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S. Michael Houdmann
Supporter
Grace is a constant theme in the Bible, and it culminates in the New Testament with the coming of Jesus (John 1:17). The word translated 'grace' in the New Testament comes from the Greek word chari...
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Thomas K M
Supporter
John 1:17, the Bible says For the law was given through Moses but the grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Grace and truth are one, that is Jesus Christ. Truth is on the side of Grace, not the law. Law was given and it implies a sense of distance. Grace came and Grace is gentle and warm. Grace is not teaching or a doctrine. Grace is a person. You can have relationship with that person. Grace is right believing on God. Grace is God’s unmerited and undeserved favour. God is not interested in mere obedience and submission. He is a God of love. He longs to have relationship with you. This is why Christianity is unique. Many of the world’s belief systems are governed by moral codes, rules and laws. But Christianity is not about these things. It is all about a relationship with Almighty God. There is also glory in woks and work rewards wages. But grace is a free gift from God. When Jesus cried out, "It is finished!" the wall of sin that separated us from God crumbled, and God unleashed a flood tide of His grace upon us. The grace is still flowing towards us today, supplying whatever need in this life, daily loading us with abundant benefits. The essence of God’s grace is supply. When you are conscious of His supply, instead of demands of the world, you are under His grace. The you will see His abundant provision forever.
Jeremiah Kaaya
Supporter
Grace is divine assistance to humans. It is not based on any merit other than submission to God through His son Jesus Christ purposely for sanctification, regeneration and strength to overcome whatever human weaknesses may be. It is the Spirit of God operating in humans to add on their strength in a supernatural way so they are able to live their lives for and to the glory of God. By Grace, everybody is potentially a God fearing person. Nobody was created a thief, a murderer, a homosexual. Everybody can be transformed to God fearing people by the grace of Christ. Just like Righteousness, Grace is exclusively of God. Nobody else apart from God, in either spirit or flesh can afford what it takes to possess it. For it is priceless to be gracious. Grace is God's way and God Himself. How does grace work? A simple demonstration of how grace works: If a wildly looking man raped your innocent teenage daughter in whom you have invested much and in whom you have lots of hope. Yet this very man finds it very difficult to recognize he has committed a crime. What would you do? The courts of law take course anyway. But after the trials, the man is condemned to death by hanging. Then as the one upon whose daughter the crime was committed, you stand up and and ask the Justice to set the rapist free. Upon this, the rapist is set free, but the other part of him of a rapist still remains. For he would carry on doing just that. What makes him to rape comes from within him. Who will get in the inside of him to set him free of such? Will adherence to the law get us out of such a situation? But then, you carry on and do not let this rapist simply go unattended to. On this account, you decide to carry him home for rehabilitation. You disregard all odds and accommodate him, feed him, clothe him, pray for him, counsel him, until that time when he recovers from former self to a better person. But recall that despite what you are doing to help this man recover, he is the very man who raped your teenage daughter. But you offer him an opportunity to live a decent life again in place of condemnation. What would this be? This is what we call GRACE. No human can afford this if it is not for God's intervention. For it is not of humans to be gracious. We can only be so when with God who is all gracious. Grace therefore only comes from God because it is priceless to be gracious. For we had been condemned until when Christ showed up. Yet we carry on boasting of sin. Despite all this, God has not given up on us. His grace has in stead simply abounded. Thus, Ephesians 2:8-9 tells that we are saved not by the law, for it had already failed but by the Grace of God. A person would go on just to rape well knowing they are breaking the law, but they will do it anyway. For the law touches not the heart, but the spirit searches the deepest of us. God loves it that we should know the truth rather than being commanded like speechless animals. When you know the truth, you will stop to glory in the law and simply be thankful to God for His ever abounding grace (John 8:32). For the law has always failed yet grace has always abounded through Christ. How does grace come forth? Grace comes by intercession. For if Christ had simply died and rose from the dead and hadn't carried on interceding for us so we are transformed, we wouldn't have benefited as much from the penalty He had paid. Why? For Jesus' death is a one off, yet for the transforming grace is another. To confess Christ should have been all, yet this is not when you are completely free of sin. If it hadn't been for Christ interceding for us, there wouldn't be space for transformation. The devil would carry on laying charge on us. And yet we are well aware that the righteous Lord God the Father hates sin. But with Christ on the Father's right hand interceding for us, it is made possible that we are given time and power to be transformed for God (Romans 8:32-34). By grace, we are all welcome! HALLELUJAH!
