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Saved by Grace

There are things which we can and must buy for our natural lives. There is also that which is purchased for our spiritual life, and for the glory that we shall receive in our bodies when Christ returns. This was not purchased by gold and silver, but by the blood of Christ and by His perfect obedience. Also it is given us as a free gift of God's grace.

Paul presents this truth in Ephesians 4:7 where he wrote, "But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." That word "but" contrasts this truth with what we read in the preceding verse. We have the one God in us; but we by no means earned that blessedness. Grace is given us, not purchased by us through "accepting an invitation," as some want to teach. By grace we are saved. And that means that salvation is God's free gift to us. We do not deserve the smallest part of any blessing. Instead we deserve everlasting grief and pain in the lake of fire. One sin -- as became plain in Adam's and Eve's first sin -- calls for an everlasting punishment. For we sin against an everlasting God Who cannot forget our wickedness and hatred against Him. In every sin we say that He is not God and may not tell us what we must do.

But by grace we are saved through faith ( Eph. 2:8-10 ). Here in chapter 4 Paul tells us that grace gives us salvation. It is even in His grace that God gives us both the desire for salvation and the assurance that we have it. He who receives the smallest measure of blessing receives a most wonderful gift.

Hold on to that truth. Salvation is a free gift God gives to those who earned the everlasting curse. We, being saved by grace, are saved by God. It is His work, not ours, that realizes salvation in us. Salvation is in us but not of us. Our flesh wants freedom from punishment; but our salvation basically is freedom from sin. That must be given by God to spiritually dead people. And in His grace He does give it.

Read: Ephesians 2:1-10 .

Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:

Job 12Job 13Job 14Job 15:1-35 
1 Corinthians 15:29-58 
Psalm 39:1-13 
Proverbs 21:30-31 
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Quote for Reflection:

 Matthew Henry: "Those who in choosing relations, callings, dwellings, or settlements are guided and governed by the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, or the pride of life, and consult not the interests of their souls and their religion, cannot expect God’s presence with them, nor his blessing upon them, but are commonly disappointed even in that which they principally aimed at, and miss of that which they promised themselves satisfaction in. In all our choices this principle should overrule us, That that is best for us which is best for our souls."