{"id":35381,"date":"2023-11-06T12:02:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-06T12:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/simplicity-of-jesus-holding-our-hand\/"},"modified":"2023-11-06T12:02:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T12:02:00","slug":"simplicity-of-jesus-holding-our-hand","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/simplicity-of-jesus-holding-our-hand\/","title":{"rendered":"The Simplicity of Jesus Holding Our Hand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thomas Torrance likes to repeat a simple story of what he calls &ldquo;the unconditional nature of grace.&rdquo; He writes, &ldquo;Our grasping of Christ by faith is itself enclosed within the mighty grasp of Christ.&rdquo; Then he shares this story and quote:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>I sometimes recall what happened when my daughter was learning to walk. I took her by the hand to help her, and I can still feel her fingers clutching my hand. She was not relying on her feeble grasp of my hand, but on my strong grasp of her hand.<\/p>\n<p>Is that not how we are to understand the faith by which we lay hold of Christ as our Savior? It is thus that our grasp of faith, feeble though it is, is grasped and enfolded in the mighty grasp of Christ who identifies himself with us, and puts himself in our place.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3569,3570,3596,4071,4109,4564,4671,4698,4699,4733,5179],"tax_ctp_topics":[382],"class_list":["post-35381","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-children","tax_ctp_tags-children-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-christian-walk","tax_ctp_tags-gods-presence","tax_ctp_tags-guidance","tax_ctp_tags-omnipresence-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-power-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-presence","tax_ctp_tags-presence-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-protection","tax_ctp_tags-training"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Simplicity of Jesus Holding Our Hand - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/simplicity-of-jesus-holding-our-hand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Simplicity of Jesus Holding Our Hand - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thomas Torrance likes to repeat a simple story of what he calls &ldquo;the unconditional nature of grace.&rdquo; He writes, &ldquo;Our grasping of Christ by faith is itself enclosed within the mighty grasp of Christ.&rdquo; Then he shares this story and quote: I sometimes recall what happened when my daughter was learning to walk. 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