Unveiling Grace by Rev. Christie Bature: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

A veil covers, obscures, and diminishes — the same is true spiritually. Sickness can be a veil. Ridicule can be a veil. False accusation can be a veil. Family patterns, poor choices, even death itself can veil what God intended to reveal in a life. To unveil means simply to remove a covering — to reveal what was already there. Jewels are never found shining; they're buried, refined through fire, and the hotter the fire, the purer the jewel that emerges.

What Grace Actually Means

The dictionary separates secular and biblical definitions of grace. Biblically, grace is:

- The freely given, unmerited favor and love of God.

- The influence of God operating in a person to regenerate and strengthen them.

- A virtue or excellence of divine origin.

- The condition of being in God's favor.

- The moral strength to perform a duty.

Grace is bigger than "God didn't punish me." It can be favor, mercy, strength, capacity, giftedness, and divine enablement all at once. Much of what gets called luck, talent, personality, or coincidence is simply grace unrecognized.

Paul's Signature Word

Paul opens nearly every epistle with some form of "grace to you and peace" — Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and more. No other theological word appears as consistently in his greetings. The man whose past should have disqualified him — a murderer, by his own account — became the apostle whose vocabulary was saturated with grace. Grace is difficult to receive precisely because so much of life trains people to believe everything must be earned; grace, by definition, cannot be.

The Throne of Grace

Hebrews 4:16 — "let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help." Scripture could have simply called it the throne of God; instead it specifically names it the throne of grace — not the throne of rejection, punishment, or "I told you so." The invitation is explicitly for those who need mercy and help. Having a need is not a disqualification from approaching that throne — it's part of the qualification. A good parent doesn't wait for a child's life to be fully in order before giving; God is no different, only greater.

Mercy and Grace Are Not the Same

Mercy deals with what already happened; grace supplies what's needed next. Once something is confessed and released, dwelling on it is a choice to keep agreeing with the accuser rather than with God. The windscreen of a car is far larger than the rearview mirror for a reason — attention belongs mostly to what's ahead, not behind.

Grace Doesn't Always Remove Weakness — Sometimes It Makes Up the Difference

2 Corinthians 12:9 — Paul asked God to remove a thorn; God answered, "my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." A weakness is not a disqualification — it becomes the very opportunity for God's power to be seen clearly, the way a man with one leg diving in to save a drowning child brings more visible glory to God than an able-bodied rescue would.

Sometimes Grace Delivers, Sometimes Grace Carries You Through

Psalm 23:4 — "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death." God didn't remove the valley; he promised presence within it.

A daughter, born in 1996 with a diagnosis doctors called incurable, was given one year to live at most. A husband's question reframed everything: "Are you crying because you believe the doctors, or because there's something Jesus can do?" Medication continued as prescribed, paired daily with spoken Scripture over the child — by his stripes we are healed, none shall be sick in Zion, healing is the children's bread. Every prediction the doctors gave was defied one by one: she gained weight instead of losing it, she advanced ahead of her peers in school rather than falling behind, and she completed a university degree in under three years with first-class honors, on scholarship.

At twenty-four, a further complication required a bone marrow transplant. The first attempt, in 2022, failed after a full year in hospital — a genuine walk through the valley, with no guarantee of the outcome. A second transplant in 2024 succeeded. She is now approaching thirty, healthy, and living independently.