John 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. (NIV)
What sets the Christian faith apart from many other religions is that it’s founded on the gospel. I’m sure many of you know what the gospel is, but I’ll give you a little refresher. The gospel is that Jesus Christ was crucified, lay in a tomb and was resurrected on the third day (1 Cor 15:1-4). Why did Jesus do this? To reconcile us sinners back to a holy God, so that we may have an opportunity at eternal life with Him. It’s amazing, when you take a moment to think about what God did for us, simply because He loves us. When you read through the Bible, you will see that it’s one big compilation of stories of redemption, whether it was the Israelites, Moses, Abraham, Noah, shoot Adam and Eve (lol I probably should have started the list with them) and then ALL of mankind. We could do absolutely nothing to earn this gift God has given us – it was all by His grace. Grace is the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings, or as defined by Merriam-Webster, it’s unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification. Please read, Ephesians 2:1-9.
It starts with grace.
Sometimes I believe we forget that we do not deserve what God has done for us. The word I’d like to highlight in the definition of grace is unmerited. Why do I say that? At times we grow in the faith and could become prideful, we see ourselves as better than others, and in turn, are less merciful in how we treat one another because we’re “good” people, we don’t sin like the next person does. But sin is sin is sin, doesn’t matter what sin you commit. We must keep in mind, the way that we came to God was because Christ met us (sinners) where we were in order for us to see the glory of God. Jesus Christ came to heal the sick (Mark 2:17). (The difference between Jesus and us is that He in fact was perfect and without sin.) He went into the home of Zacchaeus, a tax collector, who after meeting with Jesus repented and was saved through his belief in Him (Luke 19:1-10). Now what if Jesus didn’t do that because he was a tax collector and deemed unworthy to be in Jesus’ presence? We should emulate Christ in this way where we will share the gospel with anyone and everyone we encounter. Do not ever judge someone by their appearance and decide to not speak to them about Jesus Christ because they seem deranged or so far gone (or whatever else might put you off from sharing this saving faith with someone). We were blessed with a gift that we should NOT keep to ourselves. You will not show grace, if you don’t first have love for people in your heart.
Please take the opportunity today to share Jesus with someone. Many times, we pass up an opportunity to speak to someone about Jesus, not realizing we may never get another chance. We never want to look back to know that someone has died without Jesus…
Dear God, thank You for redeeming me back to You through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thank You for giving me eternal life through the belief of Your Son. Please Father, help me to grow in knowledge of the gospel so I may share Jesus with unbelievers. May I grow to be loving as You are and help those who are at enmity with You to come to peace with You by turning from their sins and drawing near to You. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.
P.S. I’d like to note, while God has shown us grace, we should not take advantage and see it as a free pass to sin. The purpose of Jesus Christ dying for our sins was to cleanse us and make us new. Once we come to accept Him as our Lord and Savior we are to mature in the faith by fleeing from sin.
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