40 Days of GRACE - 13
Dr Jim Brown's TruNorth Devotional
40 Days of GRACE
Day 13 | THE GIFT
40 Days of GRACE
Day 13 | THE GIFT
THE GIFT
Galatians 2:21
“I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
Have you ever received a gift from family or a friend that you thought was WAY too much? Maybe it was a check, a trip, something else that was just more than you felt worthy of?
Sometimes, it’s hard to be a gracious RECEIVER of a gift given to you by someone else. Perhaps we don’t feel worthy or feel they just “shouldn’t have,” or maybe we don’t know how to be gracious in such a situation.
Salvation falls into that category in Paul’s mind. He had been SO horrible to God’s people and the church before meeting Christ on the Road to Damascus, that he has to fight the inclination to pay back the kindness that God provided him – salvation – EVEN THOUGH he had done bad things to God’s people.
The “law” that Paul refers to is, of course, the Jewish Old Testament laws (some 613 of them) that the Jews needed to DO to be in right-relationship with Almighty God. HOWEVER, Jesus Christ was the Fulfiller of the Law, as He said in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
So the law was fulfilled by Christ; yet… some in the early church and even some today think that they need to ALSO KEEP the law to be saved. They would say that FAITH + WORKS = SALVATION.
Paul states that if righteousness still came by KEEPING the law, then Christ died in vain… for nothing.
GRACE – God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense. Grace is a GIFT from God to us. Yes, like receiving a GIFT you don’t feel worthy of, Christ’s gift to us is precisely that – a GIFT from God that we don’t deserve, can’t earn, and can’t pay back.
Prayer: LORD, thank You, thank You, thank YOU for the marvelous gift of grace and salvation! Amen.
Galatians 2:21
“I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
Have you ever received a gift from family or a friend that you thought was WAY too much? Maybe it was a check, a trip, something else that was just more than you felt worthy of?
Sometimes, it’s hard to be a gracious RECEIVER of a gift given to you by someone else. Perhaps we don’t feel worthy or feel they just “shouldn’t have,” or maybe we don’t know how to be gracious in such a situation.
Salvation falls into that category in Paul’s mind. He had been SO horrible to God’s people and the church before meeting Christ on the Road to Damascus, that he has to fight the inclination to pay back the kindness that God provided him – salvation – EVEN THOUGH he had done bad things to God’s people.
The “law” that Paul refers to is, of course, the Jewish Old Testament laws (some 613 of them) that the Jews needed to DO to be in right-relationship with Almighty God. HOWEVER, Jesus Christ was the Fulfiller of the Law, as He said in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
So the law was fulfilled by Christ; yet… some in the early church and even some today think that they need to ALSO KEEP the law to be saved. They would say that FAITH + WORKS = SALVATION.
Paul states that if righteousness still came by KEEPING the law, then Christ died in vain… for nothing.
GRACE – God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense. Grace is a GIFT from God to us. Yes, like receiving a GIFT you don’t feel worthy of, Christ’s gift to us is precisely that – a GIFT from God that we don’t deserve, can’t earn, and can’t pay back.
Prayer: LORD, thank You, thank You, thank YOU for the marvelous gift of grace and salvation! Amen.
Posted in GRACE