THE GRACE OF THE LORD JESUS

Grace arrived in the person and finished work of Christ Jesus. It is the personification of the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is also, the most important concept emphasized in the Bible, especially in the New testament. The entire gospel message is filled with the demonstrations of God's grace, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Reference: Revelation 22:21 King James Version (KJV) 'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.'

John summarized the book of Revelation with this very benediction: "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen." The grace of our Lord saved John and sustained him during his exile at Patmos. It also afforded him the privilege of gaining unusual insight into spiritual realities and God's throne in heaven. This grace positioned him to gain the learning and record the epistolary expression of the Lord's future plans.

In the beginning, God created every creature and all things that be. The book of Genesis recorded that God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good (see Genesis 1:31 KJV). The whole creation wasn't just good in God's sight, it was 'very good'. In others word, they were excellent. Unfortunately, things went wrong shortly because of Adam, and in the process of time, the world became maligned. Human nature was plagued with corruption, trouble, affliction, danger, discord, calamity, embodiment of everything that is evil, catastrophe and disastrous misfortunes.

Notwithstanding the condition of the world, this force called 'grace' later brought the full picture of one big story of God's love and salvation for the whole world. Though the books written by men throughout world history convey the fact that the world is never the same anymore, and the daily news from media express the same unceasingly, there is one great book that introduces this grace brought about by the King of kings. It is the Bible, full of the wisdom of God. Grace makes the difference because it is the advantageous asset that transforms and rescues all that is broken in the world.

It is completely by the grace of God that we came to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is by grace a sinner is saved. Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV) reads, 'For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.' It is by this grace, we receive divine healing, health, provision, protection, safety and wisdom available in Christ. It is this same grace that brought us all the benefits of salvation. We discover God's riches and inheritance for our lives through the grace He has given us as a free gift.

The grace of our Lord Jesus exterminated every human tendency to bask in self-glory or boast about self-effort. It is something to sing and shout about. It sustains us in every trial, secures our salvation and eternal life for heaven's sake, enables us to see God as the source of everything we become and causes us to give Him all the glory He deserves on behalf of our accomplishments in life. Today, grace is that 'very good' remark God made about His entire creation in the beginning, according to the book of Genesis.

The Bible says, "For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17 NLT). Death reigned and ruled the lives of every person born from Adam because of sin. But for those who receive the abundance of God's grace and the free gift of righteousness, they reign in life through Christ Jesus. In other words, receiving God's grace by placing our faith in Christ does not only free us from the reign of death, it allows us to continually reign from the kingdom of life. Hallelujah!

Scripture Reading - John 1:14-17; Romans 6:14; Ephesians 4:7; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 2:11-12.

Guided Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for your unearned love and favour upon my life, known as grace. It is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that I'm saved, and it is the greatest gift of all through salvation in Jesus Christ. I'm positioned to grow in grace and to show grace to others as I get engulfed with the knowledge of your Word. I'm forever grateful for the indwelling presence of your Spirit, which conditions me to excel in all manner of grace, in Jesus' Name, Amen!