FINDING GRACE

A lot of us go through life and feel that we deserve various things, perhaps to be treated a certain way, or that we deserve the latest and greatest things that are on the market. 

At other times you’ve probably felt you’ve received something that you didn’t deserve when you were treated poorly.

While we might feel in life that we are deserving of many good things, we really aren’t. But I want to share with you today how you can receive something that is beyond compare, that none of us could ever earn or deserve. 

And it’s called grace. 

See, grace in simple terms is the unmerited favor or blessing that is given by God to us as His creation. Grace by definition, is undeserved. 

And you might be wondering today, what does this grace entail, why I am accusing you of being undeserving, and how can you find this grace that I’ve mentioned. I hope to answer all of these questions for you briefly, today. 

The book of Genesis in the Bible begins with God’s creation of the world, and everything God made being very good (Genesis 1:31). All the troubles in life that might make you wonder how a God could be both all-powerful and good while suffering abounds, these problems didn’t exist. 

But, then sin entered the world. Sin, in simple terms, is missing the mark of God’s standard, or falling short. See, God as the Creator, He’s the one who has the authority to determine right from wrong, and so He set the mark or goal, and we’ve all fallen short of His standard (Romans 3:23).

God made humanity in His image, to be a reflection and representative of Him on the earth, and to enjoy a relationship with Him. But sin tarnished the image of God and as a result death came into the once good creation and separated all of us from Him. For we are born with the condition of sin.

We might be better than the next guy, but God’s standard isn’t just being better than someone else, for to disobey the Law of God in even one point is to become a transgressor (see James 2:15-19). As such, we are all lawbreakers.

This is the bad news, and this is why we are all in need of grace. Myself included. God is a holy, just, and perfect God, and God’s desire was for us to be able to enjoy eternal fellowship with Him, but our sin had separated us all from God. 

And this is where grace comes in. And grace comes through a person, Jesus Christ. 

Where all humankind fell short of God’s standard. Jesus perfectly obeyed. See, Jesus Christ was the eternal Son who came down from heaven  (John 1:1-18), being born of a virgin (Matthew 1:18-25), and so he didn’t inherit the sinful nature that you and I have been plagued with. 

And Jesus went on to live a perfect and sinless life for 33 ½ years (see Heb. 4:15). But Jesus’ life ended one day tragically, as He died upon a rugged, Roman cross 2,000 years ago. He died for your sin and mine. See, “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). And because Jesus was Himself without sin, in order to vindicate Him, God raised Him from the dead three days later.

See, the Scripture says that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins (Hebrews 9:22). Sin is so serious that to pay the debt it incurs requires a blood sacrifice and Jesus became that sacrifice for us, He died in our place. 

See, for our sake God made Christ to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus got what He didn’t deserve, death, so that we could receive what we don’t deserve, eternal life. That is called grace.

This is good news. That you don’t have to earn your way to God, you don’t have to be sufficiently righteous on your own, in fact you can’t be!

See, God has appointed that for all who believe we receive the credit for Jesus’ perfect life. All of us because of our sin, we weren’t able to live a life that was pleasing to God, but Jesus did this for us! 

And as a result, we can be saved from the future judgment of God by grace through faith, not based on our own good deeds or righteousness (Ephesians 2:8). While the wages of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23). 

And you can receive this free gift of grace, offered at the cross, by faith. 

For, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Romans 10:9-10). 

Through faith, believing that Jesus Christ is this world’s true Lord and ruler, believing that He died for your sins, and believing that He rose to life again on the third day you can be free from the consequences of your sin and be right with God, your Creator. 

If Jesus Christ is going to be your Savior, this means that you rely solely upon His righteousness alone for your right-standing with God, and not your own good deeds or supposed righteousness.

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If Jesus is going to be Lord of your life, this means that He is your new boss, and that your life will be devoted to serving Him. While salvation comes freely, there is a cost to serving Jesus. We’re called to turn from our sin and unrighteousness and to live a life of devotion to Him in light of His wonderful grace. See, works are not the root, but the fruit of salvation. 

All you have to do is receive the grace that has been given for you at the cross. 

Will you find grace today?

If you don’t know the Lord, and you want to talk with someone or have questions that you need help processing, we’d love to help you on your journey. 

If you would just text “Grace” to 570-473-5516 it will let our team know that you’re interested in talking with us and we will be in touch shortly.

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Thanks for reading, we pray this impacts you for eternity.