Grace is something that few people understand. Christians talk about it a lot, yet I have
experienced many who talk about it and don’t live by it’s truth.
Hear me out for a few minutes on this one. We are saved by grace, accepted by God,
forgiven of our sin and given 2nd chances so many times. God looks at us and sees His son, Jesus. Jesus took our place and gave us grace.
The opposite of grace is law. We are not saved by being good or by what we
do. Salvation comes by the sweet gift of
God through Jesus. That is pure
grace. I’ve heard it defined like this
for years: God’s riches at Christ’s expense.
Does that make sense to you? Sure
does to me.
You can tell people who have experienced grace and those
who have not. You can know who lives by
grace and who does not. Often Christians
are the worst at judging people. As God
accepted us, we are to accept others.
But let me go in a strange or twisted direction for a
minute. On the flip side the question is
this: are we living in a way that people know we are God’s kids? If so, we will be responding to people with grace. We will prove we belong to and know God. How does that happen? We will act like Jesus acted. We will hate sin but love people. Does that characterize your life or mine?
Prove by the
way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.
That verse might puzzle us for a minute. It sounds like it says to be a Christian you
have to do or prove something. But that
couldn’t be further from the truth.
By living for God and pursing Jesus, we will live
differently, we will treat others differently, and we will share grace with the
people around us. Living by grace is a
choice. Treating others with grace is a
choice, yet the longer we pursue Jesus the easier and more natural living by
grace becomes.
I pray that our lives, our talk and all we do can be
said to be … living by grace.
And since it
is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that
case, God’s grace would not be what it really is—free and undeserved.
Therefore,
accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given
glory.
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