Marvelous Grace

I am reading a great book right now by John Macarthur- Twelve Extraordinary Women. I would highly recommend it to a woman in any season of life. The women he talks about are Eve, Sarah, Rahab, Ruth, Hannah, Mary, Anna, The Samaritan Woman, Martha and Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Lydia. I have just finished the chapter on Rahab, and what a great reminder it was to me of the abundance of God's grace. Not just in her life, but in my own life-daily.

Macarthur sums up the chapter with a quote by Charles Spurgeon. A little background first. Many scholars tried to lighten the stigma of Rahab's harlotry by explaining that maybe she was just a hostess or an innkeeper as not to ruin or taint the lineage of Christ. So, in response to that, Spurgeon says "This woman was no mere hostess, but a real harlot...I am persuaded that nothing but a spirit of distaste for free grace would ever have led any commentator to deny her sin." Macarthur goes on to say:

"Remove the stigma of sin, and you remove the need for grace. Rahab is extraordinary precisely because she received extraordinary grace." "The disturbing fact about what she once was simply magnifies the glory of divine grace, which is what mad her the extraordinary woman she became. That, after all, is the whole lesson of her life."

How often do I try to excuse my own sin! I have been abundantly showered with grace and yet I lessen what Christ did when I make light of the ugliness of my sin. To look at who I was and who I am now is in itself amazing. But Christ doesn't stop there. He is continually pouring on more grace that I am desperately in need of. Praise be to God for His marvelous grace!