It seems we are always having to deal with expiration dates, sell-by dates, limited warranties, and info-mercials screaming "Time is running out so hurry...this is a limited time offer".

 

The nature of things since Adam's great fall (makes Humpy Dumpty's look like less than a stumble) is that things don't last. The tomatoes go bad, the guacamole goes a disgusting brown, and that chicken at the back of the fridge has turned into a science project.

 

Feelings shift like the wind... emotions as unreliable and a weather forecast. Things we thought were as solid as Sears, prove to be just that unstable. "Sound as a dollar" is an adage that no longer makes sense.

 

Nature itself seems to be really "hacked" at the consequences of Adam's (and ours) folly. The planet itself is acting as if it was beginning to go into "labor pains" with earthquakes, mega storms, floods and famines.

 

Marriages have a statistical 50/50 chance of surviving...even among those who call themselves Christians. In some places it is a rarity to find a majority of children with both a Mother and a Father in the home.

 

In the middle of all this change and decay, people are still searching for something that will not change, something that will not disappoint or betray the heart. There is an aching longing for what was lost in Eden: a never-ending, never-giving-up, always-there kind of Love (thank you Sally Lloyd-Jones).

 

The amazing things about God's grace is that it never changes, It's level is always set at "Infinite". It is contrary to what we think of as logical, yet it does not negate justice, but fulfills it as only True Love can. It does not reward on the basis of performance nor punish on the basis failure. God's Grace became flesh and blood in the Incarnation. Jesus Christ met us in the fullness of our decay to consume our death, to fully absorb our rebellion into Himself and to disarm the very enemies of our soul so that we could be set free from slavery to sin.

 

We are not merely set free to then fend for ourselves all over again. We are given a new heritage, a new identity, a new life that it live immersed in the unchanging Grace of God. God astoundingly makes us His own heirs and fills us with His own Spirit so we might have power to live this new way of Grace and extend it to all around us.

 

We are known fully, given mercy to fully repent, redeemed fully, forgiven fully and filled with God's Grace that is unchanging. God has made us secure. We don't have to adopt the world's ways of jockeying for position, prestige and power to be secure. God actually loves us and cares for us much more than we can fathom. God is committed to making our lives whole and complete, not merely happy.

 

There is no "statute of limitation" on the grace of God. We will never be abandoned by God. He will never forsake us. We can live with the humility that comes from unchanging Grace. We don't need to be "paid back". We don't need anything the gods of man can offer. They pander to the superficial in order to rob us of the eternal. What we need in the unchaging Grace of God in Jesus Christ!