Nothing We Did

Before we ever learn to speak or find some syllables of thought, we learn that how we’re loved depends on how we live.

As infants, we adapted to what brought us comfort and attention. As teens, we found affection best by mimicking what offered hope of friendship. And though we’ve grown in years and size, we still build contracts meant to bring us love. The world teaches us that love comes with conditions. 

Just here the gospel shines so bright: “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved” (Eph 2:4-5).

God’s care for us is not proportionate to our good thoughts or choices. He doesn’t wait for our best lives before He offers His embrace. “God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:17).

And even when we get it wrong, His love won’t be deflected. We cannot earn what He so gladly gives. We cannot lose the love we never caused.

Now stay in grace.

—Bill Knott

Baptize Us Anew

Every day beside the Jordan, can you hear the “hallelujahs”? Can you hear the joy of angels in their vast, euphoric choir as you give your life—again—to Jesus and walk down into the water?

Can you feel the hug of heaven as you leave your past behind you—leave your sins and all your merits, held by grace and grace alone?

Can you hear the words cascading: “This one’s Mine, My lovely child, of whom I’m so greatly proud”? Do you sense the great affection of the Father who will not be turned away by sin—in your past, your now, your future?

Ah, the washing, the renewing that restores a dry disciple! Spend some moments, washed and steadied, in the sand beside the river, hearing heaven’s affirmation of your choice to follow Jesus.

Jordan’s bank is sacred space. Come here often: stay in grace.

—Bill Knott

The Grace that Stays with Us

Grace is rarely just a moment; more often, a long season; and ideally, your forever reality.

We focus on the moment when a person comes to faith in Christ as though that were the starting of the story: “I was saved at 6:14 p.m., on Sunday night, May 5.” But we at length discover how our eyes were truly opened—how the Spirit had been softening our hearts, erasing our old prejudices, and nudging us toward faith—all to bring about that moment of decision. All that God did was surely grace—before we ever came to “Yes!”

And starting points are never all the journey, important as they are. By staying in His grace, we find the power of Jesus to both save us and to change us—to take away the guilt-stained past, and keep us from much future foolishness and pain.

Grace working over time is just as fully undeserved—and unexpected—favor as that sweet moment when we welcomed Christ and all He gives. “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6).

Grace is the word that best describes a forever friendship with Jesus.

So stay in it.

A Friendly Sort of Grace

We search for friends with whom to share the deepest joys we know. Our happiness is multiplied by those who join our gladness.

But friendship rests on more than witty fun or shared experience. We form a kind of covenant that pledges virtues we can’t naturally produce: “I’ll stay with you through hard times. I’ll hear you when you’re sad. I’ll walk with you in silence—when you need no extra words.”

These are the qualities of grace—a grace we only learn by witnessing the love that comes from God. Left to ourselves, our friendships would deteriorate, for pride and ego never last. “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:16). “If we love each other, God lives in us, and His love is brought to full expression in us” (1 John 4:11).

This giving generosity of God is what we know as grace. And when we share it with our peers, we watch relationships expand, grow deep, and anchor us in storms.

The friend who brings you joy is one more evidence of grace.

So stay in it.

—Bill Knott

A Better Image

At least once a day, we want the truth about ourselves.  

Whether it’s that first, unflattering glimpse of pajamas and tousled hair, or that last, nervous glance in the office washroom before the big job interview, we rely on mirrors to give us unflinchingly honest reflections of what we really look like. A mirror that doesn’t reflect reality evokes laughter at a carnival or praises some vain fairytale character.

God has a mirror too, and He offers it so we can learn the truth about our real condition. His law—an accurate description of His character and kingdom—shows us how unlike Him we are—the fearsome truth about our vanity; our greed; our hurtful attempts to control and use each other.

“No one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands,” the Bible tells us. “The law simply shows us how sinful we are” (Rom 3:20).

“Oh, what a miserable person I am!” the apostle Paul exclaimed when he saw his own reflection. “Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?” (Rom 7:24).

Gratefully, Paul answered his own desperate question. “God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Cor 5:21).

Grace is the way God sees us when we put our trust in Jesus. He reflects His Father’s image—and His law—perfectly.

