God’s grace. It’s amazing, isn’t it? And yet we often do things that reduce its grandeur.
One way we do reduce God’s grace is by thinking MORE OF OURSELVES than we should. In other words, if we have an attitude that thinks God SHOULD grant us entry into heaven, then we are over-estimating our personal righteousness and underselling the height of God’s holy standard. If we earn it, it is not given.
Another way we minimize God’s grace, however, is when we UNDERESTIMATE THE GREATNESS OF HIS BLESSING. If we fail to remember just how much God is giving us in Christ Jesus, we can lose sight of the extravagance of His grace.
In order to help us understand this principle, let’s imagine you getting a new job. You work 8 hours at this job doing the work of middle-management. What would you estimate your wage to be? For simplicity in the math, let’s say that a middle manager makes $25 per hour. Therefore, you might assume that your 8 hours of work would yield $200 in pay. Not bad. But let’s say that when it came time for payday, you were paid $200 Billion! Even if you had worked HARD for those 8 hours, that wage would be considered a true gift from your employer!
Now, let’s run this grid through the circuit of God’s gracious blessing to believers. In Ephesians 2:8-9 it says, “For by GRACE you have been saved through faith. And it is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” It is by God’s grace and not our works that we have been saved from the fires of hell. Running this through the grid of our “new job” analogy, this is saying that the wage that we gain in our salvation comes after we have worked ZERO hours. We get paid without working! This concept answers the first way we minimize God’s grace. In His grace God gives us all things … SO THAT none of us might boast. We should not overestimate our personal godliness in any way.
But what does the Scripture say about the lavish nature of our salvation? Well … for that, you need to come this Sunday to Wildwood as we will be talking about the riches of eternity for those who are in Christ. We will be doing so in part 5 of our “Lord of New Heaven and Earth” sermon series as we look at Revelation 21:1-8. These verses describe the $200 Billion (metaphorically speaking) payday that awaits God’s children! In fact, the riches these verses describe outkick the coverage of any dollar amount imaginable … the spiritual and physical blessings of eternal life in Christ are just that rich.
Make plans to be with us this Sunday at 8:30, 9:45, or 11:00 as we explore eternity together. See you Sunday … and bring friends!