From The Pastor’s D

Ephesians 2:1-9 In all our attempts to know God, we must face the fact that ultimately, He is beyond our understanding. From our perspective, His attributes may seem at odds with each other. For instance, He is a God of vengeance, “O Lord, the God who avenges, O God who avenges, shine forth.” ( Psalm 94:1).

Who will judge the earth, “Let them sing before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.” ( Psalm 98:9).

But He is also described as compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth, “And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, The lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”( Exodus 34:6).

God in His utter perfection is all of these things — without any contradiction at all.

The Lord will judge unrepentant sinners, yet He is gracious to all who trust in His Son for forgiveness and salvation. Grace is His goodness and kindness lavished upon everyone who receives it. It is totally undeserved because there is nothing, we can do to make ourselves acceptable to Him. And on the other hand, we can do nothing to separate ourselves from His grace. This is God’s gift to believers in Christ, and it can never be taken away from us.

Ephesians 2:8 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God…” We were saved by grace, are sustained by it, every day of our Christian life, and will be recipients of the surpassing riches of divine grace for all eternity.

Our salvation comes as a gift of God’s grace, but it can only be appropriated by the human response of faith. One cannot be saved by works, good deeds of love or strenuous efforts to keep God’s commandments. One must be saved by the grace of God. To understand the process of salvation, we must understand these two words. What an amazing gift from our Father.