“Grace, the Gift that keeps on Giving” – R. Nelson
BIBLE MEDITATION:
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”. Romans 3:23-24.
ENCOURAGING WORD:
We so often hear the word “grace” throughout the Christian world. But I often wonder how many people really know what grace means. To start with, grace is not something that can be earned. Grace is an absolutely free gift that cannot be earned in any way shape or form, yet we hear in the mainline denominations that grace has to be followed up with good works in order to be saved. There is such a fine line between having to do something good and wanting to do something good. See, grace does not mean that once you receive it, you have a free license to sin. Once you receive grace and know the true meaning of the word, it will then encourage you to do good works. Here is the way that Paul, the Apostle put it, Romans 11:6; “And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.” You really need to read this slowly and think about what you are reading. To put it simply, Grace is Grace and Works is Works, one nullifies the other. Free is free, payment is payment, they are exclusively opposite. You cannot receive something for free and then pay for it because then it is no longer free.
Where the topic of grace gets confusing is in the book of James, where it says in James 2:14-17; “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus, also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” This verse causes a lot of misunderstanding in the mainline denominations of Christianity today about grace verses works. The verse above is clearly stating that if works does not follow grace, then you have never really received true grace. Then James goes on to say this in verse 18 where he explains, “But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” Once you truly receive the gift of grace and realize what it means, then you will show others through your good works what it means to be saved by grace. Jesus Christ comes first, then righteous living will follow. It is grace that saves us, but it is works that proves our faith. Faith works together with works, and by works faith is made perfect. If you say that you have been saved and good works are not evident in your walk with the Lord, then your conversion to Christianity was just lip service and not of the heart. I personally know people that say that they are born-again, but when you see how they treat other people it is sickening. I also know atheist’s that are the nicest people that I know. They would do anything for anybody. The problems are this, neither one is saved. One says he is saved by grace but shows absolutely no evidence of his conversion and the other has good works but had not received grace. Salvation through grace comes first, then good works will follow if it is truly a sincere conversion. We are saved because of what Jesus Christ did, not because of what we did.
The perfect teaching in the scriptures is the story of the thief on the cross that received Jesus Christ just moments before he entered into eternity. Luke 23:40-43; “But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” The thief on the cross did nothing to warrant his entry into heaven, but because he received Jesus Christ, he was saved. Just a thought to share, most of us would think that this man just made it into heaven by the skin of his teeth with no rewards for doing anything good. Here is my thought, Because of this man’s testimony, how many people that thought there was no way they could be saved came to Jesus Christ on their death bed. I have heard people say, “I can’t go to heaven, I’ve done so many bad things in my life,” well, this story above completely rebukes that kind of thinking. No matter what you have ever done, you can be saved when you put your faith in the One (Jesus Christ) who saved you by shedding His precious blood for the remission of your sins. Once you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and receive the Holy Spirit into your heart, it is at that point that all your sins are washed clean and it is as if you have never sinned.
I will provide an example that should make it clearer. Let us say that over a few years, you have accumulated a huge debt so large that there is no way that you could ever pay it off. Basically, you have incurred a debt that you would have to pay on the rest of your life. You actually go to your grave owing people money that trusted in you at one time. Now let’s say a philanthropist (a person who performs an act or offers a gift done or made for humanitarian purposes) comes along and offers to pay your debt for free. Would you deny his offer to free you from your debt? Not if you had any sense. After you have received this gift, wouldn’t you feel a debt of gratitude toward this person? Once again, if you had any decency at all you would want to help this person and be kind toward him in every way possible. Now, let us put this in a Biblical prospective. Every human being walking this planet has a debt that he cannot pay. It is called a sin debt. No one is exempt. It is a debt that we all own and cannot by our own acts of self-righteousness pay for. There is no way humanly possible to pay off this debt. If we die with this debt still accounted to us, the price is eternal separation from God, or in other words, “the lake of burning fire”! But there is good news. We do have an advocate (one who pleads the cause of another) named Jesus Christ who has offered to pay your debt and all you have to do is believe on Jesus Christ and receive the Holy Spirit into your heart.If you do that and sincerely mean it from the bottom of your heart, you will be free of all sin. It means that you have been justified, it is just as if you have never sinned. We read in 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.” Jesus Christ came to this earth with the sole purpose of freeing mankind from an awful predicament. One with no cure known to man. It is a disease called S.I.N. positive. We also read in Romans 6:14; “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” Here is the point that I want to make. If you really understand what grace means you will feel forever indebted to the person who offered you that gift? In other words, you will do the best you can to make Him happy and that includes obeying His commandments. If you feel it is something that you have to do, instead of something that you want to do, you really don’t know what grace has done for you. Ask yourself this question, are you trying to obey the Ten Commandments so that you can earn your way into heaven or are you obeying the Ten Commandments of God because you are going to heaven? There is a big difference!
