There are a lot of words in English now which have dramatically changed their meaning. Take ‘awesome’ for example, which in a literal sense, means ‘inspiring or displaying awe’. Now it means ‘excellent or outstanding’. Of course words shift their meaning, but often the force of a word is diluted. Not so with ‘grace’. It's a positive word in English that has retained its strength of meaning. ‘Grace’ means something pleasing or charming; it means mercy. At its heart it means ‘rejoicing’. And there's plenty of grace in the Bible.

Grace in our relationships with each other

On what might be called the ‘micro-level’ of our own lives, grace (or forgiveness) is really important. A lack of forgiveness sours relationships, prolongs disagreement and can ultimately leave bitterness and resentment. It builds barriers between people and even whole communities.

And we're very used to an ungracious means of operation. Look at how we're examined academically: very unforgiving! A lack of a good score in an exam, and there's no real way to change or reverse that (not to scare people waiting for exam results!). This kind of assessment is in nature conditional: it's like our value is being scaled by how we achieve. And we see it in more arenas that the academic.

But I'm not trying to provide a critique of our education system. I'm merely saying that we need not transfer such conditional thinking into our relationships. The power of forgiveness in our personal relationships is very great. What's more, it's taught by Jesus: ‘love one another’. What greater way is there to show love that by forgiveness, by personal sacrifice?

I'm not saying I'm good at this, by any means. Instead, I thought it would be useful to highlight the great need there is in the world for this kind of forgiveness, and want to urge you to think about breaking down the barriers erected by a lack of grace.

Grace in the Bible

This really takes us to the crucial importance of grace and forgiveness on the ‘macro-level’ of the whole Bible and therefore what might be called the ‘big issues’ in life. The Bible teaches that we are in need of forgiveness from God, but also that he has acted to make this forgiveness possible, through Jesus laying down his life. Even more unbelievable, the Bible seems to teach us that such forgiveness of wrong-doers is a joy for God!

There's an example of personal grace in the parable of the lost son. You can find it in Luke 15:11–32. In the same way as the father in the story, Jesus is telling us that God literally rejoices when people return to him. This massive, awesome (in the old sense) creative God is a personal God, and he is filled with joy and gladness when people return to him, when people like us return to him.

This is the God of the Bible. Asked what unique contribution Christianity made, C. S. Lewis said this: ‘Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional’. The nature of God means that there's nothing we can do to make this God love us more or less, and that's the essence of grace.

So for us in our day to day lives, it's important that we try to practise forgiveness, but only because God has shown us what forgiveness really means, and because he loved us first, demonstrated in the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross.