Friday, January 4, 2019

Amazing Grace – Part 1


This week, Michael writes that according to Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.” This is amazing grace! Grace is unmerited divine favor given by the One who didn’t need to give it to the one who didn’t deserve to receive it. The very next verse is an exhortation for a child of God to live their life so that their pastor won’t need to lie at their funeral eulogy. “For we are his workmanship, (His masterpiece, His great work) created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” We, who have been saved by grace, have been called to the great co-mission: to spread the gospel of the good news of salvation while walking righteously in the Spirit.
For a non-Christian, the most important question is “if you died today, where would you spend eternity?” The bible says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. It is appointed for all mankind once to die, and then comes the judgment. How did we get to the point that we needed to be saved? God created man and woman with His spirit within them: In the image of God created he them. The image of God is spirit. God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to bless them. He gave them only one commandment: “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it. For on the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.
Habakkuk 1:13a “You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness.”

When Adam and Eve doubted God and disobeyed God’s only commandment, they committed the original sin. The bible says, “He who knows to do good and does it not, to him it is sin.” Sin breaks fellowship with God. When they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they died spiritually that day. All men and women inherited the sin nature from Adam. Adam passed to all humanity his nature of body and soul. Soul is the spiritual, rational and immortal substance in man, which distinguishes him from brutes; the mind, will and emotion within biological life; that part of man which enables him to think and reason, and which renders him a subject of moral government. The immortality of the soul is a fundamental article of the Christian system. Such is the nature of the human soul that it must have a God, an object of supreme affection. However, as a consequence of Adam’s sin, we are all born without God’s spirit.

After Adam and Eve sinned, they hid from God. The first consequence of sin is shame and guilt. Sin separates men and women from God. Their eyes had been opened to evil and they were afraid of God’s righteous judgment for their sin.
Let continue Michael’s message on God’s amazing grace in the nest post.

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