GRACE HAS COME TO YOU - PART 3

SATURDAY 06 JANUARY 2024

Reference: 1 Peter 1:10-12 New International Version (NIV)

"Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things."

Beloved, grace has to come to you in Christ Jesus. However there is an important truth that needs to be understood about GRACE. Jude warned in his epistolary expression versified as Jude 1:4, and it reads, "I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God's marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ" (NLT).

Why did Jude warn the churches of such people? The Bible has already let us know what GRACE is, and the instructive influence attached to it! This is clearly revealed in Titus 2:11-12, which reads, "For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God" (NLT).

There are those who create a distortion, a perversion or misrepresentation of what is true and real about God's grace, and they use their salvation to cover up their unwillingness to do what is right and live a holy life, which is the primary purpose of receiving divine grace. Through the duplicity of the original course of grace, they manifest a sense of self-absorption in their Christian lives instead of following promptly, the way of the Spirit.

I strongly believe that lack of alacritous cogitation on the Word, as well as, the neglect of hearing and gaining its accurate understanding mainly contribute to conceptual, mundane and gross dynamics that induce such Christians to see and experience GRACE in the wrong manner. Don't treat your Christian life with laxity because earthly inattention to God's Word will definitely lead to contortion of God's GRACE.

Paul once said, "I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain" (KJV). In other words, he did not live his Christian life in the flesh, influenced by the dictates of the law, but rather he lived by grace through the faith of the Son of God. To that effect, The New Living Translation of Romans 7:6 says, "But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit." Got it?

We do not serve God by fulfilling the letter of the law, like the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who were the members of ancient Jewish sect during the epoch of Christ. Remember that the Pharisees practised the strict observance of the traditional and written Mosaic law, while the Sadducees emphasized the acceptance of the written Law alone, and openly denied the resurrection of the dead, and the existence of spirits. As born again Christians, we've been called to function in the new way of the Spirit, not in the old way of the written code.

Now watch this: Jude 1:6 reads, "And I remind you of the angels who did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them but left the place where they belonged. God has kept them securely chained in prisons of darkness, waiting for the great day of judgment" (NLT). According to this versified statement, even the angels themselves are not given a second chance or GRACE.

Since we just read that these angels who did not keep their positions of authority are not given a second chance or grace dispensation, do you now understand what God has done for mankind through our Lord Jesus Christ? Beloved that's the reason morning stars or angelic beings in heaven long to look into the matter, namely "God's grace given to mankind." Stay tuned for part 4. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - 1 Corinthians 15:10; Ephesians 3:7-8; Hebrews 4:16; 2 Timothy 2:1.

Exuberant Declaration:

I am found and grounded in Christ, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but the righteousness which is through Christ, whom I have gained access by faith into the grace of God on which I now stand firmly. Glory to God!