 |
||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
|
Understand this fact:
The way you live is based upon your
appreciation of the death of Christ, and the grace and mercy which resulted. A person appreciates grace and mercy in proportion to one’s conviction of one’s own personal sin guilt.
To understand "grace" you must understand “sin”. Sin creates a problem: sin puts one under the power of Satan (Acts 26:18); makes one a servant to it (John 8:34); has the substance to reign in the heart (Romans 6:12); can have dominion over a person (Romans 6:14); and the law of sin in the heart is powerful (Romans 7:14-24). The result of sin is: alienation from God (Isaiah 59:1,2,); creates rebellion and defiance toward God (Genesis 4:9-13); establishes fellowship with the devil (John 8:44); creates excuses for its existence as it seeks to justify its behavior (Luke 14:18); it results in spiritual death (Romans 6:23); makes one deserving of punishment (Matthew 25:46); is a transgression of God’s law (1 John 3:4); is a violation of holiness and righteousness (Romans 1:16-32), and stimulates the wrath of God (Romans 5:8-21). Do you understand?
Grace brings an emotional wakening called: gratitude. Grace is the free favor of God, the undeserved bounty of the ever-gracious Creator Father against whom we have sinned, rebelled and the One whom we have rejected. Grace is the generous pardon, the infinite spontaneous (yet planned) loving kindness of the God who has been provoked and angered by sin. It is God’s delight, in mercy and grace,
to be ever ready to pass by transgression, iniquity and sin, desiring to save and rescue people from all the evil consequences of their guilt, and to give Divine assistance to help a person overcome the power of temptation, sin and the devil. The underlying principle of grace is this:
Someone to do for me
what I cannot do for myself.
The need for grace is seen here:
The #1 need of grace is reconciliation, to be reconciled to God The #2 need for grace is redemption, someone to pay the price (punishment) that the justice of God demands for violated law. And the #3 need for grace is that something must replace what sin has taken away.
Sin takes away love for God grace creates more Intense love for God. Sin wars against the soul, grace brings victory to the soul. Sin eliminates obedience, grace creates a greater motivation to obey God. Sin shuts one out of the “Garden of Eden” grace restores paradise. Sin ruins the soul ... grace restores and heals the soul, Do you understand that?
Do you understand what sin does to you?
It is vitally important to see how grace is connected to the cross of Jesus. Jesus was [is] the perfectly qualified Savior able to appropriate grace to the sinners. Jesus was, and is, Divine, the Son of God, and the Eternal Word (John 1:1-14); Jesus was human (Matthew 1:18-25); Jesus was the source of “life” (John 5:19-31). With this before us then we can look at how the cross relates to Jesus — Jesus is the sin bearer (1 Peter 2:24); Jesus is the sin offering (1st Corinthians 15:3; Hebrews t.24-28) and Jesus was the sacrifice itself (Ephesians 5:2).
Now you need to see how the cross relates to God the Father, the source of grace — Jesus was crucified as a propitiation (involving:satisfaction of justice so wrath is appeased) directed toward God and His holy justice (Romans 3:23-26); Jesus offered Himself to God the Father (Ephesians 5:2); Jesus was accepted by the Father as the sin offering (Isaiah 53); and Jesus was proof of God’s love (John 3:16- 21).
It is also important to see how the cross relates to Jesus — It was proof of His love (John 15:13); Jesus willing gave Himself (John 10:11-18); Jesus gave His life (Matthew 20:28; Leviticus 17:11); Jesus offered Himself to God the Father, not some other sacrifice (Hebrews 9:14); Jesus is the High Priest (Hebrews 3:1; 6:20); and Jesus is the Savior (John 10; 1st John 4:14).
The cross is also directly connected to the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of grace” (Hebrews 10:29). Jesus offered Himself to God the Father through the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 9:14); the Holy Spirit witnessed through the apostles (Acts 1:8); the Holy Spirit confirmed the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 2); and the Holy Spirit inspired and revealed the word about It all (John 14:26; Ephesians &17).
If have received the beginning
of grace, take care that
you do more for grace than
ever did for sin
Salvation through grace is: release of the penalty of sin and continual forgiveness; power to assist against Satan, temptation and sin; establishes a relationship with God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son of God and the Holy Spirit of God; and furnishes everlasting life. It is important to know that grace has nothing to do with releasing responsibility for obedience to the Lord, grace is not a license to sin and grace does not set aside commandments, doctrine, the law of Christ or truth in some other area.
Grace is more than a person’s observation can gasp ... more than can be expressed, it is beyond understanding, it is incomprehensible is greater than all sin ... is greater than any of God’s children have yet to receive ... it will never end ... and it is more than what you need at any particular point in time. A person cannot sin more than God can forgive, and when God forgives through grace and mercy there is no sin guilt remaining. (But remember; “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”) (from Romans &1,2)
Any person who will be saved through forgiveness and receiving eternal life from GOD ... that salvation will be based upon grace and mercy through the cross of Jesus Christ! No one who is saved has their salvation based upon what someone else did other than Jesus Christ. You cannot be saved without Jesus and you cannot be saved in self-righteousness.
The wisdom of God devised the plan, the power of God executed the plan, and the immutability of God guarantees the plan can be yours. Your sin does not hinder grace, but is the occasion for you to receive it. Your unworthiness is not a barrier to receiving grace, but is the reason it is available to you. The greatness of your sin, the amount of your sins, do not hide you from grace, but is the illustration of the greatness of grace. Your lack of merit only calls attention to the fact that grace is not based upon personal merit. |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||