Sin & Grace

   You know, we should preach against sin. But, with a lot of humility.  Every time I hear a preacher preach on sin, it all too often is not done with humility.  It comes across as if "I've got it worked out....you don't".  And worse, sometimes it comes across as if salvation came because he got rid of all his sin.  You know folks, that ain't so!  While were still sinners, God started loving us (grace).  You are saved because you have accepted Jesus as Lord, thereby causing a new spirit to be created in you (grace).  And then, guess what?  The benefit of forgiveness became yours (grace).  God doesn't offer forgiveness to those outside of His family (they need to born again), but to His family, the "brethren",  He is faithful and just to forgive (1 Jo. 1:9). 

    Sometimes when we present salvation, we do tend to present it as if getting rid of all our sin by sufficient repentance accomplished salvation.  Folks, that ain't so either!   We are saved by grace - meaning we had no input in the matter. We were dead, doomed, without hope, but just as in the beginning when God gathered up a handful of clay and blew life into it by His choice, He gathers up the hopeless, the dead, the doomed, the undeserving and blows life into us and we are saved - by grace.

   To be saved by "grace" means you have zero reason, zero input, zero influence in the matter.   It was and is a gift! And, guess what, the gift lives on.  Not only were we saved, rescued from darkness and from our lost-ness by grace, we are also kept by grace.  Still as undeserving as we were in the beginning, we are kept by the "word of His power" (grace).  Thank God, grace is an ongoing flow from the throne.  It cleans up the past, surrounds us in the present and goes before us into tomorrow.  Should we ever think we deserve it, earned it, bought it, or inherited it, we have missed it.  Grace is free and unmerited - or - it isn't grace.  Man has a tremendous struggle with accepting grace.  In one way or the other, we want to add something we did to grace and we can't add a thing.   Oh, by the way grace has a name.  Know what it is?  "Holy Ghost", otherwise known as the "Spirit of Grace".