-Strength for Today- "Why Did God Give us His Gift of Grace?" - Ephesians 2:1-10.
God’s Grace is an unspeakable?“splendor.”?By which out of?“the?defilement?of disobedience,”?God prepared a way for?“depraved men and?women to be saved from His wrath.” And with such amazement?all?His people, along?with the Apostle Paul can say, “But by the grace of God I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not found in vain...” -1 Corinthians 15:10.?
Apart from grace, nothing else matters.?Because by nature all people are?“spiritually dead”?and?“separated from God,” as objects of His wrath” -?Ephesians 2:1-3. The entire human race, has been charged with the crime of sin. This is?“the?accusation handed down to you and me,” as we?“stand before God in our natural condition.”?without grace we are?
????So,?“spiritually dead,” and?“sinfully enslavement,”?is the?“wrathful”?condition of?“the whole human race.”?A condition that shows?the whole human race,?“guilty”?and?“unclean,”?a condition?“worthy of eternal damnation.”?
This condition is?“undeserving of heaven,”?but is a condition?“that deserves the lake of fire.”?Because when?our?“kind deeds,” “charitable giving,” “acts of kindness,” when contemplated by a holy God, “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness's are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” -?Isaiah 64:6.?
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are?saved)” -?Ephesians 2:4-5.?
These two verses offer three words which answer the desperate state of?humankind:?
??Grace?means?that “God gives us what we don’t deserve,” and?“could never earn.”?And so “grace is free to us, but?it cost God His Son Jesus Christ. Because before the “sacrificial work of Jesus on the cross, we were at best, “dead men and women walking.” And because of Jesus’ completed work, by the grace of God we are?“perfectly justified.”?
That says it all,?“God?hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 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”?- Ephesians?2:6-9.?
God took?“condemned men and women”?and?“seated them with Christ in heaven.”?So why did God give us His gift of grace? Grace is God’s total answer?“to the moral ruin of the human race.”?It is?such a complete answer?“that nothing else could ever be added to it.”?
??This truth, once understood, “takes away our terror of God’s judgment” and replaces it “with joy” and “boundless peace.”?Therefore?we?“rejoice,” praise,” “pray,” and “sing.”?This is the only ground of our hope, and is “the reason for our assurance,” which is?“unspeakable”?and?“full of glory.”?
???Grace is God’s gift to you. But?“a gift must be received in order to be enjoyed.”?“Have you ever received God’s gift of salvation?”??Through grace you can belong to Jesus?“not for the years of time alone,”?but?“for eternity.”?
?Author: Plez Lovelady, Jr., PhD
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