"Always end with grace." That was the advice given to aspiring preachers by one of my old seminary professors. Not only is this sound advice. It is also richly biblical, for the Bible itself ends with a comforting word of grace: "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen" (Revelation 22:21).
Without grace, the story which shapes our lives as Christians would have an unhappy ending. The Bible is filled with tragic tales of rebellion and disobedience; of the people God chose for his very own turning away from him and embracing every form of wickedness imaginable and even some unimaginable. But God is relentless in pursuit of his beloved. At last, he takes the extraordinary step of sending his own Son to die a most painful death on a cross in order to pay the penalty for a people still lost in their sins.
Before Jesus came, the trajectory of human history was on a downward spiral toward death and destruction. But now, because of Jesus' death and resurrection, that trajectory has been turned around. All who follow Jesus, identifying with him in his suffering and death, will share with him in the resurrection. He will lead them into the very presence of God where they will find their true home with him, and he with them.
Resurrection, eternal life, a new heaven and a new earth. That is the end of the story, and it is all made possible because of the infinite and inexhaustible grace of our loving Lord. But if grace is infinite and inexhaustible, the best news of all is, a story that ends with grace has only just begun.
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