Bread of life John 6:35 The surprise of grace 21 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world 1Jhn1:1,2. And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast Eph2:1-9. If grace is that great then how come I cant feel it? There are many reasons for this but let me start with the first reason which is the fact that in many cases we think that this gift is not completely free and hence we dont get surprised. Its like someone calls you and tells you that you won a free prize and then you discover later that it is not completely free and that you have to pay part of the gifts price. For sure you will lose your initial joy or at least part of it! This is what happens with us. Grace is a free gift to someone who does not deserve but what spoils its value is some of the wrong beliefs that are quite popular among us like the belief that on the cross, our Lord Jesus had borne the sin of Adam only and hence I will still have to deal with the rest of my sins! This takes away the joy and makes what our Lord Jesus did on the cross not useful because no one can deal with even the smallest sin on earth. Which means that our Lord did not give us life but rather paid for me part of its price and I have to deal with the rest which is impossible. This idea is very wrong and I thank God that the bible is full of verses that prove that the Lord on the cross has borne my and your sins completely! The above verses are just a sample and we see that they are confirming that He [our Lord] Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. Had our Lord borne only the sin of Adam the bible would have said He is the propitiation for the original sin but the bible said not for ours [our sins] only but also for the whole world! The other verses say you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world… made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together. The bible did not say you were dead with the trespass that Adam committed but rather in which you once walked! The bible did not say that God raised us up in order to be able to deal with the rest of our sins but rather said made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. In addition to the fact that if our Lords redemptive action is limited to Adams sin then it wouldnt have been called grace as we would have still needed to deal with our mistakes and hence we would not have been saved by grace, actually we would not have been saved at all! The rest of the bible verses refute this idea as strongly! If you cannot feel grace then one possible reason is the wrong believes that we have and we dont let the Holy spirit straighten it in the bible verses. What our Lord has done is impressive and the only role you have in that redemptive action is accepting it! This is why the bible says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom6:23. This means that eternal life is a gift in which you do not need to participate in its price and all what you have to do is to accept it and enjoy it and this is what God wants because He loves you beyond what you can imagine! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prayer :(My prayer is that the following prayers will unit our hearts in front of the Lord) General prayer: Lord I ask you to teach to turn the other cheek. Persona prayer: Lord I ask you to give me strength to turn the other cheek. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” Phi 4:7 Bread of life is a ministry based on readers’ contributions, it is a daily reading and reflection on the holy bible, a prayer send daily by email 5 times a week, Monday through Friday and takes about 5 minutes to read, but our prayer is that it will benefit you all day long. Please forward this message to anyone who you think would benefit from it. Anyone can receive our emails simply by sending a message to our address breadoflifemessage@yahoo This ministry is based on readers contributions, your contribution can be ; A reflection you thought of Your feedback to improve the ministry Prayer request You can do this be sending a message to the email above. Unless otherwise mentioned, all bible quotes are from NKJV.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 23:10:56 +0000
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