Daily Devotional August 22 - Grace.

"For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace."  Romans 6:14

Grace is the single biggest experience you will ever have in your life. If, when you were saved, you didn't grasp the enormity of what grace meant, I'm sorry about that. There's so much teaching that keeps us from really enjoying the truth about grace and understanding its implications concerning our life. One example is that once you are saved, i. e., receiving this grace, you then need to abide by rules that keep you saved; tithing, duty, ministry, taking communion, baptism, second blessing, receiving a particular gift of the spirit that everyone must receive and on and on. None of these things are true. Most of things are results of getting saved and were never meant to be conditions to keep you saved.

There is one condition to keep you saved. To get saved.

Grace is so big it is impossible to understand it fully with our finite minds. But whatever you think it is, it is bigger. To whatever degree you think it covers you, it covers more. To whatever depth you think grace takes you, it takes you further. Grace takes you from condemned (John 3:18) to applauded (Luke 15:7). Grace is the journey for the Christian. Grace removed your chances to die in your sins. Grace covered your past sin and indiscretion and it now unites you into the rest (to cease from working for approval) of God. You are approved. You are covered by the blood of Jesus. You are made in the image and likeness of Jesus. You are chosen and adopted into the kingdom of God. You are exactly what God desires to be united with. You are accepted into the beloved. You are saved from your sins and saved into a life where you do now have the ability and the internal desire to serve God with affection, love and zeal.

It is a shame what weak kneed preaching has done to God's people. Those who have tried to get you to do this or do that, say this or say that, they don't understand grace. First of all grace is not something you can do to yourself or get for yourself by following some formula. You have no power over receiving the grace of God nor do you have power of its efficacy. Grace is given by God to those who accept Jesus as their Savior and what God does to make sure that this grace is not lost is the work of God and not the work of man. The instructions in righteousness in the Bible are for your benefit and to benefit the world at large. None of it is so that you can keep grace alive by some method or works plus faith or belief plus faith or works plus belief or faith plus works plus belief plus anything. Grace is God covering you and needs no assistance. Grace is a work of God and not to be measured by men.

If there were anything to brag about as a Christian, it wouldn't be that you taught Sunday School for thirty years or that you preached good messages or that you were faithful to take the wafer once a week, nor would it be that you fed the poor or tithed every week or that you spoke in an unknown language or prophesied about future events. If there were anything to brag about as a Christian it would be that God chose you to give you grace.