Grace

This wont be a long post, just something I have been contemplating. I think grace is often misunderstood. Gods grace is an undeserved gift. Make no mistake, we ALL deserve the wrath of God. The bible says that the wages of sin are death. (Romans 6:23) What sin is worthy of death? Well, all of them. We will start with the 10 commandments. You shall not lie, steal, murder, commit adultery, covet. Those are just a few. When Jesus gave the sermon on the mount, he said that if you have hated your brother that you have murdered him in your heart. And if you lust after a woman (or man) you have committed adultery in your heart. (Matthew 5) You have sinned against a Holy, Just God. So one lie, even a little white lie, deserves eternal punishment (hell). Why do I explain all of that? Well, without understanding of the law and your sin, how can you understand grace? Far too often we put our sin on a sliding scale and judge others to be "worse off" than we are. The truth is, we are all equally in need of a Savior. Praise God for sending us one in his Son Jesus Christ. So what is grace? Grace is when God chooses to save a sinner, and give them a heart of flesh that is able to love and obey him. Grace is a free gift. "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9) This means you have done NOTHING to deserve grace. If you think you have done something for God to have given you this grace, it is no longer grace, it is works. We must not become boastful, or deem others a lost cause because of their sinful nature. If God can save me by grace, he can save anyone.

"I believe in the doctrine of election, because I am quite certain that, if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards; and He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love." ~Charles Spurgeon

**Well, maybe it will be a long post ;)