“For it is by grace you
have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift
of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
Grace:
the unmerited or undeserved favor of God.
What DO we deserve? We deserve to
be punished for our disobedience. Hey
wait just a minute … I’ve not done anything wrong! According to Almighty God, creator of heaven,
earth and man’s first breath we all have.
It’s only by the favor that the Lord has chosen to offer each of us that
we have any chance of salvation.
There
is nothing we could ever do to win God’s favor without faith. Faith is the act of seeing the unseen as if
it can be seen. It’s a choice we all
have to make in our lives. We can either
believe in the existence of God or not.
We can accept the Bible as His word without flaw, inspired by God to man
or not. We can acknowledge a need of a
Savior to pay the price due for our sinful disobedience or not. It’s every person’s choice.
By
the graciousness of God we have been invited to join the family of God. So many reject such an offer thinking it will
restrict them or keep them from having fun in this life. The ‘fun’ this life offers is temporal, but
the joy and fulfillment that Christ offers is for all time.
Somehow
we, as believers, have to do a better job of presenting the gospel not as a
‘turn or burn’ message, but a message of love, grace and mercy. Forgiveness is
there for the taking, however, just as an addict of any sort must admit they
have a problem, so do those who are unsaved.
They don’t see themselves as being in need of saving. Pray for a better way to represent Christ to
those around you. It’s a matter of spiritual
life and death. Until next time, walk
with the King and be a blessing!
