GREAT
GRACE
BREAD
21 But
now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the
Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in
Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Romans
3:21-24 (NIV)
1 Therefore,
since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through
whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And
we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also
rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces
perseverance; 4 perseverance,
character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has
poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:1-5 (NIV)
17 For
if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how
much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the
gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Romans 5:17 (NIV)
9 For I
am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace
to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I,
but the grace of God that was with me. 1
Corinthians 15:9-10 (NIV)
7 To
keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great
revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to
torment me. 8 Three
times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect
in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my
weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's
sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in
difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV)
16 From
the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through
Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but
God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known. John 1:16-18 (NIV)
11 In the
same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign
in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your
body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God,
as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your
body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your
master, because you are not under law, but under grace. Romans 6:11-14 (NIV)
13 Therefore,
prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the
grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14 As obedient children, do not
conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you
is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:13-16 (NIV)
11 For
the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness
and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in
this present age, 13 while
we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and
Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who
gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself
a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. Titus 2:11-14 (NIV)
18 But
grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be
glory both now and forever! Amen. 2
Peter 3:18 (NIV)
BUTTER
“The
only ground on which God can forgive our sin and reinstate us to His favor is
through the Cross of Christ. There is no
other way! Forgiveness, which is so easy
for us to accept, cost the agony at Calvary.
We should never take the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy
Spirit, and our sanctification in simple faith, and then forget the enormous
cost to God that made all of this ours.
Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace. The cost to God was the Cross of Christ. To forgive sin, while remaining a holy God,
this price had to be paid. Never accept
a view of the fatherhood of God if it blots out the atonement. The revealed truth of God is that without the
atonement He cannot forgive – He would contradict His nature if He did. The only way we can be forgiven is by being
brought back to God through the atonement of the Cross. God’s forgiveness is possible only in the
supernatural realm……Once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you
will be held as in a vise, constrained by the love of God.” Oswald
Chambers
“There are such difficulties in the way of our salvation as
could never be overcome but by that grace of God which is almighty. ‘What is impossible with men is possible with
God.’ His grace can work on the soul, so as to alter the bent and bias of it,
and give it a contrary leaning.” Matthew Henry
“Grace remits sin
and peace quiets the conscience. Sin and conscience torment us, but Christ has
overcome these fiends now and forever. Only Christians possess this victorious
knowledge given from above. These two terms, grace and peace, constitute
Christianity. Grace involves the remission of sins, peace and a happy
conscience. Sin is not canceled by lawful living, for no person is able to live
up to the law…the fact is the more a person seeks credit for himself by his own
efforts, the deeper he goes into debt. Nothing can take away sin except the
grace of God. In actual living, however it is not so easy to persuade oneself
that by grace alone, in opposition to every other means, we obtain the
forgiveness of our sins and peace with God.”
Martin Luther
“The wonders of divine grace are the
greatest of all wonders. The wonders of divine power and wisdom in the making
of this great world are marvelous; many wonderful things have happened since
the creation of the world, but none like the wonders of grace. “Grace, grace!”
is the sound that the gospel rings with, “Grace, grace!” will be that shout
which will ring in heaven forever; and perhaps what the angels sung at the
birth of Christ, of God's good will towards men, is the highest theme that ever
they entered upon.” Jonathan
Edwards
“It is well to be poor, when the knowledge
of our poverty serves but to unfold to us the exhaustless riches of divine
grace. That grace can never suffer any one to go away empty. It can never tell
anyone that he is too poor. It can meet the very deepest human need; and not
only so, but it is glorified in meeting it. This holds good in every case. It
is true of every individual sinner…Grace is the grand and only resource for us
all. It is the basis of our salvation;
the basis of a life of practical godliness; and the basis of those imperishable
hopes which animate us amid the trials and conflicts of this sin-stricken
world. May we cherish a deeper sense of grace, and more ardent desire for glory! C H MacIntosh
“When a believer has
fallen into a low, sad state of feeling, he often tries to lift himself out of
it by chastening himself with dark and doleful fears. Such is not the way to
rise from the dust, but to continue in it. It is not the law, but the gospel
which saves the seeking soul at first; and it is not a legal bondage, but
gospel liberty which can restore the fainting believer afterwards. Slavish fear
brings not back the backslider to God, but the sweet wooings of love allure him
to Jesus' bosom…Whatever good quality there is in divine grace, you shall enjoy
it to the full. All the riches of divine grace you shall receive in plenty; you
shall be as it were drenched with it: and as sometimes the meadows become
flooded by the bursting rivers, and the fields are turned into pools, so shall
you be--the thirsty land shall be springs of water.” Charles
Spurgeon
“Even
though we are now in faith, the heart is always ready to boast itself before
God and say, ‘After all, I have preached the law, lived so well and done so
much that surely He will take this into account ‘. We even want to haggle with God to make Him regard
our life, but it cannot be done. With men you may boast, I have done the best I
could...If anything is lacking, I will still try to make recompense, but when
you come before God, leave all that boasting at home. Remember to appeal from justice into
grace. But let anybody try this and he
will see and experience how exceedingly hard and bitter a thing it is for a
man, who all his life, has been marred and has worked righteousness to pull
himself out of it with all his heart would rise up through faith in the one
mediator. I myself have been preaching and cultivating it through reading and
writing for almost twenty years and still feel the old clinging dirt of wanting
to deal so with God that I may contribute something so that He will give me His
grace in exchange for my holiness. Still I cannot get it into my head that I
should surrender myself completely to sheer grace, yet I know that this is what
I should and must do.” Martin Luther
“The freer the
Gospel, the more sanctifying is the Gospel; and the more it is received as a
doctrine of grace, the more will it be felt as a doctrine according to
godliness. Salvation by grace - salvation by free grace - salvation not of
works, but according to the mercy of God - salvation on such a footing is not
more indispensable to the deliverance of our persons from the hand of justice,
than it is to the deliverance of our hearts from the chill and the weight of
ungodliness. Retain a single shred or fragment of legality with the Gospel, and
we raise a topic of distrust between man and God. We take away from the power
of the Gospel to melt and to conciliate. For this purpose, the freer it is, the
better it is.” Thomas
Chalmers
“It
is a sure mark of grace to desire more.” Robert Murray M’Cheyne
“Let
me carefully mark the inward workings of thy grace, and the outward tokens of
thy providence, so as daily to have a true sense of thy gracious presence in
every thing, more or less important; and thereby to be ever strengthened in
faith, and kept in a composed state of mind; considering that nothing happens
by mere chance, but all is wisely ordered by thy providential care to our good;
firmly believing, if anything goes contrary to expectation, that something
better will follow in its stead, if we only can be quiet, and wait the time.” K.H.
Von Bogatzky
“The Will of God
will never take you where the Grace of God cannot sustain you!” Anonymous
“No
sea is deeper than the ocean of His love.
There is no army stronger than His hosts, no force greater than His
throne of grace, no enemy who can overcome His direct and indirect work in our
lives.” Robert
J. Morgan
HEART
SAVOR
- · His grace is greater than all my sin.
- · His grace is more than sufficient to meet my every need.
- · His grace not only remits my sin but gives me a peace which surpasses all fleshly understanding.
