GRACE, A PRICELESS GIFT THAT CAN'T BE BOUGHT

Have you ever wondered what difference it would have made in your lifestyle had you been born into an extremely wealthy family? Well, be happy if you weren’t. Most such families have a long list of problems that can all be traced back to their wealth, and their love for it and not the Lord. In any case, all Christians are far better off and will inherit far more, after the temptation to let it go to their heads is long past.

Think about it, our adoptive Father is a Billionaire, many times over. In fact he not only owns the earth, but the entire universe and beyond! And you and I are adopted in his family and will become joint heirs with His Son Jesus Christ, who has already gone to prepare a place for us. He plans to share everything with us. Amazing!

Now, our thought for today is not about an inheritance. It is about the wonderful Grace of God that He has made this possible. We are saved by His grace.
What do you mean, “Saved by grace?”

In everyday terms grace can been defined as the “undeserved gift of God.”

THIS IS SOMETHING THAT ALL MANKIND NEEDS DESPERATELY.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:” Romans 3:23,24. If all have sinned, and are condemned to die because of that, then all are helpless to save themselves. If they are to be saved, it has to be of God, for he wants all to be saved and has prepared a place for all, and the means of attaining that goal. The way has to be simple, and it is. Even a child can understand and obey the plan God has. The point is that we must do exactly what the Lord has asked, adding or leaving out nothing. It is his plan, not ours. Do we have enough faith to do exactly what he asks? Turn from our sins, confess him before men, and be obedient to him in the new birth of water and the Spirit.

PEOPLE DELIGHT TO GET SOMETHING VALUABLE COMPLETELY FREE.

If you don’t believe this, just flip your TV channel to a “games show” the next time you turn it on and watch a demonstration of pure unadulterated greed!

We need it, and God offers it, but not now. Not here.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” John 3:16-19

This is God’s grace, not ours. He took the first step, laid out the plan, and started preparing a people to accept him and draw the world back to himself. Like all people, they were a rebellious people and seemed determined to plan and go their own ways. Remember the problems Moses had during the forty years wandering in the wilderness. The trip itself, even walking, could have been completed in a few months, had they been of one mind and obeyed God. He led them day and night with his light. Remember their complaint about the food. It would not have been boring, had they not taken so many years instead of months to complete the journey. It was not meant to be a permanent diet, and it stopped as soon as they obeyed the Lord.

STRANGELY, MOST PEOPLE REJECT THIS PRICELESS GIFT OF GOD.

There is no other way to be saved than through Jesus Christ. He pictured the church as being a body of which he was the head. Without a head we are nothing, and there is no life. A gathering that does not have Christ as its head is not his church and cannot save anyone. “No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” Yet, we see all about us, those who claim to be “Christian,” yet who do not accept that he is the Son of God. Two major gatherings claiming to be Christian, actually pale at the insistence that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God. Others have chosen human “heads” and make no pretense that they follow him. They will accept that he is a god, or a prophet but not the Son of God and the head of his church. One of those actually teaches that Christ and Satan are brothers, and that all men can aspire to become gods. But people mostly simply reject the whole concept of Christianity, and any need to be saved from anything.