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 sheÂ’s 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!!!
GunshotsÂ…Â…Â…and more gunshotsÂ…Â…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 AmericaÂ’s 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 donÂ’t 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 itÂ’s 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? ItÂ’s true He died for all sinners but that doesnÂ’t 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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do you mind if I keep a copy of them for future reading and also if I can share them with my friends?