Where's God? His Grace

In this search for the “narrow path”(Matthew 7:14) I've come across a very interesting aspect of God, everything He does is by grace. When God created, He created by grace. When God blesses, He blesses by grace. So what is grace?

Grace is more than just free and unmerited favor, it is the embodiment of God's goodness and love. It's His wisdom. All heaven rejoices in the goodness of God. The Bible records the angels singing whenever God expounds His grace, such as at Creation and the birth of Christ.

Through grace God has already provided everything we need from air, water, food and of course salvation. I have discovered that salvation does not only pertain to the forgiveness of sins, it's *deliverance from slavery or from some great distress by the intervention of God. (*NLT dictionary/concordance definition of salvation), and is another powerful witness to the truth of our loving Father.

When we received the new birth through faith in Jesus, we were restored to friendship with the Father. We were a brand new creation—not a dusted off version of Adam, as I was taught. In God's wisdom He made us something that had not existed before! (2 Corinthians 5:17). That is a tough concept to fully understand. Through the blood of Jesus we have much more authority and power than God gave Adam and Eve. They did not have God living on the inside of them, like we do. When they rebelled against God, it was the sinless and pure spirit that died.

I always seemed to confuse God's grace and mercy. Mercy is not getting what you deserve, while God's grace is totally independent of anything we do. That is amazing! We can't earn grace. Grace is something so beyond our comprehension, more than we could hope for or imagine. When the Father moves—grace is the wake, an overabundance exceeding in greatness.

I think of it this way, God didn't make one star He made countless billions. God didn't just make one flower variety, He made thousands upon thousands. He didn't just make one tree, He made thousands upon thousands that serve many purposes, like food, shade and medicine. God didn't make one variety of animal He made thousands upon thousands. This fact kinda blows evolution right out of the water, but some fools still want to believe a lie.

As I begin to understand God's grace, it dramatically changes the way I think and approached God. Grace is the Gospel of Jesus. Grace is the way the Kingdom of God works. We can only access and get a clear understanding of grace in our lives through faith. We must renew our mind to the truth of Jesus and believe the promises of God.

“But God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so very much, that even while we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead. (It's only by God's special favor [grace] that you have been saved!) For He raised us from the dead along with Christ, and we are seated with Him in the heavenly realms – all because we are one with Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:4-6

Where's God? The Good News

The good news is that God has never left us. I've heard some false teaching that God walked away from mankind after the sin in the garden. Then I've heard people teach if we seek Him and if we are especially good that maybe, just maybe He will have mercy on us and let us live or better yet, let us into heaven. Those are all lies. There is not one person holy enough, good enough or righteous enough to earn God's favor.

You might be thinking – Well what about Jesus? The Bible says He was Holy, Righteous and True. This is fact, however Jesus was God appearing to us in the flesh. He was not created from the corrupted seed that all people have inherited through Adam.

So what is the good news? The good news is that God loves us unconditionally-that means without conditions, no strings! He is the one who chose us and is seeking us out. We might have heard that God loves us unconditionally, but how does that resonate in us? What do you truly believe?

The nutshell Gospel is: God loves the world and the people He created, that when people believed a lie and abused the power He gave them, it made them enemies. To restore all things to their intended purpose The Father gave up His own Son to make full payment for the lies people believed about the Father and to reveal the truth about the Father. Any person who has eyes to see and ears to hear and believes this message will enter into relationship with God the Father because of the full payment of His Son Jesus made on the cross. Those who believe receive full Sonship with all the rights and privileges as the children of the King, including full access to the Father. They have received the same holiness and right standing that the perfect Son Jesus has. They will also receive the same power that Jesus had on earth.

This is the full truth of the Gospel of Jesus –That is what the New Testament says. Why haven't we been clearly taught these truths. Why does the church keep people under the Law—which keeps us in bondage to sin and away from the freedom, power and grace of God. Why isn't the authority that God has given us to do things being more boldly emphasized?

I praise God that He doesn't leave us to figure things out on our own, but gently guides us back to the scriptures. He brings godly teaches in our lives whose understanding is a little more mature than we are, helping us untangle the web of deception and show us the truth.

You need to ask yourself a couple questions, just how much do you believe God loves you? Meditate on John 3:16. Then ask yourself do you really think Jesus paid for all the sins of the world – that's everybody who has ever lived or will live. Or do you think He died just for the nice people? Ponder these scriptures 2 Corinthians 5:19, Romans 4:8