Everyone gets God's grace for some work

"But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men" Ephesians 4:7-8.

We have already figured out that we are not saved by our works, but by God's grace. However, for everyone of us God gives grace to do something in life. In fact, He gives grace daily for specific jobs that we need to do, and also for some bigger works or you may say to fulfill your calling. God has called us to His kingdom and He destined us for some work to do to bless the world, to help save others.

This grace may come as a gift/talent, something that you like to do and it will serve greater purpose and have eternal value. Maybe you will find that you want to go to missions, or do something specific in your community, or church, or start a business and use the resources for the work of God. It may come in a million ways. God does not leave anybody empty handed. He gives His grace for you to do anything He has destined you to do. You will like it. Pray to Him to guide you. He will.

Shall we sin if we are no longer under law

"For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace?" Romans 6:14-15.

When people hear the message of grace and justification, they will always ask the question "Shall we sin, because we are not under law but under grace?" The apostle Paul repeats the question 2 times in the epistle to Romans. Does grace give us a green light for sinning? Nope. An attitude of a Christian should be 'I am dead to sin, and I live for Christ'. Christ died for our sins, and we died for sin with Him. We live focusing on Him, following Him, staying in His word, and then allowing the word to transform us inside out. No, grace is not a license to sin. It is a door for us to spiritual freedom.

The fact is that the law with its' commandments actually strengthens the power of sin in us, and the grace of God weakens it. Grace of God draws our attention from us to God, while the law draws our attention from goodness of God towards ourselves. These are ideas that the apostle Paul said. The law was given to show how hopeless we are without God, and how strong sin is in us. The grace of God is given to set us free from our sins as it comes with power that regenerates us. So, we shall not sin, because the grace of God gives us strength not to.

Grace came through Jesus Christ

"For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" John 1:17. 

I remember watching a move "Saving Private Ryan". I probably saw it 5 times. It is good. One scene from the movie came to my mind recently. It was  one of the last scenes. Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) was shot and dying. Private Ryan (Matt Damon) rushed to him to hear the last words from the captain. What were those? "Earn it". It took a lot for the special team to go and search for Ryan. They sacrificed themselves to bring him home to his mother. So, it was a very natural statement by captain Miller before his death. He wanted to be sure his death was not in vain and Ryan lived worthily of the sacrifice that the team made to bring him home.  

Jesus made a great sacrifice to bring you back to the Father. However, you cannot earn it. The sacrifice was a gift given to you and me for free. In the times of law that was given through Moses, you had to earn your righteousness by following the commandments. If you followed them, you were blessed, if you disobeyed, you were cursed. So, you had to earn it. There was no grace in the law. Nothing was for free. You earned either blessing or curse. The process of justification was reversed through Jesus. He paid the price for our sins and justification for us. We don't have to earn it. It is for free. It is the grace of God. Yes, God expects our gratitude and worthy living, but even if we don't, it is a free gift, which you can accept or throw it away. Which one are you going to do? The gift is very precious! God Himself died for you and me!

Throne of grace

"Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" Hebrews 4:16. 

We are encouraged by the apostle to come to the throne of God with boldness. Have you ever thought why we can have boldness when we come to God to pray? Have you noticed how the throne of God is called in this verse? Is it throne of judgment? Is it the throne of condemnation? What is it called? It is the throne of GRACE. That's right. That's where God gives favor upon favor for everyone who asks. If you need mercy, it is there. If you need God's favor for your needs, it is there. 

You need to have faith and boldness to go there. Whether you have it or not, depends on what kind of God you believe. Is He angry, judgmental, holding a grudge against you, does He punish you for your sins? What kind of God do you believe in? The Biblical God sits on the throne of grace and you cannot earn his favor. He forgives your sins for free, He answers your prayers without reminding you your past, or reproaching you for something wrong that you have done. That's right. God gives freely, with a loving heart, out of His tremendous grace, and He accepts your prayers at the throne of grace with a merciful heart. What a great God He is!

What makes the Heaven rejoice

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent" Luke 15:4-7.

Pharisees who considered themselves just and righteous people scorned Jesus as a lot of tax collectors, and sinners came to Him. Jesus responded by giving three parables: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son. All of them dealt with repentance and with the fact that the entire Heaven rejoices when one sinner repents.  

If you read carefully the parables you will see that God is really interested in bringing back the lost to His kingdom. He is the one who initiates the search for the lost sheep, or coin. He finds them, and brings them home, and then makes a great celebration over the fact that He found them. You should clearly see from those parables that it is not us who find God, but He who finds us lost in our sins. Some people say "I found God". Well, who was lost, you or God? Who is the sheep and who is the shepherd? We were lost, and He found us. We consented to His love, did not resist Him to bring us to our heavenly home. And that can be called a real repentance. 

