by God's grace

A Warm Bath of Grace

Many Christians often are in doubt about their own salvation. "Am I forgiven? How do I know that God is not angry with me?" And so it is so easy for Satan to trick us into believing that "No, God has not forgiven you, and never will."

And so we see the advent of legalism, and desperate attempts by several people to gain God's approval by doing several things such as confession, praying doubly hard, participating in every single activity that your church organized.

But, wasn't it said that we are saved by grace through faith?

God's Grace

Look up the definition of grace, and you get: " A favor rendered by one who need not do so."

The keywords? "need not do so"

God's grace is not something we can earn by works. Because we will never be able to live a life that is adequate enough to repay the price God has paid to redeem us.

Nothing we do will increase God's love for us, neither will there be anything we can do to decrease His love for us.

Assurance of Love

Miller candidly muses, "I used to wonder what would Jesus say to me when we meet in Heaven. Would it be like what my parents told me: 'Shape up or shift out'?"

Turn to the book of Ephesians and take a look at Paul's opening address: 'To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus.'

Did it say 'sinners'? No, it was to the 'saints'. In our acceptance of Jesus Christ, we are no longer seen as sinners, but as 'saints'.

The third chapter of Mark states that Jesus called those he wanted. He called out to the apostles, and called to them to follow Him.

Jesus was the one who called those He wanted. The fact that you are in Christ Jesus is fact enough that we are chosen by God to be His children

Mr. Miller relates the policy of adoption in the USA:

"In the US, the law does not allow for you to disown an adopted child. You may disown your biological children but never your adopted child."

Similarly, because God adopted us to be His children, He will never forsake us or disown us. (Joshua 1:5)


Knowing this we can live a life in the assurance of God's everlasting love. But we must not take this grace for granted - it was given to us undeserved, and it can be taken away.

Material from Living Free II by Dr. Rich Miller

I will be posting up another of his sermons in another post.

That said, have a blessed 2006 everyone! =)