AMAZING GRACE
GRACE.
What an awesome word!
Unless one is spiritually discerned, it is a word that is almost impossible to comprehend.
Every time that I think about our Lords Grace,
I find myself praising our most Holy and Awesome God for his amazing grace.
The scriptures are clear......
even our very best is like a
"filthy rag"
to a most Holy and Righteous God.
The standard of Gods perfection is absolutely impossible for any man to achieve by any of his works.
God stated His standard when He said,
" Be ye therefore perfect,
even as your Father in Heaven is perfect". ( Matthew 5:48)
To be as perfect as our Savior........
that is the righteousness that God will allow into Heaven......
by man...
impossible.
But glory be to the Most High,
another principle has been provided...
the amazing principle called grace.
The root of the word grace means
'beauty'.
It also means
"unmerited favor",
something that is a gift,
something that you cannot earn.
It is
"being accepted by God,
even though we do not deserve it,
and am not even worthy of it."
In Bible, there are many verses that tell us We receive this gift by our faith and trust in Gods word.
Everything we do, has nothing to do with this wonderful gift of grace provided by the Master.
This grace has been established by Jesus going to the cross of Calvary.
Made possible by his death and resurrection! Christ became sin for us,
taking our place,
the place that we so rightfully deserve,
a place of death,
because of our sins,
the punishment that we so deserve,
in order that we might have a relationship with the Father.
Faith is our only hope.
Through our faith,
we are forgiven.
The other part of this
"Good news"
Is that God sees us as righteous!!!!
Righteous because we believe in Jesus Christ. What a glorious Gospel indeed!!
The door of this grace is never, never closed. The devil may try and tell one of his favorite lies,
the lie that says we have no right,
because we have sinned,
but this lie cannot drive us from God,
it drives us to Him!,
Because the foundation of grace is the simple fact that we know that we are filthy, rotten, sinners!!!!
When we even attempt to comprehend that when God looks at me, he sees me every bit as righteous as Christ, I must admit that I am amazed.
The very idea staggers my mind.
I know very well how rotten I can be, but I know that through faith in Gods Word and the finished work of Jesus Christ,
I am righteous!!
Just as if I had never sinned....not even one little sin!!!!
The truth is, that there are no works that we can add to this....there is no way, literally nothing we can do,
you cannot improve on the righteousness of God!
An important point should be made here,
If we expect Gods intervention because of some thing that we do, we may very well find ourselves separated from God.
I'd like a point about the order of the saltation "grace and peace" grace always, always comes first. You cannot know the peace of God unless you have first experienced his amazing grace! I must here echo all who know the grace of our Lord; and say how wonderful and great it is to know Gods grace!!!! and the gospel according to his grace!!!
God is a specialist of taking the most unlikely of candidates and turning them into trophies of his grace. Pastor Chuck Smith uses the apostle Paul as an example of this...I don't even have to look that far! I look at my life...that dead guy that I once was...B.C. (Before Christ)...and now see who I am in Christ.....wow!
God chooses us...he doesn't need anyone. I mean give me a break..He is God! Again i must echo pastor Chuck..how thrilling it is to me that the Almighty has chosen me!! Called by his grace!!!! Chuck said that he deserves the hottest spot in hell. I hate to contradict him, but knowing who I was...that flame should belong to me...glory and thanks to our most Holy God for this wonderful message of grace!! All praise , honor and glory to Him for the finished work of Christ, and the faith that he has placed within me!!!
...On the glorious day that we stand before the throne of God we will say " Thank you Jesus; you did it all! I knew you could save me. I knew that by my good works that I could never save myself. Thank you, Lord."
(John 6:28,29) . When Jesus was asked "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?" Jesus answered them by saying "This is the work of God, that you BELEIVE on Him who He hath sent" amen!!
"What is real faith?'? The answer is boldly stated that our actions must be in harmony with what we believe. Belief isn't merely what we say....belief is demonstrated by what we do. True faith leads to appropriate actions. This is not to say we will be perfect. We all stumble and fall, but the Spirit will not let us stay there!! Praise God for that!! Our Lord loves us, He will pick us up and Put us on His path again if we will only place our complete trust in Him.
