Grace

Dark is the stain that we cannot hide: What can avail to wash it away?

Look! There is flowing a crimson tide--Whiter than snow you may be today.

Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace.

Freely bestowed on all who believe!

You that are longing to see His face, you this moment His grace receive?

---Julia H. Johnston

I can do nothing to change my spiritual position in Christ. It is Christ's blood, on my behalf, that washes me whiter than snow. Changing my eternal destiny (what I deserve) from eternal punishment, to exactly where I don't----eternal glory with the Father in the Heaven.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

---Ephesians 2:8-9

In my fallen, sinful condition, God would have been just to allow me to suffer the consequences of my sinful nature---That consequence being His wrath for all eternity. It would have made sense. But He did just the opposite!

And you (mankind) dead in the trespasses and sins which you once walked .... and were by nature children of wrath. .... But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, ... so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

---Ephesians 2:1-7

So, why didn't God do what would have made sense? He had a bigger idea. God saved us for His purposes. In this lifetime, on earth, God wants to demonstrate His grace poured out in our lives. As we are going about our day to day, experiencing the ups and downs of parenthood perhaps, in our marriage relationship, in ministry---wherever God has us. The only way we can live, is by His grace. His grace is power on earth to face our circumstances with courage and to respond in obedience to His Word.

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

---1 Corinthians 10:13

But what about when we fail? When the temptation does overtake us? It is God's grace that convicts our hearts when we sin, and causes us to return to Him---His grace gives us the desire to confess our sins. There is no lack of grace; God does not run out.

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

---2 Corinthians 9:8