We don’t see alot of grace in the world. Part of the “American way” is to work hard and earn everything that you get in life. That comes to a screeching halt when we try and build a relationship with God. What will you offer God that he needs? What can you do for God that he might owe you something? God doesn’t need us. That might seem like a depressing way to start, but until we are ready to stare at our feet and hold out our hand in the hopes that God might drop something in it, we can’t receive God’s grace. In fact we won’t receive God’s grace. Until a person understands that he is a spiritual corpse, he will never be the hopeless beggar that receives God’s grace. Martin Luther said it this way:
Such fools we are: we want to give when we ought to take. Here the beggar comes to the mighty King and “begs” from Him; but he will not take alms from Him for nothing; he wants to give Him four pennies or lice for them.
The grace of God is his love and forgiveness. The reason we say that it is by grace alone that we are saved from sin, death and the devil is because we can’t do anything on our own.
While it is a true statement that we are saved by grace alone, God focuses our works in the right direction. It’s to pay for anything spiritual. That payment was won by Jesus. Want to hear where our masterpiece comes in? How does God happily receive the things we do? Watch this Sunday’s sermon taken from Ephesians 2 to find out.
Topic(s): JustificationBook(s): Ephesians
Series: Ref500
Tag(s): King, Work Righteousness
Speaker(s): Fred Guldberg