It is by grace you have been
saved, through faith.
—Ephesians 2:8
Jesus insisted on absolute perfection: “You must be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Mt 5:48).
And he offered absolute grace: “It is by grace you have been saved” (Eph 2:8). “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor 12:9).
He gifted that grace to an adulteress, to a disciple who disowned him, to a crook on a cross, and to a savage persecutor of Christians.
The persecutor later defined himself as the poster boy for bad: “I was the worst,” he said—but added, “The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly” (1 Tm 1:14).
Absolute grace is for those who know they can’t reach absolute perfection on their own. No one is good enough to make it without grace and no one bad enough to be beyond the reach of grace.
You made a mess.
God cleaned it up with grace.