Jonah blew it and he was miserable. Like most people he cried out to God in his distress as he neared death. From the depths of the sea and inside a whale, he pleaded for mercy.
“When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple…What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD” (Jonah v. 7,9).
Like any person in trouble, he says to God, “If you will say me, I will…” And Jonah says he will make good on it. But he already knows what he is to do. Preach to those evil, awful, wicked, treacherous Assyrians.
The LORD delivers him by making the great fish vomit him up. I’m sure it was grotesque. It was deliverance though.
But I left out a verse from above. Verse 8. And that’s what struck me this morning.
“Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs” (v. 8).
There’s one thing that separates the Christian life from all other faiths and that is grace. It isn’t cheap grace. Jesus died a bloody death to be able to offer that grace. But because of his death and resurrection, he is able to give grace to those who trust in him for salvation.
All other faiths? They are without grace. It’s about doing enough good works to try to make it to heaven. If you sin, you sin and it is held against you. There’s no grace because for everyone else, there is no holy sacrifice that is sufficient.
But those who trust in the LORD have the offer of grace and forgiveness. It meant that God did not strike Jonah dead in the whale. Or strike him dead when he literally ran away. But when Jonah repented, he was met with grace. Not only grace but continued purpose.
For those of us in Christ, there is grace for us. No other faith in the world offers that because only Jesus was the sacrifice that could give us that grace.
Grace for our mistakes.
Grace for sins.
Grace for our failures.
May you know his grace today.
