Grace Is Free

Micah 6:8 “What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (NKJV)

Micah was a country prophet who condemned Judah’s corrupt rulers, false prophets, ungodly priests, dishonest merchants, and bribed judges. He preached against the sins of injustice, oppression of the poor, pride, and ‘empty religion.’ The ‘empty religion’ means that they would make a habit of following the ritual of sacrifices to please God, but their hearts were far from Him. God was angry and judgment was coming. So Micah asked questions, what would it take to please God and changed their ways?

Micah 6:6-8 “What can we bring to the Lord to make up for what we’ve done? Should we bow before God with offerings of yearling calves? ⁷Should we offer him thousands of rams and tens of thousands of rivers of olive oil? Would that please the Lord? Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for the sins of our souls? Would that make him glad? ⁸No, O, people, the Lord have already told you what is good, and this is what he requires: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (NLT).

I would like to share one of the devotions from “Our Daily Bread” by RBC Ministries and it was written by Randy Kilgore. “Few people knew me better as a boy than Francis Allen, the pastor who led me to Jesus Christ. A fire-and-brimstone preacher in the pulpit, he was a near-perfect example of the gentleness of God’s love outside of it.

Early on, Francis recognized a tendency in me to try to “buy” approval by working harder than expected and doing more than people asked. “These are good traits to give as gifts to others,” he would tell me, “but you should never use them to buy acceptance and love from people—or from God.”

To help me understand this, he told me to read Jesus’ promise in Matthew 11:30 that His “yoke is easy”—a statement that sometimes seems too simple to be true. Then, pointing to Micah 6:6-8, he said, “Now read this and ask yourself if there are any gifts you can give God that He doesn’t already have.” The answer, of course, is no.

Then he went on to explain that God cannot be bought—the gift of grace is free. Since this is true, what should be our response? “To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God’ (v.8). I learned that these were acts of gratitude—not of purchase.

Let Micah 6 be a reminder that grace is free and that faithful living is our grateful response.” –Randy Kilgore

Dorothy