Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 nor of works, lest anyone should boast.
So, you have become a Christian. You look around at all the non-believers around you and ask yourself, “What is wrong with these people, don’t they know they’re going to hell?” It seems like a no-brainer doesn’t it? I mean going to live for eternity in heaven or spend all of eternity in a terrible place, separated from God, where there will be a fire that will never stop burning your body.
Well, at least you were smart enough to believe in Jesus. Is that what the Bible says? What made you believe when many around you just seem to be oblivious to God’s Word? Does Scripture tell us that we are better than everyone else because we were able to see the Light of the world for who He really is?
Not hardly. Instead, the Bible teaches it was because of God’s grace that we have been saved. God, in His grace, gave us the faith that we have. He did this so that we could not boast of being involved in the salvation process. God wants all the glory for saving you, not some of the glory. He wanted to make sure that mankind was aware of the fact that coming into a right relationship with Him was His doing and not ours.
The Bible goes on to tell us that we could not have ever understood salvation aside from God making us alive.
Ephesians 2:4-5
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
Once again we find it is all about Him. He initializes the process, He sent His Son to die to fulfill the process, He makes us alive to the process, it is His mercy, and His grace. Without Him there would be no salvation.
That is why we see people that we know, people that we love, people that we have talked to about Christ and they simply don’t get it. Many look at you as if you’re crazy, or if you are misguided. It is because they are dead in their trespasses and sins. The Bible even tells us that a person that has not been made alive to salvation can’t understand.
1st Corinthians 1:18
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God.
So, from now on be sure that you thank God for His mercy and grace. Understand that your salvation is totally because of Him and has nothing to do with you. Then begin to pray for your friends and loved ones that God will make them alive so that they too might be able to understand the message of the cross.
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