Well for you that have been reading my last few blogs you won’t be surprised that I am going to talk a little more on the great topic of “GRACE”. Pastor Troy at new Life Assembly has really been bringing it lately, and if you haven’t been there you are missing some very good messages.
Grace is such a small and even a simply spelled word, yet it encompasses so very much. I don’t think God intended grace to be hard to understand, I don’t think he even intended for us to have a hard time accepting it, we do it all by our selves.
The first thing Paul tells us about grace is that we are saved by it. It is important to understand that salvation is not only the initial new birth experience, when a sinner receives Jesus as Savior and Lord, in a narrow sense it is that, but in a broader sense the idea of salvation encompasses the entire Christian life. Paul is certainly not saying that we are saved initially by grace, through faith, and then we switch to another principle to continue in the Christian life. We start by grace through faith, and we continue by grace through faith.
GRACE MAKES EVERYONE EQUAL
Because salvation is by grace and "not of you", all human differences are eliminated. This is another terribly offensive thought to people who think they are better than everyone else. But the truth is, as far as God is concerned, we are all in the same boat. First of all, Paul tells us in Romans 3 that because we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s standards, we are all alike before God, without any differences.
I am going to refer to a few statement that the Pastor used in his most recent sermon,( I hope you don’t mind pastor Troy) Does the term “Spiritual Racist hit a nerve with anyone? I know I can hear you now. “Tim how could you say that, how dare you put that label on me “Well its not hard to become one. Racism is just one small form of prejudice, and this prejudice could be preventing you from living the life that God intends for you to live. We need to get rid of the stereotypes we place upon people without even knowing them, and accept them as they are, and love them unconditionally. We place conditions on people and don’t give them the ability to know Jesus.
We are the vehicle by which God is able to introduce people to him, and that vehicle is the church you and I. we must always recognize that our only righteousness before God is that which is bestowed upon us by his grace, and that we still have nothing to boast about except what God has done in our lives by his grace.
As far as God is concerned, he has already saved the whole world, but the whole world has not heard and responded in faith, but by grace God has already provided salvation for the whole world. That’s why we share the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that the whole world will hear what God has already done, and respond in faith. We don’t have to twist God’s arm and persuade him to save anyone; God has already moved and provided salvation freely, by grace through faith.
I will close with this quote penned by J. Vernon McGee, When I hear Christians say, "I don't do this, and I don't do that, and I am following a set of rules," I immediately recognize that they know very little about the grace of God. They are trying to live the Christian life in their own strength. But Paul says, "Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus”
Be confident in gods love, and learn to have that “open door policy”, as God’s grace is, we need not be so quick to judge,
Blessings.
No comments:
Post a Comment