GRACE THROUGHOUT OUR LIVES

It is a tragic and fatal error to believe: I have lived a good life. My good works will earn my wat to heaven. Every human being ever born is under the curse of Adam's sin and is unworthy of salvation. However, God's merciful and loving grace triumphed over judgement and offered a way of salvation.

Before God's grace came into our lives, we were spiritual corpses. Because of our inherited sin, we are all born spiritually dead. Until God's grave breathed His Spirit into our spiritual lives, we could not even make a move toward God.

Ephesians 2:1-2 says: "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient." The Apostle Paul is saying that before grace came into our lives, we were dead men walking.

We weren't only dead men walking, but we were enslsaved to sin. We had no power to overcome. We had no room for God. Verse 3 says: "All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath." In our past, we were subject to the wrath of God. If you have received the grace of God, the gift of eternal life, you are no longer under wrath, and you will never be under wrath again.

God's grace gives us a glorious present. Life without Christ is a dreadful condition, but when grace comes in and we repent and turn to Christ, everything changes.

"It is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:5-6). By grace we are saved and set free from sin and are seated in the heavenly places. If you are seated in the heavenly realm. you are no longer enslaved to sin.

When grace flows into a life, power accompanies that grace. This power not only delivers us from the consequences of sin, it frees us from the power of sin right now. When came to Christ, you were set free. You are no longer a captive to sin.

Grace takes away our dismal past, grace gives us a glorious present, and grace leads sus into stupendous futures. Our immediate future consists of the wonderful occupation of being an ambassador representative of the King of Glory. You have already changed position. You are no longer a slave; you are an ambassador.

In Ephesians 2:7, Paul talks about a distant future--"in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus." God has given us grace now, but He's going to show us far more grace when we see Him face-to-face.

Only an ungrateful person would take all of God's grace and never say "Thank You." Are you serving with all of your heart in thankfulness to the grace of God?

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. - Ephesians 2:10

Copied from My Journal, The Awesomeness of God's Grace by Dr. Micheal Youssef