The Beautiful Color of Grace

There is a color in my mind that is so beautiful that it can only be named Grace. And I want to paint the world with this color.

David P.

David had never heard about grace. But grace was the one thing he needed to hear about the most. You see, David was struggling with an addiction. He was broken and bruised. He was hurting and hopeless. He was in pain and a prisoner. He was in darkness and death. He was a sheep without a shepherd.

David was in desperate need of grace.

Jesus came to heal the broken and bruised, the hurting and hopeless, and the prisoner in pain. He came to shine light to those living in darkness and share life with those walking in death. He came to be a shepherd to lost sheep.

John 1:1-18 says:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...In him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness...The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us...full of grace and truth...From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth was given through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side has made him known.

God revealed the law to us through Moses. He revealed his grace to us through Jesus. Through Jesus, we see the grace of God unfold before our very eyes. And this grace was light and life for all people.

About himself Jesus said:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor (grace). (Luke 4:18-19)

Not only did Jesus come to reveal God's grace, he came to proclaim God's grace. He came to reveal and proclaim God's grace to people like David...to people like us.

Matthew 12:20 says the following about Jesus.

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.

With grace, Jesus healed the bruised and restored the hope of the hopeless.

When Jesus looked at crowds of people, he had compassion on them. He saw their hurts. He felt their pain.

When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:36)

Jesus, the Shepherd of Grace, was moved to help the hopeless and harassed.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burdened is light."(Matthew 11:28-30)

Jesus, the gentle and humble Shepherd of Grace to those who are tired and weary, says come to me...rest in me...learn from me. Come to my grace...rest in my grace...learn of my grace.

That is exactly what David needed. He needed to come to, rest in, and learn of God's grace.

When I first met David, I knew he was exactly the person the Shepherd of Grace was seeking to share his grace with. David was battling an addiction. David and I spent hours together learning of God's grace revealed to us in Jesus. We talked about verses such as 2 Corinthians 5:18-6:2, which says,

All of this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them...God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God...we urge you not to receive (to hear about) God's grace in vain...I tell you, now is the time of God's favor (grace), now is the day of God's salvation.

David began learning that God loved him and wanted a relationship with him. He learned that God was not counting his sins against him because all of his sins were counted against Jesus.

He learned that God had lavished his grace upon him though Jesus, resulting in all of his sins being forgiven.

...to the praise of his glorious grace which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished upon us with all wisdom and understanding. (Ephesians 1:6-8)

God made us alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, haven cancelled the written code (Mosaic Law), with its regulations, that was against us and stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:13-14)

He learned that because of grace he has been rescued from the kingdom of darkness and has has become a member of the Kingdom of the Forgiven.

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:13-14)

Together, David and I spent hours studying about God's grace. He learned from Scripture that he has been saved and justified by grace through faith. As a result, he has peace with and is under no condemnation from God.

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works so that no one can boast.
(Ephesians 2;8-9)

...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. (Romans 3:23-24)

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. (Romans 5:1-2)

Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus...
(Romans 8:1)

These and many other verses on grace began to change David's life...So much so, he made this statement:

There is a color in my mind that is so beautiful that it can only be named Grace. And I want to paint the world with this color.

You see, David thinks in colors, in pictures, in drawings. He is an artist. All the colors he had seen before. But one color entered into his mind. It was a color he had never seen before. He called it the Beautiful Color of Grace.

This Beautiful Color of Grace, as David described it, is the color of all that God has done for him through Jesus. It is the color of God's kindness, forgiveness, light, life, love, patience, goodness and gentleness. It is the color of the cross, the life of Jesus, the death of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, our righteousness in Jesus, being reconciled to God, at peace with God, under no condemnation from God, and being a member of the family of God. It is the color that his world was painted with by God himself.

The same God who has painted the earth and sky with beautiful colors, is the same God who paints our lives with the Beautiful Color of Grace. God himself stepped out of heaven with paint brush in hand...the Word becoming flesh full of grace and truth with one blessing after another being poured into the lives of people...painting our lives the Beautiful Color of Grace.

And it is with this color, the Beautiful Color of Grace, that David wants to paint the world. He wants to paint the part of the world he is in with Grace. He wants people to see the Beautiful Color of God's Grace that has changed his life. He wants people to see this Color in his mind. He wants this Color in his mind to become flesh...to dwell among people...hurting people, hopeless people, people in darkness and death, bruised and broken people, people in pain and imprisoned. He wants to paint their lives the Beautiful Color of Grace. The Color of God's love, forgiveness, light, light, healing, hope, and freedom found in Jesus.

What if we all painted our part of the world the Beautiful Color of Grace? What if we carried a brush in our hand? What if we painted the lives of broken and bruised people the color of love, forgiveness, peace, patience, light, life, healing, hope, and freedom that we have found in Jesus? What a beautiful world it would be.

What if we painted our marriages, children, relationships, work-places, churches, etc...the Beautiful Color of Grace? What if we no longer painted the lives of people with anger, hatred, revenge, arguing, impatience, unkindness, and rudeness? Instead, what if we painted the lives of people with forgiveness, kindness, acts of service, patience, and gentleness? What a beautiful world it would be.

So let's do it! Together, let's paint the parts of our world the Beautiful Color of Grace.

Thanks David for inspiring us to paint the world the Beautiful Color of Grace!

There is a color in my mind that is so beautiful that it can only be named Grace. And I want to paint the world with this color.

David P.

Check out Brad’s Book for those suffering with addictions: Addicted To Grace: The Only Addiction That Will Set You Free!