-Strength for Today- "The Amazement of Grace!" - Ephesians 2:8-10.
Grace is amazing, and is a “display” of God's “abundant nature.” His “unconditional character,” is the only “moral distinctiveness” able to “triumph,” over the Judgment declared, when Adam willfully disobeyed His instructions in the Garden of Eden, - Genesis 2:17.
No one knows the exact number of years that can accurately be assign to the "fall,” of “man.” But we do know that “over 2,000 years ago,” from a “prophetic cross, on Calvary’s hill,” Jesus cried out, “It is finished,” and with that “sacrificial cry,” God’s “rath was satisfied.” So, that now His “righteousness,” is given to all who believe in His Son’s completed work on the cross.
Therefore, it’s only “grace,” that can “cast away” the “derelict work Satan hid in darkness.” And for that cause, it’s important to realize that due to the “scope” of our “inherited sin-nature;" only “faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, can “cast out the work of darkness.” Because, “...There’s none righteous, no not one. All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” - Romans 3: 10,23. Apart from Jesus Christ:
- We can never and
- Will never
Be equipped by our own power to cast away “the works of darkness.” The “value of grace,” is “inexpressible,” because when we were under the condemning hand of darkness, through the sacrificial work of His Son, God, in Jesus Christ, delivered unto us an “ultimate act of kindness,” and we’re living in a state of “grace” upon “grace.” Now just let that “sink in!” Grace is our “sunshine on a rainy day,” and as Pastor John Piper said, “Every breath we take is a gift of grace.” Every heartbeat, undeserved.”
The best example of “God’s grace is the cross!” From it, God allowed His Son to “suffer the consequences of sin.” And all of His “suffering” and “death “happened because He took our place. And when one’s faith rest in “God’s process of redemption,” we're “transformed from “the family of Satan and sin” “into the family of God and “grace!” This concept is, “so big,” “so magnificent,” that no human mind can conceive it. Because “grace,” is the” connectedness of God, where we’re shown His “unconditional love” and “mercy” rolled into one “amazing act of grace!”
God offers every single person in the world a new relationship with Him if we choose to accept His “grace.” So, right now, I bow to my God and my Savior and thank Him for “grace upon grace.” So, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” -Romans 12:1-2.
So, as we walk in priceless, “costly grace upon grace,” today let’s thank God, for allowing us to live in this moment of “grace.”
Author: Plez Lovelady, Jr., PhD