You’re looking better already. So stay in grace.

—Bill Knott

Released From Fear

Fear builds around us prisons only we can see. We peer out through the bars of damaged memories and foolish choices—walled in by concrete years of dark regrets. And we assume the sentence is for life.

But then one day there is a rattling at the door; keys open up a rusty lock. The cell in which we kept ourselves more rigidly than any jail is opened by a word of grace. “Your sins are forgiven you,” says the Lord who vowed to open every prison door.

The sentence is commuted, and yes, the record is expunged. “As far as the east is from the west so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Ps 103:12).

We walk out in the light of grace—amazed at freedom we have never known, and breathing in the oxygen of hope. This is the genius of the gospel, and why this story always liberates.  

Walk out of fear, but stay in grace.

—Bill Knott

Trusting Grace

The Bible doesn’t say, “By grit you have been saved through effort: this is your part. It is your gift to God.” But tragically, many who say they believe in Jesus hold this old falsehood closer than they grasp the truth: “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8-9).

We strain to earn what Jesus freely gives, all unaware He wants to change our attitudes even more than our behavior. Grace teaches us to trust, and “trust” is yet another word for “faith.”

What we give up when we rely on Christ is much more than our taste for fatty foods or hours wasted on the Web: we give up fantasies that sweat and intelligent self-will will ever make us worthy of eternity.

The One who cannot lie says “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jer 31:3). With such affection, broad and deep, we are encircled and enabled.

So stay in grace.

—Bill Knott

Beyond Tomorrow

A hit song many years ago plaintively asked the question on millions of minds: “Will you still love me tomorrow?”

The fragility and impermanence of human love has chorused through the centuries—in every culture, in every region. Something in the human heart cannot keep a covenant. Despite romantic wedding decorations and elaborate commitment rituals, we fail to keep our promises to always act with love and care toward even that one person we are most attracted to.

Which is why the original Lover of our souls took pains to assure us that His love and grace don’t depend on promises as weak as ours. “‘My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. ‘And My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine’” (Isa 55:8). “For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

The gift of Jesus, sent in grace to take our place, is the enduring sign of God’s permanent affection—even for those who reject His love. “God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Rom 5:8).

The answer to our chronic insecurity about love is the song that all who put their faith in Jesus will one day sing: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Rev 5:12).

It’s a love that never stops. And it’s a song that never ends.

So stay in grace.

—Bill Knott

The Question that Remains

“Do you want to be healed?”

At first, it seems one of the world’s most foolish questions. What person, paralyzed for 38 years, wouldn’t leap at any chance for healing and renewal?

But Jesus asked it anyway, for grace never overwhelms our choices. Like that long-ago disabled man beside a Jerusalem pool, we each live in the confines of a private prison, often built by foolish choices. Friendships broke under the strain of angry things we said; health was compromised by anesthetics we consumed to hide our physical and emotional pain. Pride kept us distant from the love that would have healed us.

But Jesus still goes walking by the pool, quietly repeating His famous question. “‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord: ‘though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become . . . like wool” (Isa 1:18).

Grace never demands; never insists; never removes our power to choose. We can, if we wish, remain in our pain.

Or we can accept the healing that grace still offers and rise to “walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4).

Rise. Walk. And stay in grace.

—Bill Knott

Where Happiness Awaits

Contented? Not likely.

Vast majorities describe themselves as discontented, always seeking for what’s missing. Entire industries are engineered for keeping us that way.

Algorithms cleverly exploit our fears and passions to keep us always scrolling. News outlets need us anxious about the crises that might happen. And—we’re told—we’ll be unsettled and unhappy. Inflation will eat up our paychecks; rising tides will claim our coastlands; hackers will discover passwords. So purchase many layers of things to keep yourself protected.

Yet God’s good Word is always our corrective: “Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out” (1 Tim 6: 6-7).

Grace quiets what has always been our great anxiety—that God will turn His back, will cast us off, will give us only what we have deserved. In Jesus, heaven calmed our deepest fear: “For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:17).

Those who most inhabit grace are always most contented. Mercy shown them soon becomes the mercy they show others. Friendships flourish; families strengthen. Anxious thoughts are quieted by God’s enduring promise.

