GOD'S MARVELOUS INFINITE GRACE
"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world " Titus 2:11,12.
In this brief passage of Scripture, we see God's marvelous, infinite grace revealed through five eternal truths:
1) God's grace is an awesome reality - "for the grace of GOD" the HEIGHT OF Gods grace is as immeasurable as He is.
2) God grace brings salvation down to earth - "that bringeth SALVATION" -- the DEPTH of God's grace is that it can save the vilest sinner.
3) God's grace is available to all men - "hath appeared to ALL men -- the BREADTH of God's grace is that it encompasses all humanity from Adam until the end of time.
4) God's grace makes us hate sin - "DENYING ungodliness and worldly lusts" -- the LIGHT of God's grace is that it leads us from wickedness to holiness.
5) God's grace empowers us to live Godly lives - "soberly, righteously, GODLY" -- the POWER of God's grace is that it makes us like God perfect - through His Holy Spirit.
Until you and I come to see ourselves as who we really are in the sight of God, we will fail to see the vast dimensions of God's grace -- the unbelievable vastness of His mercy, and kindness and love -- many call it, and rightly so, God's unmerited and undeserved favor and goodwill to those who least deserve it.
When God looks at unregenerate and unsaved mankind, this is what He sees: "But we are ALL (says the prophet Isaiah) as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are AS FILTHY RAGS; and we do ALL fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away" (Isa.64:6). Sin is like a cancer in the human soul -- it pollutes and corrupts and destroys and terminates in death, and every person born since Adam has inherited this cancer. The whole human race is in "cancer ward" and does not know it, but God knows it, and He wants us to know it too!
However, there may be some one who has never seen himself or herself as God sees them -- one who believes that they are really "not too bad". But God, who is no respecter of persons, says: "There is NONE righteous, no NOT ONE: there is NONE that understandeth, there is NONE that seeketh after God. They are ALL gone out of the way, they are TOGETHER become unprofitable; there is NONE that doeth good, no, NOT ONE For ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God: being justified freely BY HIS GRACE through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:10-12; 23).
For those who might say in their hearts that they have sinned occasionally but they certainly do not deserve everlasting hell, God responds with this: " But the fearful, and UNBELIEVING, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have there part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death" (Rev.21:8). You will notice that those who are fearful and unbelieving, and those who are liars -- those who either deceive themselves or deceive others -- are included with murderers and sorcerers as deserving of hell. The first death is of course the physical -- the separation of the soul from the body. But the second death is really much worse -- it is the separation of the soul from the gracious God eternally. You can never turn back to God when once you are in the Lake of Fire. And this sober reality is what brings us to appreciate the grace of God while we live and breathe on this planet, and respond to it.
Until the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to our own wretched condition -- that we are but vile and unclean sinners, destined to suffer in hell for ever and for ever -- we cannot appreciate, even in some small measure, how an absolutely holy and righteous God could offer us the gift of eternal life through His infinite grace and mercy.
HOW SHOULD BE RESPOND TO GODS GRACE?
It is really so simple that even a child can respond. BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED (Acts 16:31) But AS MANY AS RECEIVED HIM [into their very souls] to them gave He power [authority] to become THE SONS OF GOD, even to them that BELIEVE on His Name: WHICH WERE BORN, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, BUT OF GOD. (John 1:12-13).
"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world " Titus 2:11,12.
In this brief passage of Scripture, we see God's marvelous, infinite grace revealed through five eternal truths:
1) God's grace is an awesome reality - "for the grace of GOD" the HEIGHT OF Gods grace is as immeasurable as He is.
2) God grace brings salvation down to earth - "that bringeth SALVATION" -- the DEPTH of God's grace is that it can save the vilest sinner.
3) God's grace is available to all men - "hath appeared to ALL men -- the BREADTH of God's grace is that it encompasses all humanity from Adam until the end of time.
4) God's grace makes us hate sin - "DENYING ungodliness and worldly lusts" -- the LIGHT of God's grace is that it leads us from wickedness to holiness.
5) God's grace empowers us to live Godly lives - "soberly, righteously, GODLY" -- the POWER of God's grace is that it makes us like God perfect - through His Holy Spirit.
Until you and I come to see ourselves as who we really are in the sight of God, we will fail to see the vast dimensions of God's grace -- the unbelievable vastness of His mercy, and kindness and love -- many call it, and rightly so, God's unmerited and undeserved favor and goodwill to those who least deserve it.
When God looks at unregenerate and unsaved mankind, this is what He sees: "But we are ALL (says the prophet Isaiah) as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are AS FILTHY RAGS; and we do ALL fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away" (Isa.64:6). Sin is like a cancer in the human soul -- it pollutes and corrupts and destroys and terminates in death, and every person born since Adam has inherited this cancer. The whole human race is in "cancer ward" and does not know it, but God knows it, and He wants us to know it too!
However, there may be some one who has never seen himself or herself as God sees them -- one who believes that they are really "not too bad". But God, who is no respecter of persons, says: "There is NONE righteous, no NOT ONE: there is NONE that understandeth, there is NONE that seeketh after God. They are ALL gone out of the way, they are TOGETHER become unprofitable; there is NONE that doeth good, no, NOT ONE For ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God: being justified freely BY HIS GRACE through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:10-12; 23).
For those who might say in their hearts that they have sinned occasionally but they certainly do not deserve everlasting hell, God responds with this: " But the fearful, and UNBELIEVING, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have there part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death" (Rev.21:8). You will notice that those who are fearful and unbelieving, and those who are liars -- those who either deceive themselves or deceive others -- are included with murderers and sorcerers as deserving of hell. The first death is of course the physical -- the separation of the soul from the body. But the second death is really much worse -- it is the separation of the soul from the gracious God eternally. You can never turn back to God when once you are in the Lake of Fire. And this sober reality is what brings us to appreciate the grace of God while we live and breathe on this planet, and respond to it.
Until the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to our own wretched condition -- that we are but vile and unclean sinners, destined to suffer in hell for ever and for ever -- we cannot appreciate, even in some small measure, how an absolutely holy and righteous God could offer us the gift of eternal life through His infinite grace and mercy.
HOW SHOULD BE RESPOND TO GODS GRACE?
It is really so simple that even a child can respond. BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED (Acts 16:31) But AS MANY AS RECEIVED HIM [into their very souls] to them gave He power [authority] to become THE SONS OF GOD, even to them that BELIEVE on His Name: WHICH WERE BORN, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, BUT OF GOD. (John 1:12-13).
