Uncanceled Grace

 January 9, 2024

God’s ways are often hard to understand. St. Paul recounts the story of Esau and Jacob, the sons of Isaac and Rebekah, as found in Genesis 25:  

“When our ancestor Isaac married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins. But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.” In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.” —Romans 9:10-13 

The story continues as Jacob cheats his brother out of his birthright (back then, the eldest son received half the inheritance, the rest being divided equally among all the other siblings), and then the patriarchal blessing. Esau’s anguish and his anger are understandable. 

“Your brother,” he said, “came here falsely and took your blessing.” Esau said, “Not for nothing was he named Jacob, [which means] the Heel. Twice now he’s tricked me: first he took my birthright and now he’s taken my blessing.” He begged, “Haven’t you kept back any blessing for me?” —Genesis 27:35-36 

The interesting thing to me is that Jacob’s slippery, deceitful ways fail to negate God’s choice of him. If we were to meet Jacob on the street today, he would be the equivalent of the slick used car salesman or the “Nigerian prince” who manages to con little old ladies out of their money. Yet as despicable as Jacob is, God stands by his original choice of this low-life to receive the blessing and the promise.

I find this quite encouraging. For reasons beyond my understanding, God chose me, and none of the stupid or sinful things I’ve done in the meantime have made him change his mind. I’m not going to take advantage of the situation, but this means very simply that no matter how bad or often it may be, my sin cannot cancel God’s grace in Jesus Christ. If that isn’t Good News, I don’t know what is!