The God of All Grace...(part 2)
Welcome…great to have you…As previously announced, I would like to venture off into a series of discussions about the incredible wonders of God and His dealings with the works of His hand. It strikes me that when we begin to consider the grace of God we must consider several specific issues as revealed in Genesis to Revelation:
1. The God of grace…
2. What grace is in the first place…
3. The recipient of grace…
4. The means of obtaining this grace…faith…
5. The effects of grace…
Some appetizers…?
Rom 3:23-24 …for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift (freely) by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus…
Gal 2:16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.
Eph 2:1-10 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
So, in the days to come, let’s explore God’s word and discuss together the wonders of the God of All Grace…what’s on your mind?
posted by Daddy, Manf and Bean at 10:54 AM
1 Comments:
What is grace?
Grace has been defined as “an undeserved gift of God.” It is undeserved for two reasons: first, because God is our Creator and therefore can owe us nothing; all good things we receive, beginning with our very existence, are gifts from God’s generosity, not owed to us in justice. Second, God’s grace is doubly undeserved because we are sinners; we have broken our covenant relationship with him and disobeyed his law.
Yet our disobedience cannot change God’s nature. “God is love”, and therefore God continues to give grace. Sin stops receiving it but not God from giving it.
For grace is not some “thing” God gives, as if grace were like gasoline and sacraments were like the filling stations. Rather, God’s grace is God himself, God’s own life in our souls. For God is love, and the lover’s primary gift to the beloved is the gift of himself. That is what a lover wants above all else: to give himself to his beloved. Therefore God’s grace is God’s gift of himself
Why does the lover always want to give himself to the beloved? Because the essential aim of love is intimacy, closer union. Therefore grace is essentially a love-relationship of intimacy between Christ and the Christian, Christ and his Body. An increase in grace means an increase in intimacy with Christ.
12:28 AM
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