There's Something About the Word "Grace..."

Yesterday I talked about God's recent teachings for me about prayer; but I also mentioned that He has been teaching me a great deal about grace and mercy. Today, let's look at those words and ideas.
Grace. Just the word makes theologians grab their commentaries and flip pages to prepare for the war. It seems like we found the word grace and instantly built gulfs on both sides of it, one side trying to fight the other, and neither of them really getting the point. There is the side of "Once Saved Always Saved." They sugarcoat everything and make assumptions about God. They say that there's no way that a loving God could ever cast anyone into hell. "No matter what you do, you will always go to heaven, if you just believe." Then there's the side that I like to call, "Once Saved Barely Saved." They would probably think it better if we died right when we came up out of the baptistry. For them, Christ just allowed salvation to be a possibility, but it is still entirely up to us to shoulder and earn that salvation. And we dare not ever sin, or else it's up to us to get that salvation back. And we dare not ever sin "too much," or else God will take away that salvation forever!
The truth? Neither side is right.
It's so much easier though to just pick an extreme and stick with it. And both extremes have human tendecies to make them even more alluring. Once Saved Always Saved tempts that all who follow it can live as rotten and reckless a life as they please. Once Saved Barely Saved plays upon the concept of pride. But the truth is found in the middle ground.
And what an amazing truth it is.
I would say that for most of my Christian life, I followed the horrible tenets of Once Saved Barely Saved. I was as legalistic as they came. I remember one summer I believed that if I wasn't spending time in some sort of spiritual activity, at all hours of the day, I was sinning. It was a horrible and depressing lifestyle. I've been slowly climbing from the ashes of that though. And most recently, God has been schooling me big time in what "grace" really means. Ephesians 1 & 2 absolutely blow me away when I read them now. The language that Paul uses! "The riches of Christ!" "The grace He lavished upon us!" "God is rich in His mercy!" So much so as to, "seat us with Him in the heavenly places!" He "predestined us for His love!" Andy taught this Sunday that God's very priority is to forgive us. When Christ faced the mockery, the slander, the hurt, the persecution, the suffering, what did He say? Was it, "Oh, you wait 'til judgement day"? No! It was, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
Christianity made me miserable at times because I would find myself caught up in sin and feel as though there was no way out. I felt destined for hell. But now I can live life "at peace with God, having been justified by faith through Jesus Christ" (Romans 5). And that's a happy, comforting feeling. So will I live that "rotten a life as I may please" because of God's grace? "By no means, we died to sin" (Romans 6). God gave me grace, and in turn (though it will never pay Him back), I give Him my life.
"And though we would not have understood You, there You were, hanging blameless on a cross. You would rather die than leave us in the dark..."