Good Gracious

Scripture: Ephesians 2:5 "even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),"

Observation: The work of God, "the exceeding greatness of His power" (1:19), wasn't dependent on our goodness, rather our humility. In reality we are always humbled. The issue is whether we accept that fact or rebel against it.

We've been alive with Christ, and truly are alive by the power of Christ - it's His life in us (Galatians 2:20).

Here also is the first direct statement of salvation by grace alone. So many religious people want to say that salvation came through grace, but that grace simply made us able to do things that pleased God so that we could earn our way to heaven. That's offensive to God and NOT going to get anyone to eternal life! The only good work that saves is the one done by Jesus Christ that was imputed to us. This is repeated throughout the NT.

Romans 5:17 - righteousness is a free gift; not an earned reward.

Romans 8:3-4 - God's requirement for perfection/righteous living was accomplished once-and-for-all by Jesus Christ. We cannot add to perfection. We insult the work of Jesus when we say that His life was insufficient to do what Romans 8:3-4 says it did/does.

Romans 9:30-31 - righteousness only comes through faith, not works that we do before or after faith in Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:30 - Jesus became our righteousness. He continues to be righteousness for us. God does not look to us to satisfy His requirement for a holy life. He looks to Jesus' perfect, sinless, righteous life and imputes that life to our account.

Galatians 3:21 - righteousness doesn't come by doing good. To say that we are given the ability through God's grace to fulfill the law in order to obtain righteousness for ourselves is to simply create stilts with which we can prop up the noble idea that we can or must do good works to earn our passage to eternal life. In this way we make our working to appears holy or God-pleasing. Again, it's actually offensive to God.

Philippians 3:9 - righteousness comes to us through faith in Jesus Christ and not by good works.

Application: My response should be one of praise to His goodness, devotion to His call, and surrender to His will, rather than to feel obligated to add something to His work (Why do I feel such a compulsion to prove to God how good I am? I've already demonstrated a million times over that I'm not!).

Where am I with those? T
hat is a daily questions to be answered and a daily choice to be made.

If I began with grace, I should continue in grace.

Prayer: God, please continue to sanctify me and my family. I know the old man is present with me. It wants control and never quits. I need to live by Your grace intentionally. Thank You for what You've done in my life... with my life. I love You. Amen.