We don't change God's message - His message changes us.

4. Grace

Mercy means not getting what we deserve for our sin. Mercy is God's decision not to punish us as we deserve.

But Grace  means much more than that. It means not only that we don't get what we deserve, but also that we do get what we don't deserve!

Grace  has been tritely but accurately described as God's Riches At Christ's Expense.

Ephesians 2:1-9    “1 It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. 2 You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. 3 We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. 4 Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, 5 he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! 6 Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah. 7 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower Grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. 8 Saving is all his idea and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! 9 We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! “

When praying, don't give God instructions - just report for duty...

First - ``because of his great love for us'' - God shows mercy by forgiving our ``transgressions and sins''. Instead of the death that we should rightly receive as reward for our sins, we are made alive with Christ.                  (``The wages of sin is death'' - Romans 6:23)

Then he goes even further. Rather than merely showing mercy by canceling the death penalty, God shows Grace raising us up with Christ and seating him in heavenly places. Not only do we not receive the punishment that we do deserve, we also receive the reward that we don't deserve.

Paul is very clear that all of this is God's doing: we are saved not by faith but by Grace (through faith) - in other words, by something that God does rather than something that we do. And even the faith through which Grace works is from us, but is a gift from God.

Next week: . . . . . Why does God give Grace?

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Worry is the darkroom in which negatives can develop.

Be blessed today

Shalom    שלום

Bernard