I
don’t know about you, but I am so grateful for the grace of God. If you don’t fully understand what grace is I
am sure you are not alone. What was meant to be a simple gesture of God’s love
for us can seem quite complicated at times…especially when seen from our human
prospective. I think if we’re honest, as we attempt to yield ourselves more to
our spirit man and less to our natural man, God’s grace is revealed to us more
clearly.
Grace
is defined as the unmerited favor of God.
Unmerited favor is undeserved favor.
This means that there is nothing we could have ever done in the past and
nothing we could ever do going forward that would motivate God to give it to
us. It was all His plan on our
behalf.
You
see, when Adam and Eve fell from grace and were forced out of the garden, out
of paradise, and away from that sweet communion they had daily with God, He
already had something in the works. Sin
caused us to be separated from Him. God
wanted us to have a way back to Him. He
wanted us to be able to choose Him. His plan for redemption of man included a
once and for all atonement of mankind’s sin.
The sacrifice would have to be a man but also be blameless. It would be many years later, but would be
well worth the wait. Jesus would arrive
on the scene with the sole purpose of fulfilling His father’s will. It would be the death of God’s own son that
would open the door to God having many sons.
His death, burial, and resurrection would pave the way for us to receive
salvation from death, Hell, and the grave, which are the wages of sin. But because, He that knew no sin became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21), our souls have been spared from an eternity of
Hell.
It
is upon receiving this information, as truth, that sets us free and gives way
to grace and its power. I think we look
at the unmerited favor of God and think “Whew! That was close! I dodged a
bullet on that one! Thank you Jesus!” And then we go
merrily on our way, not truly considering His great sacrifice. Don’t get me wrong I do believe we are
grateful to some extent. After all it
really is a lot to take in. It’s quite
miraculous when you think about it. We
have been made righteous and have been put in right standing with God. What’s more is that we are now
justified. It is just-as-if-I’d never
sinned. On top of that our eternity is secured in Heaven! It just gets better and better!
What
a great God we serve! Have you
considered how truly blessed we are? I want to remind you today that as beautiful
as God’s grace is to us it also carries great power. Grace covers us so that we can again be in
fellowship with our creator. That was
His plan. It also empowers us not to
fall into sin again. Let God’s grace
strengthen your resolve to say “No!” when confronted with the temptation to sin,
and to honor the life-giving power of Jesus’ blood and the power of God’s gift
of grace.
Keep
in mind that we don’t have to go it alone or fight temptation with our own
strength. Where we are weak He is strong!
“…My grace is
sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness…”
2
Corinthians 12:9
