A RICH GRACE

WHAT IS GRACE?

Grace is God’s free and undeserved favor; Grace is life transforming gift of His favor to those who do not deserve it.The gift of salvation and forgiveness of sins is available for all who through faith accept His grace revealed in Jesus Christ, but so many miss the gift because they rely on themselves and try to earn grace by keeping the law.  God’s grace also supplies us with everything we need for daily life, and to that end He invites us to come to Him with our needs. To a limited extend, even the wicked receive God’s blessings from God’s grace. Apostle Paul tells us in (Eph. 2:8) that, “For by grace we have been saved through faith and that not of ourselves; it is the gift of God.”

A RICH GRACE! - Ephesians 1:7

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Apostle Paul delights in the work of the Cross, and never hesitates to make His teaching about Christ’s atoning death absolutely clear. The shed blood of the Savior, dying as mankind representative, has redeemed the world from sin. That blood has provided full satisfaction in the sight of God for human iniquity, and when its effectiveness is claimed by the individual in repentance and faith, it cleanses that person from sin. This great saving act resulted from the same divine grace that inspired the covenant with Israel at Sinai. God’s grace is properly described as “rich” because it is as unfathomable and inexhaustible as the love, compassion, and goodness of the Creator Himself. It becomes the believer’s treasured possession because of Christ’s atoning death. And this is what Apostle Peter had to add, “As each one has received a gift, minister to one another, as good stewards as the manifold grace of God” (1 Pet. 4:10)

GRACE FOR EACH DAY

In our daily lives and in our daily walk with God, we need His grace every moment of our lives; God’s grace is a fuel for each day of our lives; The Psalmist said, (Ps. 84:11) “For the Lord God is a sun and a shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good things will He withhold from those who walk upright.” The grace that the Lord bestows upon us guarantees us all the good things that we ever need or require from the Lord. Apostle Paul depended fully on God’s grace and that was His confidence and boast (2 Cor. 1:12) “For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly towards all”

SALVATION NOT BY WORKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS BUT BY GOD’S GRACE

God warned the Children of Israel by His servant Moses not to think or take it into consideration in their heart that the Lord cast other nations for their sake because of their good works nor their righteousness but by His own grace because the time of judgment for those nations were due. (Deut. 9: 4-6), “Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God driving them out before you. He continues. “It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff- necked people.”  Many a times the blessings we receive from God it is not that we are righteous neither have we done good works but when God wants to shame some arrogant in the life of others His grace becomes sufficient for us or for our sake.

In the New Testament era during the time of the apostles and their acts even the Gentiles also received the word of God and Peter through a trance was sent to them to pray for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, and immediately as Peter began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon them at Pentecost day. And brethren this is what Peter had to say, “Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’  If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God? When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance of life.” My beloved brethren note that; God is a God of no partiality, whatever He wants to do or whatever He purpose to do; that is what He will do. His ways are beyond our thoughts and past finding out. Did you know that there is grace even for the wicked? (Isa. 26:10) says, “Let grace be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness; in the land of the uprightness he will deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.”  My beloved, there are those wicked that even by God’s grace; they cannot transform immediately but will require God’s nourishment slowly and with time.  I do love Apostle Paul and thank God for His grace upon him. When he encountered the presence of God He had got no choice but to adhere and submit to the grace and will of God that was very much sufficient upon him, and had to endure much sufferings, afflictions and tribulations, why, though God’s grace is sufficient we will have to account for the wickedness we had caused before.

GOD’S KIND OF GRACE

The Children of Israel were so precious before the eyes of the Lord that He had to command Aaron and his sons through his brother Moses the way that they should bless the people:, saying to them: “The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.” They were to put His name on the children of Israel and God in turn through His name was to bless them. (Deut. 6:24:27). What a magnificent words of blessings! God is indeed wise and ever gracious.

WHAT MUST WE DO TO RECEIVE GRACE?

1.       We must receive or accept Christ: (John 1:14,16.17) “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth; And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”  And this is what apostle Paul had to say. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.” When we turn our gaze away from Christ who secured salvation for us, we undoubtedly fix it on something else temporary or materially. But beloved, let us take time and meditate on Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us freely, taking on bodily form and dying on the cross, paid a dear price that reminds us that the grace of God compels us to give out ourselves first of all to Christ and secondly to the work of the Lord.

2.       We must be humble for us to receive the grace of God; (Prov. 3:34) the preacher says, “Surely he scorns the scornful, but gives grace to the humble.” God lifts and exalts the humble while the proud, the arrogant and the foolish, He brings them down and a shame them openly. James confirms this in his epistle, But He gives more grace. Therefore He says;” God resist the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”(Jas. 4:6)

3.       We cannot earn grace by good works:  “ And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer  grace; But if it is of works,  it is no longer grace:  otherwise work is no longer work.” It is absolutely by the grace of God and not by our good works. To the letter of Timothy Paul wrote, “Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”(2 Tim. 1:9).

4.       We cannot earn it by keeping the law: “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”(Rom. 6:14) And in (Gal. 2:16) declares,” Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we must be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.” I will give my parting short with Paul’s words still as he continues, “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sins? Certainly not! For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law that I might live to Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law then Christ died in vain.”(Gal. 2:17-21 we never cease to marvel at the Son’s willingness to sacrifice Himself. Grace was displayed in this sacrifice! These words call to mutual service, intimate that the grace that was given to us puts on us the responsibility to be rich in the area of practical righteousness, to be generous and sacrificial, storing up treasure in heaven.

“Grace to you and Favor from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen and Amen and Amen.”