Grace of God

Having posted the last part of a five part series today on the old covenant vs the new covenant series or simply the law covenant vs the grace covenant, I just thought it a good idea to show those who still live under the law, what we under grace have and have obtained because of grace. I am hoping that this will make you realize that you should be under grace and not under law.

Righteousness under the law is demanded by God while righteousness under grace is given by God.

This is what we have under grace:

Titus 2:11-14 (AMP)

For the grace of God (His unmerited favor and blessing) has come forward (appeared) for the deliverance from sin and the eternal salvation for all mankind.

12 It has trained us to reject and renounce all ungodliness (irreligion) and worldly (passionate) desires, to live discreet (temperate, self- controlled), upright, devout (spiritually whole) lives in this present world,

13 Awaiting and looking for the [fulfillment, the realization of our] blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One),

14 Who gave Himself on our behalf that He might redeem us (purchase our freedom) from all iniquity and purify for Himself a people [to be peculiarly His own, people who are] eager and enthusiastic about [living a life that is good and filled with] beneficial deeds.

Verse 11 says that the grace of God has come forward or has appeared for two reasons:

1) The deliverance of mankind from sin

2) To provide eternal salvation for all mankind

Now this is the purpose of grace. How does grace do this? Grace does this by doing two things to us:

1) By training us

2) By giving us hope

What kind off training do we get from grace? Grace trains us on two things:

1) To reject and and renounce

– all ungodliness

– worldly passionate desires

2) To live lives in this present world that are

– discreet or self controlled

– upright

– devout or spiritually whole

What hope do we get from grace? Grace gives us hope that what we have been promised, will be fulfilled. The promise of the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Peter explains our hope even better

1 Peter 1:3-5 (ESVST)

Born Again to a Living Hope

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God ‘s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

This is what we have under grace. Should you not be under grace too?

Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord Amen.

Today’s message is the Grace of God.

What is the Grace of God. Grace is an unmerited or undeserved favour. Grace is a favour that God does for you or on you even though you don’t deserve it. I used to confuse Grace and Mercy quite often before but Mercy is kindness or good will towards the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them. So we can say that because of God’s own mercy he showed us grace. In other words because he is so kind, he did us a favour. Now that we understand what grace and mercy are, we can now look at our scriptures.

2 Timothy 1:9-10 (ESVST)

who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,

Who in the above verse, refers to God. If you read verse 8, you will see that who in verse 9 above, refers to God. Just as background to the verse, Paul is urging Timothy to rekindle the gospel that he received. Paul is asking him not to be ashamed of the gospel and not to fear. Paul is asking him to share in the suffering that comes with spreading the gospel of God and he says in verse 9, because this God has saved us and called us to a holy calling. Take note that it is not anyone else that has saved us but God himself. He saved and called us himself. In other words, as a Christian, you did not save yourself and was not saved by anyone but, YOU WERE SAVED AND CALLED BY GOD. By saved it means, you were removed from death row. Remember that because of sin we were dead and destined to hell fire. Remember that because of sin, we were all judged, convicted, sentenced to eternal death in hell and placed on death row until the time comes.

Romans 7:9 (ESVST)

I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.

John 3:18 (ESVST)

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

So as you can see in the two verses I quoted above. Because of sin, we died, because of sin, we were condemned already. So, when God saved us, he literally overturned our conviction and sentence and removed us from death row and gave us eternal life. This is what being saved means. What about being called, well, being called means that when you heard the holy gospel being preached to you AND YOU RESPONDED POSITIVELY, you were called. God uses the gospel or his word that is preached to you as a means to call you and when you respond positively, the holy calling is complete. So, God saved and called us. Why is it called a holy calling? Well because God is holy and he is calling you to himself. I want to highlight this, no one else saved you except God. Not your pastor, not your parents and not even yourself. God did it himself. All you did is to respond positively. Verse 9 continues to say, we were saved and called not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, in other words, there is nothing that we did to be saved and called by God. There is nothing that we did to earn this saving and calling. There is nothing that we did that could have made God to save and call us. God saved and called us BECAUSE OF HIS OWN PURPOSE AND GRACE. This is so difficult for Christians to accept. Christians simply refuse to accept that they did not play a part in their salvation. They cannot believe that God can just decide to save us without us having done something to deserve it. God tells us here that he saved us not because of something that we did but because of his own reasons and as a favour to us. God is full of mercy and because he is such a merciful God, why is it so surprising that he can have so much grace which he decided to pour on us undeservedly so. Why is it difficult to believe that he did that all for us. We were saved and called because God is merciful and because of his mercy, he poured grace on us. We did nothing to deserve this. He did it because of his own purpose and grace. The verse continues to say which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, God gave us his grace in Christ. We access this grace in and through Christ. We become the beneficiaries of this grace only through faith in Christ. Without Christ, you cannot access this grace. The verse says this grace was given in Christ, before the ages began. This means before even the earth was created let alone the law was given. God knows the future and he decided even before he created us that he was going to have mercy on us and give us grace in Christ. So, all those people that still believe that you need the law to be saved, really have to think very hard about that. Complying or not complying to the law has nothing to do with being saved as you can see. We were saved and called by God because of his own purpose and grace which he gave us in Christ before the ages began.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESVST)

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

It makes a lot of sense that it was God’s own decision because of his mercy that he decided to save us. It is a gift that he gave us but yet we want to spend all our life trying to earn or keep a gift that has already being given to us. Instead of enjoying the gift, we want to work hard to earn it. It does not make sense. God has given you a gift of eternal life, stop trying to earn it, it is already yours.

10 and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,

When Jesus appeared and died and rose from the death and defeated death, we instantly had access to God’s grace through him. Jesus died and rose from the death and defeated death so that those that have been saved and called by God because of his purpose and grace, can have access to this grace, so that those that were saved and called by God, can receive this Gift from God.

John 3:16 (ESVST)

16 “ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

All you need to do now is to BELIEVE that God has saved and called you, by positively responding to his calling and accessing God’s gift of eternal life by believing or having faith in his son and our Lord Jesus Christ. This is your only get out of death row card. If you don’t believe in Jesus Christ, you remain exactly where you are, IN DEATH ROW until the time comes to serve your sentence of death in HELL.

God thank you for today’s message. Thank you for giving us the gift of life through your son Jesus, even though we did not deserve it. Not only that, you made it so easy to access this gift because all we need to do is to believe. Thank you God, in Jesus name, amen.