And her name is Grace
I. Grace.
A. What does it mean?
An illustration would help. Supposing my friend Gloria is a 57
year-old mother, happily married with 4 loving and respectful
children. The eldest is 17 and the youngest is 11. She loves her
children so much that shes more than willing to give her life for
them.
Then one tragic, tragic day, here I am a 16-year old nut with
malevolent intentions came knocking on the door of her house, she
and her husband went out for something important, and only their
children were left in their house. The door clicked opened and
BANG!!!
Gunshots
and more gunshots
I murdered in cold blood her four
children. So crazed and mad I was, I even burned their bodies. I
took off and went hiding. When she came home Gloria and her husband
were not so happy of course.
For days and days she and her husband went looking for me until
they found me in a cave. Now at this point I will show you the
meaning of grace from an illustration from one of Americas
greatest preachers of today: a) if Gloria took out a revolver and
shot me right there and then that is REVENGE. b) If she called for
the cops and filed a case against me in court, that is JUSTICE. c)
But, if Gloria took me in her place, adopted me as her son, cared
for me and give me a better future, even making me an heir of their
properties , that is GRACE. Undeserved favor.
Know that when we talk about salvation, the forgiveness of all
sins, it is all about grace. God is not bad if He chose to plunge
us all to hell the very first time we sinned. In fact it is
required by His justice. He is not under obligation to forgive us;
we have no right to forgiveness. Forgiveness is all about His
mercy.
We cannot pay for our debts and trespasses we made against God. If
we are to, then we are to spend eternity in hell. That would be
difficult on our part. But God so loved the world He gave us
Jesus to die for our sins, to experience hell for us [we should
know that His death was no ordinary death, aside from bearing all
the sins of the world, His death was eternity contracted into 3
eternal hours.]
We have His grace in Christ Jesus, His gift of salvation to us. As
in all bona fide gifts; it is free. It is free but it is not cheap.
It costs Him His life. Easy for us, difficult for Him. You dont
have to work for it, you just have to receive it. Just like what
Gloria did to me. She did not require me to work and earn her
favor, she freely offered it, all I had to do was accept it. Simply
because its a gift.
For the wages of sin is death [spiritual-eternal death in the lake
of fire] , but the GIFT of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:23
How about you, are you willing to accept the gift of salvation?
Its true He died for all sinners but that doesnt automatically
mean that ALL are saved, it must be received by trusting in that
one sacrifice alone He made for the sins of sinners.
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