God Can Sneak Grace through Anything

God often works covertly, moving almost imperceptivity through overlooked or unexpected paths.

We look for and expect God to work through faithful people making faithful choices. And He certainly does, no doubt about that. But those are not necessary prerequisites. God is omniscient, transcendent, and sovereign. He does not need us to be righteous or faithful or even to believe He exists to work His grace to accomplish what He wants.

Pharaoh did not believe in God or listen to Moses; but that was the plan, not a counter move that God needed to overcome. The LORD said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’ “ (Exodus 4:21-23, NIV).

God used the pagan king Cyrus and the Persian Empire to conquer the Babylonians and send His people back to the land of Israel and paid for the rebuilding of His Temple. More than a century before Cyrus was even born God said in Isaiah 45:13 (NIV), I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness: I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says the LORD Almighty.

The disciples thought that once the Pharisees had successfully changed public opinion of Jesus and had Him killed, that all was lost (John 20:17). But as sinful and evil as the motives of the Pharisees were, they had only done what the Father had planned all along. Acts 2:23-24 (NIV), This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

The same is true for our own sin. Preston Sprinkle says it very well in his book Charis: God’s Scandalous Grace for Us:

Grace sometimes hides its tender favor in order to execute God’s plan of redemption. Not all the warriors are redeemed by God’s grace, yet grace is what empowers them, despite their sin, to carry out God’s will—sometimes unknowingly (Judg. 14: 4).

This is why your divorce, your addiction, your enslavement to porn, or years of sticking your finger down your throat to match up to some arbitrary standard of beauty can all be woven into the fabric of God’s plan of redemption. God doesn’t cause sin. He mourns it. He despises it. But through His gracious power, He’s able to use it. No one and no sin can outrun God’s grace. Charis has no leash.

God redeems the horrors of divorce, for instance, to reinforce goodness in His people. My parents divorced when I was ten years old. It was tragic. But looking back, I can see that the divorce has shaped my desire to be a committed husband and loving father. And now I can truly enter the pain of and comfort those suffering from a divorce.

A friend of mine nearly wrecked his marriage through a hidden addiction to porn. Now, after repentance, he’s able to minister to a massive group of men who are in the thick of their addiction and on the brink of wrecking their own marriages. Another friend has three seminary degrees, a PhD in Bible, a godly wife, and a promising career as a Christian scholar. A few years ago, he was arrested by the Feds for soliciting two teenage girls for sex through an advertisement that popped up while he was watching porn. His wife left him, his boss fired him, and, were it not for grace, God would have fired him too. Looking back, he now sees that his job was his idol and that his workaholic tendencies fostered his sexual addiction. His life is now a sauna of pain, but he’s no longer addicted to porn. He no longer idolizes his career. He’s in a better place with God because God let him experience the destruction of sin. And now, with new life, he can come to the aid of many others sliding down the same slippery slope.

God hijacks and bends evil to work peace and healing. If God were only a God of justice, He could punish evil but do no more. Only a God of grace can use our evil to work His good. God’s grace is so much bigger than our sin. Sometimes He’ll let us pursue our idolatry until it kills us. Then He will resurrect us and turn our evil into testimonies of God’s grace (pages 85-86).

So when things look bleak, and the opposition seems overwhelming, and faith seems fruitless, don’t jump to the conclusion that God is not there, or that He has forgotten about you, or that He has been out matched. God is sneaky. His love and grace for you is always flowing. Sometimes His grace is flowing below the surface out of our sight and sense and not above ground where we can see it. But His grace is always there. And it will always end up on top.