Receiving Grace

It is of the utmost importance to know this truth: we cannot earn our way into eternal life in Heaven, it is a gift of God and not of works, lest anyone should boast.

This gift (or grace) is the essence of the pure and simple gospel (good news) of God.

But with it comes the bad news: there is no amount of good that you can perform that will change (transform) your sinful nature into something acceptable to God. We are all automatically barred forever from Heaven because of what (not who) we are – sinners deserving of eternal judgment.

This means, of course, that unless we put aside our delusional pride and baseless self-worth and accept our own helplessness and hopelessness – figuratively falling on our faces and crying out for mercy – we are doomed to an unthinkable fate.

But God, because of the great love with which He loved us, will hear our cry and offer us the free gift of salvation through faith in His Son. If we receive this grace - sincerely, humbly, gratefully - then we are automatically and forever granted irrevocable citizenship in Heaven because of who (not what) we are - forgiven sinners in Christ with our sins paid in full on the Cross of His sacrifice.

Do you see the glory of God in that exchange?

We are transformed from creatures heading inevitably toward death into persons bestowed with eternal life who are becoming like Jesus!

All because of God's immeasurable grace.

It has rightly been said that grace changes everything – every human equation of cause and effect conceivable by man.

This is so important to understand so that the burden of guilt and the conviction of unrighteousness and the fear of losing that which God has so graciously provided in His Son is overwhelmed by the truth of His goodness and faithfulness.

Among so many other things, His grace means that He will complete that good work He began in us when we exercised that capacity for faith that He has so graciously provided each and every human being coming into the world.

By His grace, we are transformed day by day into something very different than what we started out being. It HAS to be this way because what we were before we believed is incapable of being good according to God's perfect standards.

Our “old” nature MUST die, so that our new nature, created according to His righteousness, can live. And that new nature is glorious beyond imagining! It is all that we consider good and noble and strong and beautiful and worthy... and more!

Just to confirm this, the apostle Paul writes later on in this incredible letter:

...that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. (Romans 6:6, NKJV).

Can you begin to see why Romans is so exciting?

God frees us from the slavery of sin and death by redeeming us (purchasing our freedom) through the death of His Son.

He has done this because of His great love and kindness.

It is a gift.

But that gift has to be received in order for it to be ours.

It makes perfect sense. If someone offers me anything – a bicycle, a house, a horse, money – it only becomes mine if I accept it.

Now you may think this is easy, but it can be very difficult to accept a gift because of our ridiculous pride.

Many people are offended by great and generous gifts.

Why?

Because it says that they are in need of something that they cannot attain for themselves. It says that they are lacking the ability or means to provide for themselves whatever is being offered. And that offends our insane sense of self-worth.

Insane, because that sense is not based on reality. In truth we are weak and helpless and destined for death. Jesus said that we can do nothing in ourselves, and He is, of course, right.

We didn't make ourselves alive, nor can we prevent our own deaths. Our very breath – every inhale and exhale – is under His control.

But acknowledging that fact takes the one thing that is farthest from our inherent sinful nature: humility.

That is why it is so difficult to receive God's grace, because it is an admission of what we really are in the face of who He reveals Himself to be: our Creator, our Sovereign King... our Judge.

But when we humble ourselves and accept the grace He desires with all His heart for us to receive through His Son, we can relax about the single most important issue facing every single man, woman, and child under Heaven: eternity.

We are all immortal, whether we believe it or not. That which God has created in His own image cannot be unmade. We will all experience eternity, but only those who believe in Jesus will have an eternity of everlasting life.

Everyone else – everyone else – will know the unthinkable eternity of conscious death.

But grace does not mean that we are given permission to sin. Again, later in Romans, Paul writes:

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? (Romans 6:1, 2, NKJV).

No, receiving God's grace means that we are changed forever, and are being transformed into the likeness of Jesus.

While that transformation will only be complete when we are done with this life, or when Christ returns for His church, it also means that we can rest assured that He WILL complete it until the Day of Jesus Christ.
It also means what Paul writes in Ephesians:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10, NKJV).

True believers in Christ are no longer of the world. We are citizens of Heaven living, for now, in the world.

Jesus said that because of this, the world will hate us because it hated Him.

But that's OK, for ...the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:17, NKJV).

Love,

Dad.