.....Whenever we choose to walk in the Spirit, God delights to work powerfully, in stunning and unexpected ways. To walk in the Spirit, the point is stressed that "RELATIONSHIP" comes first." Without a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR SAVIOR, it would be impossible to walk in His Spirit! We must have a balanced relationship with God..then, we can learn to walk. It boils down to letting Gods Spirit to exercise full control over our lives. "Our mind is the battleground where we decide to live after the Spirit or the flesh" Galatians 5:16 says "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." The Greek for the word "walk" means the dominant character of ones life.
There is a most important point that needs to be made here.
That point is what the effect of our "daily programing can and will do" as we all have heard, garbage in, garbage out. A simple answer to the battle between the Spirit and the flesh ?.....Don't fight the flesh, strengthen the spirit"!!
"Don't fight against the darkness, turn on the light!!!!!" There is a direct parallel to fasting, and not having a daily intake of Gods Word. If we do not daily keep in His Word, the Bible we are literally "fasting in the spirit" Jesus claimed that His words are "Spirit and Life" so a regular, systematic time in Gods word is essential if we are to walk in the spirit. Prayer has the same priority.
" To walk in the spirit simply means that we make God our constant companion."
That goes back to the important point that it is by faith, not by works. There is a chapter that is entitled "a garden, not a factory" in the book "Why Grace changes everything", it talks about the difference between "fruit" and "Works". Fruit is a natural result of a relationship. No works involved. Works are related to the flesh. Faith is related to the spirit. It takes a real relationship with Christ to produce the kind of fruit that God desires of our lives. (John 15:8 says that "herein is my father glorified, that you bear much fruit".
One section in this book shows chucks sense of humor...as absolutely true as this statement is, it strikes me as funny.... "no such thing as fleshy faith"....God does nor recognize works of the flesh. not now, and he never will.
we cannot earn Gods blessing. We need to realize how undeserving and unworthy we are to receive Gods touch.
Do you know what is holding Gods blessings from your life?
They are not withheld because you haven't been faithful in your devotional this week. They are not being withheld because you have failed in some area of your life. We all fail.
IF THEY ARE BEING WITHELD, THEY ARE BEING WITHELD BECAUSE OF YOUR OWN REFUSAL TO TRUST HIM FOR THOSE BLESSINGS.
The blessings of God are available to anyone who simply trusts him for those blessings"
HALLELUJAH!
God wants to bless us because He loves us!!!!
The avenue to His blessings is our faith.
"God wants us to experience
His love,
His touch,
His power,
and His anointing"!!
Believe God for the blessings that He has promised!
I must quote pastor Chuck Smith here, from the end of his book on Grace, entitled "why Grace changes everything" i highly reccommend that you purchase a copy of this if you do not have one! i know that it will enrich your walk and your relationship with Jesus!
this is so beautifully eloquent
"How glorious it is to come to the end of our resources and to see God changes our lives by his grace! Our only boast as believers is the finished work of Jesus Christ on our behalf! If it were not for the cross, we would all be hopelessly lost forever. But because of Gods great love for us, we who were formerly lost, have been saved and baptized into Christ. We can now have such a wonderful relationship with God that it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. The life we now live, we live by faith, in the Son of God, who loved us, and gave himself for us. Because of Gods grace, each of us are now a new creation in Christ Jesus. Old things have passed away, everything has become new.
AMEN!!
When we become the children of God, the spiritual side of us comes alive. We suddenly realize that there is more to life than obeying the instincts of the flesh. We come to understand that the inner hunger which our flesh could never satisfy, can be fulfilled with a loving relationship with God. The more that we come to know God, the more we experience His peace and joy and discover that the level of satisfaction we encounter in the Spirit is limitlessly beyond the spectrum of the flesh.
How beautiful it is when we let go of our own futile efforts and allow the Spirit to work! For His victory comes from the inside out. Not the outside in. And that is the kind of victory that lasts.
you know,
Grace does change everything!
For an in depth study on Grace, click "GROWING IN THE GRACE OF GOD"
