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The Gift of Grace

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8
The Gift of Grace Book Cover

the good, the bad, the ugly

The ugly news: On Day One of this week, we talked about how there is no fairest of them all. Sin has infected and affected all of humankind—no one is exempt from its ugliness. Even “good” people. Just as we said that we are incapable of saving ourselves, we are also incapable of being genuinely good by ourselves. This is the way sin works.

The bad news: our actions do not define who we are. Rather, who we are defines the things we do. If we do good, if we are not in Christ, we are incapable of being good. So even if we perform acts that seem righteous to us, apart from Christ, all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment (Isaiah 64:5).

The good news: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Christ came to earth to live a human life, and he was sinless, but took on our sin for our sake so that through his life, death, and resurrection we might become the righteousness of God. That is the good news.

Our sin, the sin that all humankind has—no matter how good we believe ourselves to be—has made us guilty before God. But God refused to leave us guilty and has provided us a way, in Christ, by which we may be proclaimed innocent.

what is grace?

Grace is like Christmas. None of us deserves a gift at Christmas. No cosmic rules dictate that loved ones must bestow upon us presents wrapped and tied with bows. We aren’t entitled to gifts. Just as we don’t deserve gifts, we also don’t deserve righteousness.

All the good acts we perform do not entitle us to God’s gift of salvation, redemption, and reconciliation. Remember, the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). What we deserve is death and separation from the creator and the sustainer of the universe. But instead, God has gone out on his own initiative, and provided a way for all people to become righteous before him. Christ gave his life freely so that we may escape the ugly news of sin. And the Lord didn’t do it all because he had to, but because he wanted to.

That is grace. “For it is by grace that we have been saved through faith. And this is not our own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9).

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What would it mean if God had not given grace to us?

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Comments (11)

Death would mean just that, death. No salvation, redemption, reconciliation. We would be forever separated from God. Grace has saved us through our faith in Jesus Christ

It would be sad if I didn’t have God’s grace because I would be trying to find joy in life by good works alone. I wouldn’t be able to be good enough.

I am saved by Grace. Freely given! Forgiveness by the blood of an undeserving perfect lamb named Jesus. God gave rules, "there is no remission (forgiveness) without shedding of blood". God forgives me over and over and over. Even though I don’t deserve it. That’s grace. That’s Love.

We would be stuck in our sin. For ever destined to life without Him. My goodness that thought just brought an overwhelming sensation of sadness to me.

I would not have the comfort, peace, and joy that I have now in life. I would be striving and striving and never measuring up to the condemning judge in my head. Now I can relax, go about life with focus on God, sharing love with Him, others, and myself and being content because my best is my best and it is good because of God’s grace and sacrifice.

It would mean life without meaning. We all need grace. We ALL need to give grace.There would be no life after death.We would stay guilty of ALL of our sins. Life would be sad and negative even more than sometimes it seems.

We are given grace that through faith we can come to know the savior. Without that grace, we would not be saved. We would not have the faith that it takes to be saved. All of us, as saved believers, regardless of our talent or gender or race, are all saved by faith by the grace of God.So without this grace, God’s undeserved favor, everyone of us would be without salvation; everyone of us would be doomed to be lost souls.

For anyone that has been near drowning, you know what it’s like to feel like you initially had control of the water. You are swimming along with the current, moving with the water underneath and around you. But the moment you catch a cramp, the waves get too choppy, or some obstacle gets in the way of allowing you to wade smoothly, it becomes a fight. You fight against the elements, trying your best to regain control. But if fatigue sets in or you are unable to regain your peace, you eventually succumb to the challenge. It takes someone from the outside to notice what is going on, to rescue you in that moment.
Without the grace of God, we would drown in our sin. Because of His grace we can live knowing this truth, “that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”. THIS is how much God loves us! And with this sacrifice, He has also given us the gift of grace. To save us in life because we cannot save ourselves.

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