WHAT IS GRACE?


WHAT IS GRACE?

                “Grace is God’s own life freely given to us.” Fr. Stephen Freeman

                Can we for even a moment think that grace is something separate from the Holy Spirit? If grace is the life of God freely given to us, then grace is a Person. Grace is not an impersonal order dispatched to us from heaven to cover for our sinful lives. It is God acting out His life in us and through us. Grace is the life of God imparted to us and once imparted it changes everything… He changes everything.

                Grace calls us to repentance long before we are born again, but the kingdom of grace is entered through death and rebirth and nothing short of that will do.

                Grace is light… so darkness must flee.

                Grace is forgiveness …so sin must be confessed

                Grace takes us in the right direction… so that we must turn from the wrong direction

                Grace is God’s presence… so the devil must flee.

                Grace is peace with God… so chaos must flee

                Grace is the way of God… so we must walk in it

                Grace is the truth of God…so we must believe in it

                Grace is the life of God… so we must live in it

                Grace has been called unmerited favor… but it is received through repentance

                Some treat grace as a license to sin. They say, “I can do what I want to, when I want to and it      doesn’t matter because I’m covered, past, present and future. (May the force be with you)

                But Grace is not like that. Grace comes to us in the Person of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit lives to represent Jesus and Jesus lives to represent Is Father and His Father loves us so much that He sent His only Son and His only Son sent His Holy Spirit and His Holy Spirit is bringing many sons and daughters to glory. That is grace. It is the Holy Trinity making us part of the Family.

                Because of grace, Prodigal sons come home… sinners repent… the blind see and the lame walk. Because of Grace… lost souls are saved…the perishing are rescued…the wanderers find a home… the rejected find love…broken hearts are mended… torn relationships sewn back together.

                Because of grace… the weak are strengthened… the helpless are helped… the sorrowing are comforted. Because of grace… the discouraged find courage… the thirsty find living water… and the sinner is forgiven.

                Grace links us with the Creator of the universe. It brings harmony and order into broken lives. Grace squares us with reality and plumbs us with truth. It measures us with mercy.

                Grace bears the fruit of the Spirit in us so that everyone we meet is blessed. Grace imparts love to us and love is patient, love is kind and love is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails and love is brought to us by grace and God is love. 1 Cor. 13:4-7

                Where sin abounds…grace abounds even more… not by excusing it but by crushing it. Grace is the power of God unto salvation to them that believe. Grace is the working part of the Gospel. It is written in the form of words, but those words carry all of the power of the Author… and He is the One who saves us by His marvelous grace. Nothing can separate us from Him. He has made a covenant with us signed in His blood. He paid the price. He crushed the enemy… He set us free from the chains that bound us.

                False grace then is anything that men may offer us as being detached from the Person of God.

                Grace came to us in human flesh. It took the words of grace and made them into a Person. Paul tells us that in Him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form. (Col. 2:9.) So grace is drawing us into the Royal Family. Grace can never be separated from the very Person of God. The Law was written on stone, but grace can only be written on human hearts and when it is written there, then nothing will ever be the same. Grace holds the universe together even as it holds us in our Father’s care. 

                How can we do less than to thank God for His amazing grace?

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