Simply Amazing Grace

I wrote this right after the last SuperBowl and forgot to publish it. The message is still relevant though so I thought I'd post it now. 
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I've been listening to my local radio station DJ's, Jeff & Rebecca, as I make the hour drive into work in the morning. Recently, they have been kidding with each other about their bet on who would win the Super Bowl. Jeff said he would give up his Smartphone for 3 days if Broncos won and Rebecca said she'd give up coffee for three days if the Seahawks won. Of course, you already know how it turned out since the Seahawks came away with a 43-8 victory. 

In these few mornings after the game, they have cracked jokes, given each other a hard time and laughed about how Rebecca (who obviously LOVES her coffee) would have to give up coffee for three whole days. Today was the first morning of her three days penalty of her team losing and as they were talking about it this morning Jeff did something I wasn't expecting. 

He said that he had talked to his wife and daughter who had encouraged him to "let her off the hook" and so he said, 

"Rebecca, I know that you lost the bet and that deal was that you'd have to go without coffee for three days but I'm going to let that debt go. In fact, If you'd like one, I'll go pour you a cup of coffee right now." 

At that moment, I was reminded of grace. And I think that was the point of today's morning show. Rebecca, like most of us objected..."oh, but that was not the deal...as a woman of integrity, I should pay my debt." She felt guilty and expressed that it felt wrong for him not to hold her to it...after all, she lost....it was what she deserved...and so she expressed what many of us want to do when it comes to grace...especially with God's grace.

Us: "I know God gave me grace through Jesus sacrifice but I still have to do XYZ too!" 
It's a Jesus + mentality.

Going a step further in the program, the next heartwarming jester was that people on Facebook started writing in and saying, "Rebecca, go have a cup of coffee, and I'll go without any coffee to pay your debt to Jeff." It made me smile. It's a simple example pointing to a bigger picture.

Grace...when you go all in with Jesus, God extends his unmerited favor [approval]. 

We have a debt to God. God loves us, doesn't want to be separated from us, and didn't want us to have to pay the debt but the debt had to be paid. So Jesus stepped in and said, I'll pay for their debt so that they can enjoy their relationship with You!  

Amazing Grace.