Grace, Not Works
Deuteronomy 9:5 It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
John 1:16-17 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that WHOEVER believes in Him will not perish, but will have everlasting life.
Acts 15:10-11 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.
Romans 3:24 Yet God, in His grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.
Romans 5:20-21 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
2 Corinthians 12:9 Your Grace is always sufficient for us
Ephesians 2:8,9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. (highlight of “gift of God”, mine)
Ephesians 2:5 …made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
2 Tim 1:9 He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.
Titus 2:11-12 We’re saved by grace, and grace is our teacher. Because of God’s grace, we have knowledge and ability to live our daily lives according to His will.
Titus 3:5 …He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
God has always been full of love and grace toward man. He set out simple rules, made them well known to His humans, but within a short time, He had to deal with them when they disobeyed His simple command. According to what Eve told Satan, they were not to touch a certain tree in the center of the garden “or we will die.” And Satan reassured her she would not die….although because of his sinful nature he was already experiencing this “death”—which is the separation of God because of sin.
Just as separation from God by not accepting Jesus as the Savior, the atonement for sin, and it requires only that we acknowledge Him as Savior and confess our sins. And we sin daily—we get angry, say something rude or hurtful to another, have lied—either by telling someone they look great when they look awful, and so many other ways. Most are unintentional, but not all.
We are a sinful people and even once saved, we need to make daily confession of our wrongdoing. And we are forgiven. Of course, God wants us growing in the manner of Christ–full of gentleness, kindness, patience, wisdom, and especially love.
We don’t normally love others freely. There are some who just irritate us, irk us, make us work to like them for a variety of reasons. But we need to put “their negative aspects” away and treat them with love. Jesus dealt with persons who were ill and had been for years—often extremely dirty and smelling of foulness, the same with paralytics. He dealt with lepers, and all sorts of unattractive illnesses and conditions that persons were dealing with. The disciples got to witness firsthand as He approached with kindness and love, and dealt with their illness/sin, and encouraged them to sin no more.
I can only imagine the disciples standing back, surprised and a bit disgusted as Jesus willingly walked amongst these less than desirable or willingly acceptable people. Jesus set an example for them always. He encouraged his disciples verbally and physically, stepping out and touching and healing. I can imagine their surprise and disgust, but something kept drawing them to Jesus. They believed that He would free them from the tyranny of the Romans, He would be their next King.
It was not until His death on the cross, His burial and Resurrection, and then His return, alive, full of love, acceptance — and to Peter—who now felt forgiven, for denying of his friend, teacher, and the one who had performed miracles time and again before him and the rest of the apostles.
But it was grace, God’s love, and forgiveness over centuries of caring for the Israelites, and now witnessing the physical acceptance, kindness, gentleness, and love that Jesus demonstrated in human form to so many. It was His teaching, His compassion, the miracles, and because they had been chosen by God’s grace to be the ones who would witness as to their time with Jesus of His love, forgiveness, and the only Truth and Way, without the many rules of the Pharisees, Sadducee’s….
Grace is God’s love, forgiveness—even though we are huge sinners, and His forgiveness should not be expected, but is given—and He saves us not because we are good, or kind, or worthy, but He saves us because of what Christ did for us, because of the work of Jesus, His Son. He took ALL the sins of past and future upon Himself, as the final and last blood sacrifice to atone for sins—our sins. He, Jesus Christ was fully free of sin, and willingly took on the job of being the sacrifice to save all of us who believe in Him.
Sin needs to be confessed and atoned for with a blood sacrifice and in the Old Testament that meant the killing of an animal or animals. Part of me would wonder when reading these sacrifices in the OT if God thought anyone would care. They had many animals in the Wilderness. It was not like a child’s only lamb or calf that they raised for 4H–took personal care of, and actually cared, loved, admired or FELT something for. I was also fairly repulsed. Being a nurse, it is fairly easy to recognize blood and sometimes death. It is distinctive. I repeatedly wondered how they convinced these poor creatures to go into the temple. Instinct would have them rebelling, fighting for their life(ves), fearful and dangerous in trying to protect themself(ves). It is not easy trying to wrangle any animal into submission when it is frightened, never mind terrified. I knew having to see these sacrifices performed–even for my benefit–I would have been ill. Hopefully, ill enough to NEVER commit another sin and be the cause of this death. But initially, it was one of the reasons, I skimmed much of the Old Testament early on. As I matured in my knowledge and understanding, there was SO much there that predicted about the sacrificial suffering and death of Jesus.
God provided the final sacrifice with the death and willing sacrifice of His only Son. He took upon Himself all the sins of the past and future. Because of grace and love. This was no unblemished animal taken from the herd as made to be an example of atoning for sin–this was a sinless Man, who many already knew was the Messiah long promised and finally arrived, and His own religious leaders stirred up many of the people to call for His death.
How could they not have known? He radiated kindness, love, forgiveness, healing–and they were further educated than most–yet chose to order the death of this “disruption” which might take away some of their god and power. Caiaphas said, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nations should perish.” (John 11:49-50) Another prophecy fulfilled to save the world for all who believe in Him.
God wants our hearts to be repentant, to yearn for Him, to seek His ways and teaching. He wants us to become more like HIs Son–full of love, forgiveness, non-judgmental, kind, gentle, good, generous–and full of repentance for our sinful, selfish ways. We think more of ourselves and our desires oftentimes, and will be filled with peace, love, and rest if we turn from our selfishness to be more like God. His grace absolves us of the sins we commit–but we must repent, we must want to be more like Christ and strive to reach for attributes that reflect Him.
Lord, You have shown me so much grace. You are a comfort and rest. You, by your enormous grace, have taken me in, helped me grow. Thank You for all the blessings You have given to me and ‘mybellaviews.’
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