Saved by Grace

Saved by Grace. Just what is grace?

Before answering I will consider how broken I continue to be. Yes! I have been saved by the grace of God. I believe it. Why me? 

Once I was broken and all the pieces have not been put together yet. I have my faults. Yet, with those imperfections, I continue to learn and grow. With all those imperfections, I was a teacher of the gospel. I didn't ask for it as it was offered to me. I didn't feel qualified, but there was that sweet quiet teacher there to encourage me with every lesson. I studied. I prayed. I reached out to God. He was always there. My words were not mine. As my mind was filled more and more with God's grace, I learned to be more loving, giving, and forgiving. Yet, God is still working on me. Why me? 

Just because. No reasonable reason for the intellectual mind. Why not the talkative social butterfly? Wouldn't a talker be better? Why not the Bob Jones University graduate who has studied under Bible scholars? Wouldn't a Bible scholar be more qualified? Yet, my heart was filled with love for the children placed before me. Oh! How I loved them! Yet, some asked, why her?

Just because. It was God's grace. It is a simple fact. This old broken woman is saved by God's grace, because he loves me. I was a broken child. A very imperfect teen. A sinner searching for a purpose. With God's grace and love, doors opened and opportunities came. It was never me or who I was. It was God's loving saving grace who knew I needed each child sitting before me as they needed to hear the gospel God gave me to share. This is grace.

Grace is offering and giving someone something they do not deserve. We are all sinners. We all continue to be imperfect. Yet, God is willing to continue to pick us up to make us what we ought to be. All we have to do is accept God's grace by placing our faith in him. Now, this is being saved by grace.

Being a child of God is not being intellectual and knowing all the scripture, but it is acknowledging that we are sinners needing forgiveness of our sins. We need faith in God and understanding of the power Jesus, the Son of God, gave us by his crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus died for me. Jesus died for you. It was God's grace that allowed His Son to die for my sins and for your sins. Why? 

God loves you. All you have to do is believe and have faith in God. 

Then, you may say, but I am already good. I go to church. I follow all the rules. 

Please know that following every law and fitting into the best congregation does not save you. This was the problem with many of the early churches. They made laws for women. They make laws for behavior and attendance. Yet, being the perfect saints did not save them. 

Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia as they were enforcing and following laws instead of teaching that we are justified by faith through the grace of God. 

But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith comes we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:24-28 (KJV)

In all of Paul's letters to the different churches, he repeated the same message of salvation. We are saved by grace. This grace comes from God who "gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) Believe. Have faith. Paul argued this point in I Corinthians 15: "For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve." (vs 3-6) The same is true today. Christianity is not doctrine. Christianity is not just obeying laws. Christianity starts with believing and repentance accepting God into our hearts.

It is to be saved by God's grace. 

Still, to never be perfect but definitely saved by God's Grace.

"For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast." Romans 2:8,9

God's grace is the greatest act of love. He overlooks all my broken ways and loves me just as I am. This is grace.