Grace that changes

The topic of GRACE seems to be coming up quite often in the last several weeks! Perhaps God is weaving it in for a purpose… as I find that He often does!

The topic of grace is so vast – 1 Peter 4:10 speaks of the manifold (or multi-faceted) grace of God in our lives. It can cover almost any area, in any situation.

On the basics of it, we all know that grace is a foundation of our salvation, as Romans 3 tells us:

…But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Rom 3:21-24

And later on in Romans 5, we see that we have grace as something that we have access to in which to stand:

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand Rom 5:1-2

And yet, there are times when certain aspects of grace seem to come through in our lives. For me recently, it has been the grace of God that manifests through His love for us, and our love for one another:

But as you abound in everything -- in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love for us -- see that you abound in this grace also 2 Cor 8:7

To me when we see the bible as a ‘rule book’ and God as the ‘rule keeper’ we miss something that God has for us – RELATIONSHIP. When we begin to really understand the love and grace that God has for us and towards us, something happens.

• We stop looking at our Christian walk and wondering “how much can I get away with before God gets angry and punishes me”, and we start to see how beautiful life is when we are at peace with God and each other.
• We begin to experience fellowship with God based on His love for us, not our performance for Him.
• And that fellowship begins to seep into our other relationships, in that we begin to have fellowship with others based on our genuine love for them, not their performance.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen 2 Cor 13:14

...till the whole world hears,

Pastor Clay