Make peace with grace, and you will surely stay in it.

 —Bill Knott

An End to Vengeance

Deep-seated in each wounded heart is passion to return the hurt, to even the score for how we have been wronged. Our quest for vengeance is as natural as breathing, or thinking—or sinning.

We feel the knife-blade of the cutting words; the dull ache of abandonment; the body blow of assaults upon our character. And sooner than we can imagine any other option, we poison-tip the arrows of our vengeance. It takes no effort—at all—to summon bitter words and deeds. Our tongues grow sharp; our hearts grow narrow; our bodies energize with hate.

And so the gospel of grace speaks to this most painful human reaction: “Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another,” the Apostle Paul invites us, “just as God through Christ has forgiven you” (Eph 4:32). “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone,” he says. “Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Col 3:13).

Only the God who forgave us from the abundance of His grace can teach us to forgive with grace. No other ethic than His love will heal our wounds and make us leave revenge behind.

Grace is God’s healing for our wounds. We need not keep on wounding others.

So stay in grace.

—Bill Knott

Three Missing Words

Social media memes and reels solemnly declare that the hardest three words to say are the words “I love you.” Acknowledging our affection and commitment to another person—spouse, parent, child, or friend—is a moment of great vulnerability, and for some, even difficulty. And yet, the phrase is emblazoned on millions of T-shirts, shouted on billions of greeting cards, and declared in hundreds of TV shows and movies.

But if you asked, “Which three words are heard least frequently?” they would undoubtedly be, “I was wrong.” We can all imagine at least some advantages in saying “I love you.” There’s almost never an advantage in admitting our mistakes, our faults, our brokenness.

So God has wonderfully prepared the way for us to “come clean” with Him by assuring us ahead of time of His unending love and affection for us. “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness” (Jer 31:3), He says. And He teaches us that we may safely, confidently, bring to Him all our sins and foolish pride: “If we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:9).

It will never be easy to say, “I was wrong.” But because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us, grace gives us words that heal our broken relationships—with God and with each other 

So stay in grace.

—Bill Knott

Nothing Better

When the last kind word has vanished from our lips;

When the last rich gift has left our bank account;

When the last abandoned child has finally found a home—we still need grace.

When the hymns we sing are clear and sweet;

When we serve with fervor in the job we’re given;

When we’ve prayed for every relative we know—we still need grace.

The good things grace inspires us to do will not reduce our need for grace. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:8-10).

The gift of God, made freely through His Son, is never made unnecessary by how we live beyond. In Jesus’ famous parable, the ones who work from dawn, and those who start near dusk, all get the same reward.

So we confess—if we are young in faith or long upon our knees—that only Christ’s redeeming act ensures our destiny. There is no better gift than grace—to give or to receive.

So stay in it.

—Bill Knott

Morning Has Broken

When we’ve been wounded by the spitefulness of others, it’s grace that quiets our reactive hearts and calms our angry tongues.

We remember being forgiven, and so we can imagine offering forgiveness. The grace that reconciled us to God becomes the opening that makes new reconciliations thinkable.  

The foolish cycle of retaliation need not take another turn, for Jesus has absorbed the weight of all our anger, sin and pain.

A new day dawns in which forgiveness warms and brightens all we know. Grateful for love that changed our lives, we pray that others also change, find peace, experience forgiveness.

So forgiving comes to be our way of living, and grace leads on to grace.  

So stay in grace.

—Bill Knott

Outside and Above

The great illusion at the heart of our unhappiness is the fantasy that we can solve our brokenness and foolishness. 

A hundred self-help manuals urge us to discover new, untapped potential; find our core of optimism, rise above the litter of past choices. 

If even one of these vain remedies really worked, the bookstores would be empty, and people everywhere would be living warm, productive, joyful lives. 

But we continue fumbling in the bargain bin of last year’s over-hyped, self-centered strategies, while Jesus offers just one word. “Come,” He says. “Come away and rest awhile.” “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow.” “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you.” 

There are no better promises than these. There is no answer for our pain that heals us like God’s word of grace. 

Our rescue always comes from outside and above. 

So stay in grace.

