God's Grace

This past week, we studied Galatians 4 in bible study. The chapter is an interesting one when you consider that we are either bond or free. We either choose to accept the grace God gives us and accept Jesus as personal savior or we don’t. We either choose to be made free from sin or not – we cannot free ourselves – only faith in Jesus can do that.

The bible says clearly that the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). Sin is anything contrary to God’s word and will or anything we know is wrong to do. If the wages of sin is death, what can we do to make anything right with God? Correct – Nothing. We can do nothing to be in right standing with God. Jesus already paid for our sins more than 2000 years ago when He allowed himself to be killed. He carried all our sin to the cross, was buried and rose again. He paid the price for us because we could not pay the price for ourselves (John 8:36). Jesus paid it all!

We can do nothing but accept the gift Jesus paid for us. This is an insult to our fleshly nature. We are so used to taking credit for the things around us that when we have to give all the credit to Jesus, we rebel. We want to be praised and worshiped for the good things we do, but no matter how much work we do, He deserves all praise, glory and honor (Psa 96). 

But. we want the credit for the good things we’ve accomplished and progress we’ve made. All good things come from God (Jam 1:17) and He should get all the glory because without the gifts and talents He bestowed on us (Rom 12:6), we could not be successful. So even when we accomplish great things, God is responsible and He is supporting and directing our steps.

It is only by God’s grace that we are saved through faith in Jesus (Eph 2:8-9). This grace gives us freedom from the bondage that leads us to believe we can or have to do something for God to accept us. Our salvation is dependent on Jesus’ sacrifice alone. We are confirmed by the Holy Spirit on the inside of us (Eph 1:13). If we don’t have the Holy Spirit correcting, convicting, leading and guiding us, we should question whether we have a relationship with the triune God. 

God’s grace is sufficient for us no matter the circumstances (2 Cor 12:9). Have you received God’s saving grace? Because of the grace He provides to all of creation, there is still time if you’re reading this, but no one knows how much (Matt 5:44-45). Don’t wait. He loves you and wants to save you. Take Him up on His offer, He won’t disappoint.