I’m in Serious Trouble!
Ephesians 2:8-10 I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believed. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God. You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about. God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.
Okay, so here’s the problem I had for the first thirty-six years of my life. I pretty much knew that there is a God out there, somewhere. I’d been brought up in the church, not that it meant all that much to me at the time. But deep down, as much as I tried to suppress it, I knew in my heart of hearts that God was real.
But that seemed like incredibly bad news to me, terrible news in fact. Because if God was indeed God, holy and perfect and pure … all that stuff that God’s meant to be, the one thing I knew about myself was that I wasn’t holy and perfect and pure. So as I thought about the fires of hell, I came to this conclusion … I am in serious trouble!
With all my heart, I honestly thought that I had to get my act sorted before I confronted God. That way, at least there would be some good to outweigh all the bad. At least then I’d have a half decent opening line to begin the conversation.
Then … someone explained the concept of grace to me.
I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believed. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God. You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about. God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do. (Ephesians 2:8-10)
The whole point, apparently, was that God would forgive me … me!! … because Jesus took the punishment on my behalf. So … it’s not about what I did, they told me, it’s about what He did. That powerful realisation was the turning point of my life. Grace.
But, to tell you the truth, I’m still getting my mind around this concept of grace. It’s so contrary to all that we’ve been taught – do good and you get rewarded, do bad and you get punished. That’s the world of cause and effect that you and I live in.
Grace turns that completely on its head. And honestly, I think it’s going to take an eternity for that to sink in. Grace.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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