Gifts of God - Day 4

Read Ephesians 2:1-10

Context: Paul is explaining God's purpose and how he has set Christ as ruler of all things.

Text:

1 In the past you were spiritually dead because of your sins and the things you did against God.2 Yes, in the past you lived the way the world lives, following the ruler of the evil powers that are above the earth. That same spirit is now working in those who refuse to obey God. 3 In the past all of us lived like them, trying to please our sinful selves and doing all the things our bodies and minds wanted. We should have suffered God's anger because we were sinful by nature. We were the same as all other people.
4 But God's mercy is great, and he loved us very much.5 Though we were spiritually dead because of the things we did against God, he gave us new life with Christ. You have been saved by God's grace.6 And he raised us up with Christ and gave us a seat with him in the heavens. He did this for those in Christ Jesus7 so that for all future time he could show the very great riches of his grace by being kind to us in Christ Jesus.8 I mean that you have been saved by grace through believing. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God.9 It was not the result of your own efforts, so you cannot brag about it.10 God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing. (New Century Version)

taken from www.biblegateway.com

One of the greatest gifts God gives is grace. Paul talks about grace more than any other writer in the Bible -- probably because he was reminded daily of how much he needed it. As today's passage shows, even though we probably didn't persecute the church as much as Paul did, we are all guilty of living for ourselves. If we are honest, it doesn't take long for us to look at yesterday and realize how much we still need grace even though we have become Christians.

The Greek word used by Paul here is 'charis' (pronounced khar'-ece). Strong's definition says "of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues."

I guess I had always seen grace as simple forgiveness -- sort of like when someone steps hard on your toes and you forgive them even though it hurts. But look closely at this definition. Grace is huge! God influences us to turn to Christ, and then he uses grace to keep us, strengthen us, and help us implement what we have learned. His grace is much more than forgiveness. It is a continuous expression of his love for us, his desire to bring us closer to him.

We cannot attain this grace on our own. The only way we can obtain it is by accepting God's gift. The cool part of this is that God has a vast storeroom of beautifully wrapped gifts of grace. Every time we want one all we have to do is ask!