Christians in Action

Ephesians 2: 8-10 tells us that we are saved through grace and not of ourselves it is a gift from God.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and not of yourself, it is a gift of God not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

What does it really mean to be saved by grace, we need to look at this more closely because many try to find favor with God through their works, (doing good, trying to be righteous in their own way). The key to being saved by grace is that it is through faith that we receive it. We need to take a look at Romans to get a better picture of being saved through faith.

Romans 3: 11- 18 paints a dim picture of the human nature.

11) “There is none righteous, no not one; there is none who understands; there is none that seeks after God. 12) They have all turned aside; they have altogether become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.” 13) Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit”; the poison of asps is under their lips”, 14) Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” 15) Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16) Destruction and misery are in their ways; 17) And the way of peace they have not known.” 18.) There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Verses 19 -24 tells us that the law gives us knowledge of sin and we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and that no flesh shall be justified by the deeds of the law. But there is hope because we have been justified by His grace through the redemption of Christ Jesus. And that it is through faith in Jesus Christ that we obtain righteousness.

We see from these verses, we all are sinners and that the law puts us there, and nothing that we doin the flesh can justify us in God’s eyes. Pretty dim situation but we also see that it was God’s son that has made us righteous in God’s eyes. All we have to do is believe what God has done for us in His Son Christ Jesus.

To better understand the grace of God we need to understand what it means to be justified. In the Greek it means to vindicate or declare righteous, or to put someone in a proper relationship with another.  We will never be vindicated before God through the law or through doing good.  All of us at some time in our life have tried to get into someone’s good graces by doing things for them.  We need to watch to make sure we are not trying to win God’s approval or favor by doing good or trying to obey the Ten Commandments all the time. Problem with that is impossible to keep the whole law, so we sin, or miss the mark. 

It is pretty simple to get into God’s favor- believe that Jesus died and paid the price for our sin, and because of it, we are justified.  We only have to receive God’s gift of grace through the redemption of His Son.

When we really realize that there is nothing we can do in the flesh- to get God’s favor and that we don’t have to because Jesus did it for us, we can be really free. The burden is off of us to perform and now we can live for God out of the love in our hearts for Him.

Check out this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgVCW_LWou0 (I’m still working on putting links in my post.)  It is Amazing Grace and it is sung beautifully.

Your comments are always welcomed.  Are you free from the law and under God’s grace.