If you feel unworthy of God’s love and salvation, that is precisely why Jesus came! He specializes in radically transforming the least deserving. The Gospel is founded on this shocking truth: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He came to rescue the lost. His grace is freely…
God’s grace motivates our good works, not the other way around. When we have tasted His undeserved favor, we are compelled to live for Him out of gratitude, not from guilt or even primarily from duty. We obey not to earn something from God, but because we have already been…
We are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works. Our salvation is all of grace from beginning to end. But this free gift changes us and bears fruit in a new way of living. Grace reigns in our hearts so that righteousness reigns in our…
To receive the gift of salvation, we must come to God with empty hands of faith. This means recognizing our complete inability to save ourselves by good works or religious deeds. It means confessing we have nothing to offer the Lord that could earn His favor. Faith is laying aside…
God’s grace is an undeserved, unmerited gift. It is not something we could ever earn through our own efforts. When we understand the depth of our sin, helplessness and inability to save ourselves, we desperately seek deliverance. We search for protection from the coming storm of God’s wrath against all…
Since we have been so richly blessed with new life, victory, and security in Christ, we should stand firm in the gift of salvation. Let us not take for granted or forget what God has done for us. God’s grace toward us is a firm foundation, a solid rock upon…
In saving us, God intends to “show the immeasurable riches of his grace” toward us (Eph. 2:7). We cannot begin to fathom the depths of God’s mercy or comprehend the tenderness and strength of his love. But we see glimpses of it as he daily pours out grace upon grace…
“By grace you have been saved,” Paul declares in Ephesians 2:5. God saved us not because of any good deed or merit in us, but solely because of his abundant mercy and great love. We contributed absolutely nothing to our salvation; it was an entirely undeserved gift from start to…
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked” (Ephesians 2:1). Before meeting Christ, we were trapped in spiritual death, utterly incapable of saving ourselves or earning favor with God. Our sinful desires controlled us and we were obliviously headed for destruction. Reflect deeply on…