Let's have a short talk about grace.
Many people believe that when you live under grace, it is a license to do whatever you want to do.
You know, like grace is a big cover-up.
When we treat the Grace of God like a big cover-up, we cheapen His Grace!
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in The Cost of Discipleship, "Cheap grace is grace we bestow upon ourselves... the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship...
Costly grace is the gospel which must e sought again and again... it is costly because it cost a man His life, and it is grace because it gives man the only true life."
The Grace of God is unmerited favor, but not just unmerited favor.
Titus 2:11-12 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to
all men. 12 It teaches us
to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live
self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,
The Grace of God
when it comes into your life:
1)
Gives you the DESIRE to do God’s will.
2)
Gives you the STRENGTH to follow through with it.
God's Grace will empower us to have the desire to do what is right.
God's Grace will empower us with the strength to follow through with our decision.
Think of God's Grace like this:
G = God’s love flows
through us.
1 John 3:16 This
is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we
ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
R = Redemption comes to
us from Christ through grace.
Matthew 1:21 She
will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he
will save his people from their sins."
Romans 3:23-24
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
A = Abundance of power to
keep us for Christ comes through grace.
Titus 2:11-14 For
the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches
us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live
self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait
for the blessed hope — the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior,
Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to
purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
Though the law showed us how to live to please God, it can
do nothing to empower us to live for God.
We are saved through grace and we are kept in Christ through
the abundant grace God provides.
C = Changes come to us
through grace.
2 Corinthians 3:18
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being
transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the
Lord, who is the Spirit.
When you allow God’s grace to grow in you, you cannot help
changing. Your attitude, words and actions are transformed.
E = Extravagant and Endless resources for
kindness and service.
Ephesians 2:8-10
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from
yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which
God prepared in advance for us to do.
What we freely receive we freely give to others.
Through grace, we have an endless resource from which we can
draw to produce good works of kindness.
We want to serve God with all that is in us — not to earn
our way to heaven but out of obedience that comes from a grateful heart.
