However, Grace is sublime! Grace is G_d indeed giving us what we do not deserve. G_d imparts His love on us through His favor and riches! This undeserved favor simply flows from the character of who He is. It has nothing to do with us, or anything that we have done to deserve it.
- Ephesians 2:8,9 says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Grace is knowing you have every right not to, and probably shouldn’t….but from another place…deeper..you are ‘urged’ TO. And you offer it with full willingness ~ DH, Poland
All of it.
It’s actually very simple. G_d knew we could never pay for such wonderful gifts. For the riches of Grace are really simply a Person. So, He made everything even better, and decided to give the Gift to us for free….
Wait, do you feel it friend? It just doesn’t make any sense. No it doesn’t. And that is what makes Grace even more precious than we could ever imagine. It is an infinite proposition.
G_d gives us everything for nothing.
Anything that we do to try and pay for Grace is, quite frankly, revolting to the Giver. To try and pay for Grace is a cheap, callous, ungainly and foolish approach. Rather, the only reasonable response is for us to present our entire being as a sacrifice to our creator for His purposes.
But He gives more Grace…
Once we present our worthless old self to Him, He exchanges that old life for a new Life that is immeasurably better than our prior existence. We don’t just get the promise of a future heaven (WONDERFUL!), but we get to start living eternal life right now.
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loneliness – for – Intimacy in His very near Presence
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lust – for – Love
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shame – for – Glory
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sorrow – for – Joy
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anxiety – for – Peace
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foolishness – for – Wisdom
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pain – for – Relief
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confusion – for – Clarity
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stimulation – for – Real Pleasure
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impatience – for – Patience
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ignorance – for – knowledge
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cruelty – for – Kindness
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impulse – for – Self-Control
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vice – for – Virtue
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unbelief – for – Faith
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dishonor – for – Honor
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compulsion – for – True Passion
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hard – for – Easy
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heavy – for – Light
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laws – for – His Grace
No, we don’t EVEN BEGIN to understand this.
No words to describe it. Poetry!
They should have sent a poet. So beautiful.
GRACE IS REALLY IMPORTANT.
For further study, Theopedia has an excellent abstract on Grace. cf., http://www.theopedia.com/Grace
The grace and mercy of God strikes at the very heart of humanity. It has the ability to raise the most extreme emotions by, as Oswald Chambers says, humiliating those who want to add something to their salvation. On the other hand, it can spark emotions of humility where one will “consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake [we] have lost all things” and counting them as “rubbish” (Phil. 3:8). This very grace came/comes through Jesus (John 1:17; Romans 5:15; 1 Corinthians 1:4; 2 Timothy 1:9), a sufficient grace (2 Corinthians 12:9) that is shown through the “redemption through his blood” and “forgiveness of sins” (Ephesians 1:7) and it is this grace by which we are justified (Titus 3:7) and saved (Ephesians 2:8).
Peter tells us to “set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:13), for we worship the “God of all grace” (1 Peter 5:10). Lastly, because we are saved through the work and grace of Jesus, we may approach “the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