If you feel that you need to live under the law, then you are saying that you can save yourself from the penalty of sin. You cannot, nobody can. There is one way and only one way to be saved. We read in Galatians 3:24; “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” This verse is saying that the law could not save us, it was just a tutor to show us our need for a Savior. Back in the Biblical days when they had animal sacrifices, their sins were actually just covered, not paid for. It wasn’t until Jesus Christ came and paid for their sins that they were freed from. When Jesus died, He descended into Abrahams Bosom. Let me explain a little more about Abrahams Bosom, “Abraham’s bosom, is a specific place where only the righteous dead lived. It is not to be equated with the general idea of death or the general realm of the dead, Hades or Sheol. When someone was in Abraham’s bosom they were with the righteous dead, not in the general population of the unsaved dead. It is argued that Hades is only connected with the rich man while Lazarus is a far off in another place – a compartment in Hades for the righteous. These people that were in Abrahams Bosom were the righteous dead, those that have passed away believing in the promises of God. When Jesus died, He fled captivity and freed all the righteous souls from Abrahams Bosom. Until then heaven was not accessible for mankind, it was when Jesus died and paid the price for their sins and ascended into heaven where we finally had access into the heavenly kingdom. Sinful man cannot enter the kingdom of God, therefore, until Jesus paid the price, heavens gates were closed to mankind.
ACTION POINT:
My friends, Grace is exactly what it says it is, “A FREE GIFT” Here is the best news of all. Once you receive Jesus Christ and become born-again into the Holy Spirit, you have a twenty-four-hour hotline to the throne room of the universe. You can come to God in prayer any time day or night, He is always available and waiting to hear from you. So, if you truly understand what grace really means, you will want to serve Jesus Christ night and day, not because you have to, but because you want to. Think about the guy in the story above, how would you treat someone like that. Most likely with a lot of love and respect. Now think about what Jesus did for you, He gave you eternal life where otherwise it would have been eternal damnation. How can you reject His free gift and the price He paid for you so that you could be free from the power of sin? If you truly believe the Bible is the true and inherent word of God, you cannot reject Jesus Christ! Give Jesus your life today and show Him your gratitude for what He did for you. “Written To the glory of God.” Amen!
From our Chaplin—R. Fritz
Grace, the Gift that keeps on Giving
The word “Grace” was given freely by God and is administered by him however he sees fit. The problem is when man started using the word and man’s interpretation changed the meaning such to words like disgrace or graceful or a grace period before additional charges. Man changed the meaning after God gave us the true meaning, so this is why most people do not understand. We learn Grace from God and can extend it to other people by knowing God’s grace. In other words, Grace represents a spiritual quality you must have, and one God wants to give you in abundance. James 4:6-8 says “But he giveth more grace. God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” God is saying is he gives grace to the humble and being humble you will submit yourself to God, can resist the devil and then the devil will flee. Too many people are reading or studying the Bible with “their understanding”, meaning they are using their manly knowledge or intellect to interpret spiritual teachings and that’s why we have different interpretations on what is going on in the Bible. Romans 8:7-11, 14-16 says “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So, then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God “dwell” in you. Now if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is “none” of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead “dwell” in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear: but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:” This is saying that the carnal mind is hostile toward God, so the flesh cannot please God and not having the Spirit of Christ indwelled in you, you are “none” of his. If Christ be in you, the body be dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life. If the Holy Spirit be indwelled in you, it will quicken our bodies so we are not in bondage to the spirit of fear and that Spirit itself bear witness with our spirit that and who are the children of God. If we have the Spirit of God, Spiritually, we will see people who have the same spirit. Your spirit will react, and you will know it. We need to study scripture with people who have the Holy Ghost and hear God’s understanding of scripture. The Bible talks about people being unskilled in the use of God’s word. Hebrews 5:12-14 says “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” It talks about full age and that does not necessarily mean old age or knowing the Lord for a lot of years because you need to have the Holy Ghost to have senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Discernment comes from spiritual age. That also comes from the spiritual gifts given to us. Too many people are okay in believing some pastor on television or hearing somebody on U-tube that sounds good or tells a good story. It is time for everybody to study to be approved. 2 Timothy 2:15-16 says “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.” We spend too much time trying to do the easy thing and listen to somebody else. God’s word says to “Study” to be approved by “God” not man. That means every believer. This is where a lot of people are buying into the profane and vain babblings, they think are the truth. We are all going to be judged. I am saying this because I used to believe what people were telling me, I learned that the Holy Spirit would let me spiritually know if something was not right with what somebody tells me or what they do.
I have spent hours and days after 20 years going back to study and understanding God’s nature and his use of grace and be able to tell people when they abuse God’s use of grace. Remember God did not give grace to justify your actions for you. God gives grace for people who are following him, and he feels need grace or he just wants to. God is in control and Jesus Christ showed grace when he was on earth. What we forget is God loves us very much and this is why he hands out grace. He sees what you are going through and decides on its use. We just do not see what is going on because we do not have that relationship with the Lord. That spiritual relationship we need has to be in the spirit because God is a spirit. This is something everybody needs to work on every day. John 4:23-24 says, and this is Jesus speaking “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him “must” worship him in spirit and truth.” You must worship him in spirit!
We need to pray for people now seeing what is going on in our country spiritually and with my own eyes. Satin is tearing our country apart because people are taking sides and not seeing spiritually what Satin is doing. This includes the believers. Let us ask for a healing spirit and believers to really see the truth. I have learned to ask God to really show me the truth even when I think I see it. Satin has a way of messing with reality.