Articles
Grace
How do you view grace?
Is it just what we call a prayer prior to eating?
Is it a nice word in a song like "Amazing Grace"?
Is it something we pray for only during difficult times in our lives?
Or is it an amazing gift that we are abiding in?
We are told in Romans 3:23-24 and also in Romans 6:22-23 that grace is a gift that God has offered us. It isn't anything that we have earned nor will it ever be, but as Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God; not as a result of works that no one should boast."
We can never forget the amazing sacrifice that was offered in our place simply due to God's love for us and His hatred of sin. In 1 John 4:9-10 John writes, "By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loves us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
You and I have been bought with a price: the death of the Son of God! As we sing sometimes, "I owed a debt I could not pay, I needed someone to wash my sin away, and now I sing that brand new song: Amazing Grace. For Jesus paid the debt that I could never pay."
Let us do all we can to be zealous for good works! As Paul says in Titus 2:11-14, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for HImself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds."
