Why Grace? - Part 1

This week, Michael writes that the message about remarkable grace is the message we’ve been waiting to hear all our life.  Before we heard the message about God’s remarkable grace, people think that they are unworthy of salvation because our own works were not worthy of God’s righteous standard. The purpose of ministry is to create an environment where the Holy Spirit can come help Himself to our lives.  

There are two types of grace in the Bible.  The first type is in Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.”  This type of grace is the face love wears when it meets imperfection. Grace is God’s gracious gift given to the one who didn’t deserve to receive it by the One who didn’t need to give it. Grace is a gift offered by God.  To accept His grace, we must first humble ourselves under the mighty Hand of God.  We have to realize that we cannot make it on our own. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Grace is all of thee Lord and none of me. 

The other type of grace is “favor of God and man.”  This type of grace is found in the verse that says, “the child Jesus grew in wisdom, and stature, and favor (grace) with God and man.” The concept of grace is foreign to every “worldly” religion. Grace is rooted and grounded in the cross of Christ. At the cross, Jesus paid the price for our sins. He exchanged His perfect innocent life for our sinful guilty life that was deserving of death. “For He who was without sin became the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

After having received God’s gracious gift of salvation, His Holy Spirit of “Christ in us”, the hope of glory, we have received a new nature. This new spiritual nature of the indwelling Holy Spirit is righteous in God’s sight. When God sees us, he sees the righteousness of Christ in us. He does not judge us according to our sinful nature of the flesh. Should we who were saved from sin, continue any longer therein?  God forbid. How can you who were delivered from your sinful nature continue in sin? As men and women of God, our challenge is to walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. This is the theme of Romans 8. 

The battle rages between the flesh and the Spirit. Paul said in Romans 7, who shall deliver me from this dead body? Without grace, the gift of God, there is no peace. Peace is one of the “Fruit of the Spirit”.  We still have the fruit of the Spirit because of God’s gracious gift of His Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul began his epistles with the greeting, “Grace and Peace from God or Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.” The world says “God helps those who help themselves.” However, the God says, “the arm of flesh will fail you, you dare not trust your own.” God helps those whose strength is in the Lord.  

Let's continue Michael's message on grace in the next post.

In Christ, Brian