People think that repentance has to do a lot with remorse of your conscience, beating of your chest and swearing not to do the bad things you have done before. Well, looks like that is not the real repentance. It is His goodness that melts our hearts and causes us to see that we were wrong. It is His love working in us that causes us to change our minds. And that change initiated by God Himself is a real repentance. Allow yourself to be found, give in to His love, let His grace change you and you will lose taste for the worldly things. His unmerited favor causes us to admit our faults and change (repent). He found us. The Heaven is rejoicing. We can rejoice too. 

The scary Hebrews 10

"If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" Hebrews 10:26-31. 

The tenth chapter of Hebrews has been one of the scariest excerpts of Scripture for most Christians. But should it be? It states that those who sin deliberately no sacrifice for sins is left for them but only upcoming judgment. Most having read those verses get scared about their salvation. Well, let's figure out 2 things. 

First of all, most of the sins we commit are committed deliberately (time of weakness or succumbing to temptation), excerpts those we commit unconsciously. Which would mean that all of us have no longer sacrifice for our sins left, but a fearful expectation of judgment. Is that true?

The second thing about the verse is that we need to look at the context. When you read the whole epistle to Hebrews you will understand that it is written for Jews who have heard the message of salvation through believing in Christ and justification through faith. Some never believed it and continued keeping the law, sacrificing animals for the forgiveness of sins. Even some who were once converted started doing that. And that is one of the most terrible things discussed in the New Testament, both in the epistle to Hebrews and in the epistle to Galatians. It is rejection of  the message of salvation through grace and believing in Jesus Christ and coming back to the keeping of the law of the Old Testament.

This is a deliberate rejection of the ultimate plan of God for salvation of every human. You reject Jesus, try to be saved by your own works, and you are condemned, because through the works of the law no human can be justified. So, do not insult God by rejecting His grace and trying to be good by your own works, but accept Jesus sacrifice and the forgiveness of sins is always there for you. No more condemnation for you as God justifies you through His Son. We are saved by believing what Jesus did. Do not ever try to add anything to that sacrifice by trying to get justified by God. He has already justified you once and for all. You cannot add anything to it, nor deduct from it. Receive grace and stay in it. The Old Testament is over. Sacrifice of Jesus is perfect. Your sins are forgiven.

Lord delights in our well-being

Psalm 35:27: “May those who delight in my vindication shout for joy and gladness; may they always say, “The Lord be exalted, who delights in the well-being of his servant.”

A lot of people, even Christians have doubts regarding God’s intentions towards us. They think He is constantly angry with us and searching for ways to punish us. No, He is using all possible means to save us from eternal damnation. Think about it, He let his Son die on the cross for your sins. Why would He want to punish you? He wants to show you eternal grace. He wants you to experience well-being. What a God we serve!

Saved by grace

Ephesians 2:8-9: “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.”

I am so glad that Christ has done all the work of salvation on our behalf. We would never be able to save ourselves by our own efforts. They are futile. We are too sinful to save ourselves. Jesus was perfect and God needed a perfect sacrifice to redeem us. Praise God that He found one. Now, you and I can enjoy all the benefits of salvation. Be grateful for that.

Wages of sin and gift of God

Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Sin is never left unpunished by God. He is righteous and cannot ignore the evils that happen in the world daily. The Creator of universe and all human beings cannot contemplate, speak or do evil or even tolerate it. God fights it and in due time punishes it. Sounds scaring, but that is the truth. There will be the Judgment day when righteous God will eternally condemn sinners and fully redeem the righteous. That is what my Bible tells me about that final day.

However, there is the bright side to it. God is good. He does not want to condemn a single individual. Therefore, he prepared the gift of eternal life for everybody who will repent and believe in Jesus Christ his son. Christ was punished on our behalf that we might be saved and enjoy eternal life with all of its’ joys and privileges being sons and daughters of God. If you have made Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior you have come out of darkness and will surely avoid the judgment of eternal damnation. You will live in God’ favor forever. Praise God for that.

Abundant grace

Romans 5:20: “The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more…”

The power of sin and devil is exaggerated and the power and grace of God is diminished by most. They unwillingly exalt power of darkness, because they do not see the greatness of God’s love. However, if you look at the verse above you will see undisputable supremacy of God’s grace over our sin and his mercy over human trespasses. It is a paradox that the law which was holy actually allowed the sin to increase. People were not able to meet all the requirements of the law and therefore they sinned even more under law. Law exposed sin that was in human hearts. That was the sole purpose of it. It had to make people understand that they were hopelessly sinful. 

Fortunately, when grace came it uprooted the sin and freed us from it. Grace made us capable to get rid of sin and live free from all the evil desires and lusts that dominate this world. Open your eyes and see the magnitude of the redemption that Jesus brought you. Embrace it, cherish it and be grateful for it. God bless you.