A free gift of God through Jesus
A W Tozer: “ Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines Him to bestow benefits on the undeserving.”
What is your greatest fear in your Christian life? What concerns you about meeting Jesus face to face?
When did we “grow up” to the concept again of having to earn our salvation?
Paul's Struggles:
Romans 7: 14-15
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
Romans 8:1-3
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.
Grace from the Beginning:
Genesis
Adam and Eve -- God made them clothes.
Noah -- God gave Noah Grace
Genesis 6:8-9
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
9 This is the account of Noah and his family.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.
Mercy = withholding punishment
Grace = Giving a blessing we don’t deserve
Seven Examples of God's Grace:
1. God sent His son Jesus in our place
2 Corinthians 5:21
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2. God loves us as even when we were His enemies
Romans 5:10
For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
3. God’s forgiveness
Ephesians 1:7
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
1 John 4: 18-19
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us.
4. Reconciliation
Colossians 1:19-20
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
5. Abundant Life!
John 10:10
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
6. The Holy Spirit
Luke 11:13
If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
7. Heaven!
John 3: 16-18
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Ephesians 2:4-9:
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.