—Bill Knott

Deep Cleaning

Sometimes it seems all humanity is obsessed with removing stains from clothing, teeth, and even furniture.

Ten thousand products invoke our shame if teeth are not their “whitest white,” if clothes are not their “brightest bright,” or guests discover “unsightly carpet stains.”

Some thoughtful souls have wondered if our fascination with removing dirt that can be seen reflects our gnawing fear that we will never be free from stains no one can see—the soiled conscience, the unwashed heart, the muddied choices of a lifetime. 

Only one remedy has proved effective in cleansing what only God can see: “Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord: “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isa 1:18). “And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting Him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water” (Heb 10:21-22).

The historic quest for inner purification, for purging the memory of foolish choices and polluted deeds, isn’t a task within our grasp. We can never “clean up our act.” Only God’s act of grace will do.

An old gospel song still says it best:

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Let Jesus do what only He can do.

And stay in grace.

—Bill Knott

A New and Better Life

If you believe your life has been rescued and redirected by a power greater than yourself, you live differently.

One of the most frequent criticisms of the Bible’s teaching about how we are saved is the charge that because grace saves us “just as we are,” we stay “just as we were.”

To some, grace looks easy, unremarkable, even cheap—a gift for those who don’t deserve it. Where is the historic space for human striving, effort, and obedience?

But grace is not a freeze-frame moment that eliminates the potential—or need—for change. As we grow in gratitude for what Jesus has done for us, we discover that our primary attitudes and behaviors are changing as well.  “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor 3.18).

Getting what we don’t deserve really does produce a better life—one ultimately filled with “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal 5:22-23).

Nothing will change you more thoroughly than grace.

So stay in it.

–Bill Knott

Without A Cause

In every place; in every time; among all cultures; with every clan; in youth or age; through wealth or poverty—human beings will underline how what they do unites their lives with God.

“It is my prayers,” the homeless woman says. “God saves me because I am persistent.”

“It is my giving,” the multi-billionaire asserts. “God saves me because I build good homes for those who can’t afford them.”

“It is my art,” the passionate young sculptor says. “God saves me because my art stirs thoughtful souls to pray and give.”

And yet, there was, there is, there will be no “because.” “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8-9).

Grace is the sweet announcement that we are reconciled to God out of the richness of His kindness. We pray, we give, we honor Him in art to share our thanks, not earn our way.

God loves from love: He doesn’t need persuading.

So stay in grace.

—Bill Knott

Grace Becomes Us

The mind in which grace lights a flame becomes, in time, a different mind. By nature and by nurture, we’re self-absorbed and focused on what brings us gain, what brings us fame.

The path of least resistance leads us to our touted rights, and often—yes—our touted righteousness. We are the measure of all things: we sort and filter for what gives us points, what gives us power, what adds to our advantage.

But when the grace of a supremely other-centered God breathes through the “heats of our desire,” the self-absorption starts to wane, and we begin to be the kinder, wiser souls we’ve sometimes ached to be. We hear the broken, and remember we were broken, too. We see the wounded, and we search for bandages of love. We touch the hurting with a gentleness learned from the Healer who never, ever hurries.

Grace turns us from unhelpful fools into new humans, wise and warm. The grace that saves us also makes us gracious.

So stay in grace.

—Bill Knott

Never Without It

Could we ever live a day without the grace of God? 

That first breath you took this morning—perhaps the first one when you awoke—that breath had its beginning in the gracious act of God to fill your lungs and give you life. 

That first thought, in which you noted the beauty of the early sunlight bathing the yard with golden rays—that thought was the result of a marvelous biochemical chain of neurons lighting up your sleepy brain—all created by a gracious God. 

And even if all the distractions were removed—if all the contentious, stressful things could magically disappear from your today—your own thoughts would make you far from perfect. Jesus said, “For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. These are what defile you” (Matthew 5:19-20). 

Grace is not a temporary fix when we need restoration and forgiveness. No less of it will be required when we leave off the greatest sins. 

Grace is God’s choice to hold broken, straying people like us in His arms—on our best days, and our worst. Grace is our constant need, and God’s forever gift. 

So stay in it.

—Bill Knott