Devotional
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By Grace, Through Faith
Ephesians 2:8-9 "it is by grace you are saved through faith, that not of ourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should
boast"
"Grace?" "Faith?" "Not of ourselves?" "Gift of God?" "Works?" What do all these words mean?
"When I got saved, I knew my need for Jesus, I knelt down, and I accepted Jesus to come into my heart, right?" Well yea, kinda. Let's look deep into the word of God for a minute. The first thing we have to realize is that we didn't get saved, God saved us! You may say, "yea, I know that," but do you really understand it. Romans 3:20 says "therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin" In old testiment times, before Christ, God instituted the law of Moses so that people who would truly seek God would have something to follow whereby they could go to Heaven. The law involved attonement for sin such as the sacrificing of animals. When an animal was sacrificed for the sake of attonement, God would cover that man's sin until he sinned again, and he would have to repeat the process. When Christ came and took on the sin of humanity, He was the ultimate attonement. The blood of animals was no longer acceptable to God. Why would God accept a sacrifice of "works" after Jesus paid it all by "grace"? He had paid the ultimate price for our sin. The "law" in Romans 3:20 is the "works" in Ephesians 2:8-9, and still to this day we try to come to God by "works". (Maybe not by sacrificing animals, but by the practice of religion in general) It says that no man can be forgiven of his sins through his own actions. If this is true, and it is, then how did we "get saved", and is it blasphemous for us to take the credit for something that we did not do? The Bible clearly states that we were spiritually dead in sin, right?, so how can a dead person accept a gift? He cannot. When you were saved, God called you out of the grave. You were totally and completely helpless and without hope. God, In His mercy, has raised you from the dead, spiritually. We are truly blessed!
Now, you may be saying, "Wait a munite, this is a bunch of deep nonsense that doesn't apply to me," but it does. Here is something to think about. Theology is simply the study of God. (theos - God...ology) Now, how can you love somebody that you know nothing about? You can't. When two people get married, they don't enter into a relationship blindly, do they? No, they date and they fall deeper in love with each other as they learn more about each other. The same thing applies to your relationship with God Almighty. As we learn more about Him through what He reveals to us in His word, we grow in our relationship with Him and we fall deeper in love with Him. We, as Christians, have to realize who God really is in order to know Him more. That is why I chose to start the devotional page with salvation - our new beginning - so that you can gain a new perspective of God and build on a sturdy foundation. That is the reason for having a devotional life - to know Him more! He is the All-Powerful, Eternal, Merciful Creator of the universe and we don't deserve His grace - but He gives freely. This is our God. Are you ready to dive into God's river of knowledge, the Bible? Hang on tight!
In Christ, Danny