Jesus and his sniper rifle.

I suck at reading the Bible. Actually, it's more like I suck at remembering what I read in the Bible. I can go through a chapter of Scripture and mark it up with all kinds of highlighters and notes and question marks, but the moment I close that leather-bound cover, it's over.

So it was in this place that I began to read Romans 5, uttering a short prayer beforehand that God would really just speak to me through what I read, that it would be so much more than words in need of highlighting, but truths that would sink into my heart and saturate its dry landscape. On your mark... get set... GO!

I only got through two verses.

I was caught off guard by the sheer power and ferocity with which verse 2 hit me, like Jesus had just jumped out of the page with a sniper rifle and shot me with what could only be a God-given revelation.

"Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God."  --Romans 5:2 

It was that italicized part that was the bullet. For it's not like this is some obscure verse that I'm now trying to spread to the rest of the world. No, this verse is repeated in church services galore, anything that mentions 'grace' in Romans has practically become like John 3:16. But notice what Paul says about grace here - we're standing in it. 

I often tend to think of God as a grace-hoarder. Sometimes without even knowing it, I assume that God just sits in heaven with all of this grace, looking down at us with smug superiority and picking and choosing when he'll give it out next and to whom. If I'm lucky, maybe I'll make the cut. But if I screw up again - whoops. There goes my entry in the lottery. Maybe next week. 

But according to this verse, that's not how God works. No, according to Paul, Christians are already standing in his grace. We're in it! It surrounds us, envelops us, covers us, fills us, paints us into glorious watercolor creations with the blood of Christ. We are breathing in his grace! It isn't some far off, unattainable speck in the distance, or some high and lofty gift hiding away in heaven - it's right here, in our midst, walking with us as we trip and stumble through life's rocky, often times bloody path. 

So next time we fall down, we won't have to wonder whether or not God's chosen us to win the Grace Powerball. We need only turn back to him and use his strength to pick ourselves back up, where we're already standing inside his grace. 

And that's a truth so vivid, so gloriously bright, not even the neon stroke of a highlighter can contain its splendor.