John 1: 17
For the law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ not only brought me salvation, righteousness, and justification, but He also brought me the grace of God. Great, that’s wonderful, but what is it? Jesus has brought me something and I don’t have the slightest idea what it is. He brought the same thing to you, too. It should be our goal to learn everything we possibly can about God and what He has provided for us. If we don’t understand it or know about it, we might inadvertently be missing out on something. And we don’t want to miss out on the goodness of God. Stay with me for more on the Grace of God, what it is and what it means to us as believers. To begin with, grace is not a simple subject. There is more than just one definition or meaning for grace. Let’s look at 1 Peter 4: 10: As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. The word manifold means many or varied. Grace has many different facets, meanings, and purposes. To try and define grace as simply “the unmerited favor of God” is to fall woefully short of the full impact of the word. As a matter of fact, by not understanding the fullness of Grace is the reason much of the church is not more victorious, powerful and mature. Grace is what God uses to provide for us everything that we have need of, even though we really don’t deserve it. Grace sees to it that you get what you don’t deserve. I don’t deserve salvation, but grace gives it to me anyway. Look at Eph 2: 8 For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. God’s love for us and His church is manifested in grace to us and through us. Now that I have received this grace, I can, also, receive everything that grace is. As mentioned earlier, grace is manifold, which means it has many different forms. Grace is favor, power, strength, my protection, blessings, promises, gifts, enduements, deliverances, and miracles. Romans 8: 32 says, He that spared not His own son, but delievered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things. Everything is totally dependent of Jesus Christ. There is no one that is good enough to get into heaven. We are all in the same boat: the good, the bad, and the ugly. No one can come into God’s presence except through the blood of the Lamb. Most people would develop a fatalist attitude at this point. Why try? It’s hopeless! Actually, this is great news! My goodness or lack of goodness is not the issue. Salvation is 100% a gift that is given only to the undeserving. That makes me a candidate for heaven, Glory! I don’t have to worry about whether I’ve done enough good to get into heaven or done enough bad to miss out on heaven. What relief! What comfort! What peace! Thank God for His grace. Mankind must come to the place that they understand that there is nothing they can do to get into heaven and certainly nothing they can do to miss hell. Eternal damnation is our destination without the free gift. Read Romans 5: 14 - 17. Let’s focus on verse 17. “For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” Did you notice the words, “justification” in verse 16 and “righteousness” in verse 17 along with the phrase “free gift”? Those who have sinned - messed up their lives - are the ones that the free gift of grace brings righteousness and justification to. Jesus has paid the price for me to miss hell (mercy) and then provided heaven for me (grace). His mercy watched over me and kept back what I deserved long enough until His grace gave me what I never deserved. Let me tell you what you need to do to get this free gift in your life. Look at Acts 10: 43 “To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.” By believing on Jesus, our sins are taken care of. The word receive is the Greek word “Lambano”. This is not a passive word. It is vigorous and active. It means primarily to vigorously and violently grab something and take it for yourself. All the gifts of God, all of His blessings, every promise of God has to be taken. You cannot passively sit back and wait for God to hit you with a magic wand. The above scripture shows us that we must grab hold of the idea and attitude that our sins are forgiven and that we are children of God. His picture of us is as victorious, overcomers; so get with the program and take His grace. Doc Sharp
0 Comments
|
Dr. H. R. SharpJust a man armed with the Word of the LORD. Available now in the store
Archives
January 2024
Categories |