Jay Saunders
Supporter
God's grace goes beyond our full understanding. Just like we can't fully comprehend God's creation because we have not even fully explored it all on earth or in space and never will. We can't comprehend his speaking power which creates fully. In the book of John chapter one it speaks of his word becoming flesh in and by Jesus Christ. God our heavenly Father and the creator of all things seen and unseen is a mystery not yet fully revealed to us. But when we become eternal beings in our next existence then we will understand his fullness. Grace is also a boundless mystery. The scripture says if we confess our sins and Jesus as Lord and acknowledge his saving grace we can have forgiveness of all our sins, past, present and future. But it does not give us a license to not change from a life dominated by sin to one dominated by righteousness. I confess this on a regular basis that I am the righteousness of Christ in Christ Jesus because his righteousness has become my righteousness. It is a gift from God, not by my own efforts, but a gift from God that I can not earn and only can be given me by and through my salvation in Jesus Christ. Right living is God's desire for our lives and through it he will bless us for it because we reap what we sow in this life. But God's amazing grace can void or cancel what we rightly deserve. That is amazing grace, but when we sin against someone we are still under obligation to ask their forgiveness if it is humanly possible. Some people will never forgive you even if you humble yourself and ask for it. When you don't have amazing grace in your own life it is hard to forgive people who may or may not have wronged you. Some people are so easily offended that just a look in their direction is perceived in a negative way. Wow! Isn't amazing grace awesome? Whom the son sets free is free indeed. John 8:36 Roman's road to salvation scriptures: Romans 3:10 Romans 3:23 Romans 5:8 Romans 5:12 Romans 6:23 Romans 10: 9 and 10 Romans 10:13 Romans 10:17 These scriptures set us free from sin and lead us to God's grace.
James Kraft
Supporter
Jesus' one blood sacrifice paid our sin debt in full, past, present, and future sins we have not even done yet. Eternal life is a free gift from God for just believing on His name. John 1:12. We are all sinners. If we only told one little lie our whole life, we would have to go to hell to pay our own sin debt. First John 2:2 And He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. Jesus paid the price for all sin, so that us sinners could be given eternal life. He took the punishment for our sins, and gives us eternal life. Romans 4:5-8 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him who justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. His righteousness. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness apart from works. Blessed is the man whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. That is grace. All our sin debt was paid in full by Jesus on blood sacrifice for all sin. For God so loved the world, that HE gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, that WHOSOEVER. BELIEVETH IN HIM, SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace ye are saved, through faith, (the second we trust Jesus alone) and that not of yourselves, (we did nothing for it) it is the GIFT of God, not of works, (we can not earn our way to heaven) lest any man should boast. You can not boast in free. For the wages of sin is death, and we all sin, First John 1:8, and we all die, but the GIFT of God is eternal life, through Jesus finished work on the cross. Once we accept His free gift of grace, He seals us with the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption. Ephesians 1:13-14. Our guarantee of eternal life. Ephesians 4:30. And grieve not the Holy Spirit in whom ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Jack Gutknecht
Supporter
I like what a preacher said about the grace of God: "Is personal goodness, or is God's grace, as revealed in Jesus Christ, to bring us to the world where all is well? The one is a ladder that we ourselves set up, and painfully ascend; the other is an elevator that God provides, into which, indeed, we pass by penitential faith, but with which the lifting power is God's alone. Salvation by works is the choice of the Pharisee, and salvation by Grace is the hope of the Publican." He was referring to Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (Tax collector) in Luke 18:9-14. Michael Houdmann said, "When we try to justify ourselves by comparing ourselves to others, we naturally end up despising them. Our standard for comparison is God Himself, and we all fall short of His glory (Romans 3:23)." Here in verse 23 the Apostle tells us, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," and I've often told others--I'm talking about Christians, that comparing ourselves to others is not good (2 Corinthians 10). Verse 12 of this 10th chapter says, "Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.
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