There is nothing more amazing to me than God’s grace. I am awe-stricken that he can take a broken vessel like me and use me for his glory in spite of all my failures and shortcomings. I can’t get over how he loves me -never disillusioned when I falter; he loves me because he is love (1 John 4:8), not because I am good. His grace reaches deep into the putrid depths of my repulsive actions and rescues me from the sins that threaten to destroy me, and where my “sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20, ESV). And this grace is given freely with no strings attached. I could not earn it, and if it was up to me to be good enough to keep it, I would certainly have lost it a long time ago. No one else loves me like this.

It is difficult to feel anything other than joy and appreciation for God’s grace -his unmerited favor. A few years ago I was thinking about God’s grace and my being an undeserving recipient of it, and it occurred to me that there is a dark side to grace. We often refer to God’s grace being free, and it is to us, but it cost Jesus a lot. God himself left heaven to become a poor man, a servant, and suffered intense humiliation and agony on the cross (Philippians 2:5-8). This was essential for our receiving God’s grace. And on the cross, the justice of God was satisfied, and he was able to justly punish sin and simultaneously offer mercy and grace to undeserving sinners. And the bloodied ground beneath the cross, was the place where grace and mercy bloomed.

As I thought about this, a song began to come together in my mind. I put together a little video of the song, and I wanted to share it with you. Phil Blankenship, whose testimony I shared in my last post orchestrated all the music you’ll hear. I hope you appreciate the grace of God even more as you consider how much it cost our Savior.

I want to thank Sarah Curry for using her incredible gift to sing this song and Ted Hall for allowing us to use his studio for the recording.