Grace! I have really come to understand this word more and more, and I know I will never completely understand the vastness of God's grace...
What we are in our natural state...
*Undone, Unclean (Isaiah 6:5)
*Our righteousness is like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6)
*We are born spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1)
*We are born with a stony heart unresponsive to God (Ezekiel 36:26)
*We are born with a wicked heart, (Jeremiah 17:9) and we drink down iniquity like it was water. (Job 15:16)
*We are God haters, (Romans 1) and enemies of God
*We love darkness rather than light (John 3:19)
*By nature, we are children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3)
*We have no goodness within us (Romans 3:10, Romans 7:18)
*No one seeks after God or wants to (Romans 3:11)
*We can do nothing to please God and we have no power to change ourselves! (Jeremiah 13:23)
*We have broken everyone of God's laws and stand guilty before Him. We could do nothing to motivate God to save us or even look our way. All we could motivate God to do is condemn us to hell because we deserve His wrath. We are the guilty ones......BUT GOD!!!
Seeing our awful condition, we can now see the gloriousness of God's grace!
I never did anything to make God love me, choose me, or save me. He has justified me without a cause. He has justified me freely by His grace and that by grace alone! It was nothing in me to make Him do it...only His mercy and grace!!
GRACE:
Jesus, one who is pure, holy, sinless, spotless, and no darkness in at all, God in the flesh, came to take my place. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
He came to be condemned. He came to take sinner's guilt, filth, and most of all God's wrath. Jesus, on the cross, took all of God's fierce anger against sin. God the Father killed His Son so He wouldn't have to kill those who repent and trust in His Son. Jesus was the propitiation for sin. God's anger had to be satisfied. Our crimes had to be paid for...Jesus Christ took the pain and punishment that should have fallen on me...
Also, because I could never attain a righteousness that would please God, Christ gave me His! I am now, because of Christ's merit ALONE, declared righteous in the sight of God!
The sinless Holy One was made to be sin for me and He declared me righteous.
Where is the boasting then? It's in Christ alone!!
Jesus Christ...My Punishment and My Righteousness!
There is no way I could ever be made right with God on my own. My good deeds wouldn't do it because they're filthy, but God who is rich in mercy, sent His Son to be my punishment and my righteousness. Believing in Christ means that I have no hope of ever being made right with God on my own, but God will accept me because of what Christ has done on my behalf!
That's grace! Grace = undeserved favor on those who deserve nothing but wrath...
Grace = not getting what we deserve, but getting what we don't deserve! It's all about God's love, grace, mercy!!
He justifies the ungodly. He died for the ungodly. People who don't admit their ungodly can never be saved because that's the only ones God will save. People who are trusting in themselves and their good deeds will not be made right with God...it's only for the ungodly that God shows grace to. we have to be declared righteous to go to Heaven...what are you trusting in? We can only trust in Christ alone to be declared righteous. We can only trust in His deeds, merits and righteousness. Repent and trust in Christ alone!!
Thank God for His grace!!! I will glory ONLY in the cross! I will boast Only in Christ my Lord and Savior!
A testimony to God's grace (4 minute clip)
Monday, April 14, 2008
God's Grace!
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1 comment:
Glory to God! How refreshing it is to find others who have a singular passion for the Glory of God!
I love the way you put together the Biblical description of us and wrap it up with BUT GOD...! So it is, over and over and over again, the Word tells us the truth of our position and then turns to that amazing phrase, BUT GOD!
BUT! We were dead, BUT! We hate God, BUT! We are unrighteous, BUT! We have a heart of stone, BUT! On and on and on, it's clear, we are GONNERS, BUT! As Piper once said, How I love the "BUTS" of scripture!
But what? But GOD! No one else! No thing else! There is no hope any any other, because there IS no other. The only possible subject of our hope is GOD. Oh, what a glorious thought. I was gone, BUT GOD!
What more needs to be said? BUT tells me that it is good news, because it is contrasted to all of the bad news I live in. And GOD tells me that the good news is done by the only one who has the power and authority to do it. It is FINISHED! He stops at nothing. He sends His own Son. He turns His back on His own Son. He places on His Son all of the sin of all who will ever believe. And he calls it DONE!
He did it for me. Oh, but thank God, He did it for so much more than me. He did it for the preservation of His Own righteousness and the furtherance of His own Glory. Were it only for me, or only for all sinful men, that would be so small it would not be right for the God of Glory. In fact, it would have been a moral outrage. But it was for HIS GLORY!
Oh, praise Him my soul. Give glory to His name. For He alone is worthy.
Thank you for your posts. Keep them coming.
Craig Rasmussen
www.soledelight.blogspot.com
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