3/15/15----We're on a Journey...By Grace

The following pieces of Scripture are probably familiar:

Ephesians 2:8-10

You are saved by God’s grace because of your faith. This salvation is God’s gift. It’s not something you possessed. It’s not something you did that you can be proud of. Instead, we are God’s accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these good things to be the way that we live our lives.

 John 3:16-17

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. God didn't send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

The connection between these passages is that this life we have, this journey we're on, the salvation offered us by God through Jesus Christ, is all a gift. It's all grace.

What would it look like if we treated everything we have, every opportunity we have, every place we go, every person we meet...as a gift for us from God?

In John 3, we see Nicodemus wanting Jesus to give him a sign in order to provide him with faith (don't we do this???). Jesus responds to him, a Pharisee, that he must be born again. This confuses Nicodemus, and so Jesus explains what that means to him. Faith is not easy, folks, but it provides a way for us to be transformed by the grace of God into people of God. It is not based on signs, but a relationship with God that transforms us.

Paul explains to the church in Ephesus that this faith, by God's grace, actually has the power to save you. A true faith that changes the way we live, saves us. In giving we shall receive eternal life; by faith we may always have that relationship with God.

See you on Sunday!