May 12, 2022 (Thursday)

Theme for the week: Words About Our Salvation

I follow a theme each week and write five blogs under that theme. Five theological words that seem to be most important when discussing the great salvation that is ours in Christ are: 1.Repentance, 2.Faith, 3.Regeneration, 4.Grace, 5.Justification. If each subject became a command, the list would read: 1.Change your mind! 2.Believe in Jesus! 3.Be born again! 4.Accept God’s gift of salvation! and 5.Thank God for a fresh start!

A Bible verse with tremendous meaning is Romans 6:23 – “..the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (ESV).

This verse offers alternatives: Sin or God? Wages or Gift? Death or Life? You must decide and the choice is definitely your own. Will your choice be death as your wages for sin, or will it be eternal life, as a gift from God? What we are choosing is very clear, and it is our own choice. No one is forcing us to choose one way or another. I don’t know about you, but it seems to me the only sensible choice is God and His gift of eternal life.

Grace has been defined as “Unmerited favor.” This is a simple definition and the first one I ever heard when I asked the question, “What is grace?” Of course, I was not asking about human graceful kindness. I was asking about the grace of God. I understand that God’s grace extended toward sinners such as I amounts to love and kindness extended toward someone completely unworthy to receive such.

The scripture verse that comes to my mind as I contemplate God’s grace is Ephesians 2:8-10 (ESV): “..by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” My, what a revelation this verse is: God is at work in our lives, and His grace is the source of our faith and our obedience. We owe our salvation to God. Period. It is His doing. Our part is to accept His grace, His gift of eternal salvation. It is ours because we have accepted it.

I knew a man who has now gone on to be with Lord who had a strained relationship with his earthly father. One day he bought an expensive watch as a gift to his father and mailed it to him. Soon he received a package from his father. It was the watch, unopened. Was it a gift? It was certainly intended to be, but it was not, because it was rejected. So it is with us sinners. God is offering salvation as a gift; will we receive it?