Have you ever had a set of impossible expectations placed on you where you knew you just weren't going to be able to meet them?
In Matthew 25 Jesus set some impossible expectations when he completely changed the way that people looked at the law. He basically said, “you know all these laws that really are impossible to keep? Well, I”m raising the bar. In the past you weren’t supposed to kill — now I”m saying don’t even hate anybody.” Jesus raised the standard.
Yesterday I heard the rest of that story expressed in one sentence: "When the expectations got higher, the grace went deeper.” In other words, when Jesus came up with a new way to live for those who would say they followed Him, He knew that they would screw up. So he made grace more readily available.
That doesn’t mean, of course, that we should keep on sinning so that we get more grace, but that we acknowledge that when we do screw up, God’s grace is deeper.
What a comforting thought. God didn't give us his expectations to crush us, but to allow us to experience His grace more fully.
Finally, the grace we extend to others needs to go deeper as well. Grace leads to grace.
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