Grace As A Covering – June 7, 2015

Romans 3:27 – 28     Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.

Romans 8:2     And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.

Mark 16:16     Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.

Galatians 3:22     But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God's promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.

by Charles R. Swindoll

For the next few moments, graze slowly over this paragraph of truth recorded by Paul in the letter to the Ephesians. Take your time. Don't hurry.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:1–9)

Pay close attention to ten single-syllable words, "by grace through faith . . . it is the gift of God."

One of my greatest anticipations is some glorious day being in a place where there will be no boasting, no name-dropping, no selfishness. Guess where it will be? Heaven. There will be no spiritual-sounding testimonies that call attention to somebody's super-colossal achievements. 

None of that! Everybody will have written across his or her life the word "Grace."

"How did you get up here?"
"Grace!"
"What made it possible?"
"Grace."
"What's your name?"
"Grace."