrifices of animals. For this reason, Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6: I desire mercy and not sacrifice, Matthew 9:13. Jesus came to give His life because of the grace and mercy of God our Father. He instructs us to do the same. Give our lives as gracious and merciful service to others. Living sacrifices that never quits giving. 

God doesn’t want blood sacrifices any more. He wants us to be a holy priesthood, 1 Peter 2:5; a royal priesthood, 1 Peter 2:9. His own special people that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, Verse 9. A living sacrifice!

How? By coming to Him, verse 4: Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. But there is more, verse 5: you also, as living stones are being built up a spiritual house. Jesus is not asking us to do anything He hasn’t already done. Nor is He asking us to do anything He isn’t fully prepared to help us do. Come to Jesus and let Him do the rest. This is the power of grace.