This week I have been thinking about grace; the unmerited favor of God.
And as I thought about grace this week, I wondered how many men and women in the history of the church have written about or spent time defining grace? The list of people is long. It is a ‘who’s who’ in church history. When we create a list of the people who have defined grace, we find names like: Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Aquinas… Even in today’s church everyone seems to take a shot at defining grace.
The deeper that we research, the more the conclusion sets in: there is no full answer to how many people have defined grace because grace is everywhere in the life, the work, and the ministry of the church.
We see grace at birth, in baptism, around the communion table. We see grace on the cross. Grace is experienced at the Empty Tomb. Everywhere. We even see grace at the grave as those we love join the saints in the Church Triumphant.
When thinking about grace, Father Richard Rohr says:
“Grace is not something God gives; grace is who God is. Grace is God’s official job description. Grace is what God does to keep alive—forever—all things that [He] created in love. If we are to believe the primary witnesses—the prophets, the mystics, the saints, the transformed [men and women of today]— [then we must see grace that] . . . is at work in the universe.”[1]
Grace is also part of our text today, in spite of the Apostle Paul not using the word in Romans 14. Grace is a necessity. A daily necessity for each person in the church. And so let’s think about grace today as we consider our text.
Move 1- Daily necessity
The Apostle presents us with so many illustrative examples in Romans 14 of instances where we can offer grace to one another. Yet, again, in our text Paul does not instruct the church on how to offer grace. He does not tell us what that process might look.
So, the daily necessity of grace, the practice of it, is left to the individual to consider and then to extend. This, extension of grace, is a work of growing and learning in our faith. It is work of discernment that is informed through our regular, habitual, time in God’s Word. And this is the significant point of how Romans 14 begins.
Whether we are living and working in a cultural moment as the Roman Christians were, with struggle and hardship, or just going about daily lives and trying to make sense of God’s placement in each moment of our day, the choice to offer grace is important. It is a daily necessity.
“Those of us who have spent our lives serving the church know that religious communities [often] quarrel. Quarrels can fester, [they can] remain unresolved. Paul reminds [the church] that the root of conflict is not only differences of opinion, but also power differentials. Paul encourages the Roman [Christians], not just to tolerate those who are weak in faith, but to show hospitality, to go the extra mile and make the weak feel welcomed.”[2] And this is the practice of grace. . . daily.
For every day we will find someone, we will meet someone, who is struggling with what we personallymight think is a weak choice or a weak issue. We look at these people, and we often mutter under our breath, ‘how is it that you struggle with that issue.’ Every day we meet people who confess their struggles and as we listen to those stories and testimonies, God presents each Christian with the opportunity to respond—gracefully.
Looking specifically into our text, who would struggle with what they should, or should not, eat (verse 2)? Seems like a simple choice to me and likely to you. . . But Paul tells us that it is not.
Who could forget that we are always the Lord’s in life and in death (verses 7-9)? Some do. Some routinely forget.
And as we witness another person struggling in these ways, or with similar issues, which man or woman in the church would not be able to look at those people, and fall into a trap of judging their faith or their commitment to God? Extending grace in these situations is something that everyone struggles with.
Again, grace is a daily necessity that God asks us to offer to each other—both inside and outside the church as we encounter the people that God places in our path. How we respond to them must, first, be graceful.
Move 2- welcome
As we extend grace to one another, an interesting posture begins to surface; one that might get overlooked. As we extend grace to other, we must settle into a welcome posture.
In verse 1, and again in verse 3, Paul uses the word that we translate as ‘welcome.’ This is an interesting idea—placing welcoming and grace into conversation with one another. What does it mean to ‘welcome’ one another? Is ‘welcoming’ solely an act of hospitality, or is it is more?
Well as with most ideas that Paul writes about to the early church, welcome is more involved.
First, Paul begins by telling the church to welcome those who we feel are weak in their faith—that again is verse 1—and we started thinking about those weak moments and practices of faith. To do so, to welcome these folks, would have to be an act of grace. If someone is judged in your mind to be weak in their faith, then the natural response to that feeling should be to extend that person grace—not double down on the judgment and isolation.
The word that Paul uses in Romans 14 is interesting. Welcoming in Paul’s mind involves actively taking hold of someone and moving, with them, toward a goal or destination with the other person’s salvation or restoration being the goal of the welcoming act. Paul wants us to actively move toward, to extend, ourselves to others who we see are struggling. This is both a teaching moment and a grace moment.
An image for what this welcoming act could look like would be a parent kneeling down, arms extended, reaching out in the direction of a toddling child. Perhaps this is something that you have actively done in your lives?
In that posture, you are welcoming them into your presence. You have suspended the judgment that comes as they stumble and fall. The warmth of your love and grace is felt in them. It is an encouragement to that child—even if you do not have to speak any words. They feel and you feel.
Using this parent/child idea then, as we welcome others, we are inviting them into the warm embrace of communion and fellowship as the Body of Christ just as God has done with and in us. In this way, welcoming is an edifying posture and choice for both people, and for both groups, who are engaged in the act.
Later in our text at verse 3, Paul broadens the idea of welcoming from person to person and brings God into the conversation. We are to welcome others as an extension of how God welcomes them… and us… into His presence. Into his fellowship. Into communion with Jesus. It is warm. It is graceful.
And this choice to welcome one another, it ties into how we extend grace.
For you cannot be welcoming if you are also not able to look past things that you might feel are aspects of weak faith. You cannot welcome others if you are not committed to sitting with them, even in their struggle, and help them find the Lord and totality and in truth.
Move 3- all in Christ
Yet simply being welcoming and extending grace each day as we do the work of the Body of Christ is not the end for Paul.
The apostle pushes us deeper. . . Our text ends with a few verses that I often use around the grave as a tool of comfort for those who are occupying the space that might feel the most like God is not there.
Verses 7-9 are a reminder that nothing separates us from God—both if we live or when we die. Together we are Christ’s bride. Together as the church we are welcomed into God’s presence. We are people whom God has welcomed home and in the welcome we experience the Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We are a people who can speak about how when we were lost God found us and through our faithful time in His word, we learn that which we can teach others.
And as nothing separates us from God and the welcome that comes through a deep relationship with God, we also affirm nothing separates us from the experience of God’s grace—even around the grave and even in those moments when we see faith that feels weak and lost.
We are all in this as a community who can, and do, affirm that in Christ we are together. In Christ we are accountable. In Christ we experience grace.
Conclusion
There are so many instances and occurrences where we can practice what Paul is teaching in Romans 14. For we are not the judge, God is. And so, our role is that again of teacher, of friend, of spiritual guide.
Because you, like me, have wandered away from God, and you, like me, has been found by the Lord and offered His grace.
I wonder if grace is a practice that we can engage in this season?
DM
[1] https://cac.org/daily-meditations/grace-is-gods-name/ accessed on September 8, 2026.
[2] Janette A. Good.
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