I don’t believe in coincidences. I just don’t. I think that everything happens for a reason. I believe that there’s a purpose for everything that happens to us, everything that happens around us, and everything that we do. Now, I don’t think everyone always lives with a purpose. Many people amble about and sort of meander through life. I don’t want to be one of those people. I want to live intentionally, and that is an active choice that you have to make every day.

But just because people make poor choices doesn’t mean the effects of those choices are without purpose. What I mean by that is easily summed up in a well-known verse in the Bible: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” ~Romans 8:28 NIV. And so, I don’t believe in coincidences. No matter what choices you make, God can and does use those choices to our benefit and to His glory.

How does this play into GraceBought? Well, I promised to explain the meaning behind the name, and so I shall. I am a Christian. This means that I have accepted Jesus Christ into my life as my personal Lord and Savior, that I believe He was crucified, died on a cross, and rose from the grave all for the purpose of saving my soul. He died an innocent man, a perfect man, solely to save me from the consequences of my sin. I am guilty of sinning against God, but Jesus was not. The penalty for my sin is death. I deserve to die.

To be merciful means to be compassionate, to refrain from giving someone the punishment they deserve. Grace is used in this context. God spared me. He had mercy on me. He gave me grace. His grace is given through the actions of His son, Jesus, by His death on the cross. That is the foundation of my belief as a Christian.

What about ‘bought’? How does that factor in? Think about a ledger or checkbook register. When you balance your register, you weigh the debts against the credits, right? Your debts are what you owe and your credits are what you use to pay those debts. The debts are the negatives and the credits are the positives. My sin is my debt. It separates me from God. God cannot stand in the presence of sin, much like the light cannot stand in the presence of the darkness. The light drives away the dark. It is physically impossible for there to be dark in the same place as the light.

Because I have sinned, I am unable to be with God. Well, that’s not good. I want to be with God! So, how do I fix the problem? I have to find redemption. To redeem means to make good again, to compensate for faults, to pay a debt. In order to be with God, I have to be without sin. Well, that’s not happening. I’m nowhere near perfect. It’s far too late to try. I cannot be without sin. So, if I cannot be without sin, I’ll have to compensate for the sin or repay the debt somehow.

Some people believe that if you follow specific rules and live your life in a specific way, that is how you repay your debt. They believe you can achieve redemption through works, through actions. And, sometimes, those people do a lot of good in this world. They raise money, help the poor, live kind and generous lives. But me? I don’t believe you can gain righteousness by being really, really well-behaved. I think you should live by certain rules and we have a moral obligation to be genuine and kind people, but that isn’t what clears my debt. My personal belief is that there is nothing on this earth that I can do to make things right with God, to settle my score. I don’t have the power to pay that debt. But I know someone who does.

Christ lived a perfect life without sin. But He was killed anyway. He died. He fought death and He won. He rose from the grave after dying without cause. So He received the consequences of my sin even though He never sinned. He died in my place. This act is the credit in our balance sheet example. When I stand before God, there will be the debt of my sin and the credit of the Crucifixion. Christ bought my debt from me and paid in full so that I could be with God.

God is a just God. He requires a payment for my wrongdoing. But since I am unable to pay my debt, He sacrificed His son to pay it for me. Christ bought me. But He didn’t have to. I don’t deserve the gift of His sacrifice, His payment. Thus, I am bought by grace: GraceBought.

So, back to coincidences. Last week, I told you that College Coasters was not available as an Etsy shop name. While I was at first dismayed and disheartened, I don’t believe it was a coincidence that the name was unavailable for the selection. Maybe if I had created the shop years earlier—like I’d thought about so many times before—the shop would have been College Coasters. But maybe the reason I never got around to creating the shop years earlier is because I needed to think of a new name. Whatever the reason may be, looking back, I’m glad someone else took College Coasters before I did. I’m excited to see where GraceBought goes and where it takes me.

I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that GraceBought has gone from Etsy shop to blog. I think there’s a purpose here. I may not see it yet. I may not feel like a “real blogger.” But I have faith that all things, even inexperienced blogging, will lead to my good. If nothing else, this will be an excellent learning opportunity. Even if the blog is a complete failure, I can use that failure to stand on and see a little higher. Join me next week to find out why I’m doing this crazy thing called blogging! Until next time!

Love always,
Coralie