Tuesday, May 03, 2011

The Gift of God's Grace (3:1-7)

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.
(Ephesians 3:1-7, NASB)

Anyone can receive the “gift of God’s grace.” Anyone. God doesn’t look at gender, race, cultural background or socio-economic status. He doesn’t care if you’re nine or ninety. He doesn’t restrict you because you’ve done shameful things.

All He wants is a repentant heart, a surrendered life.

Anyone who believes in God and accepts salvation through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ—God the Son—will be saved (Acts 2:21). Jesus is the Giver of eternal life (John 3:16; 10:8-10).

You don’t have to work for it. You don’t have to hope your good outweighs your bad. You don’t have to wonder if what you did in a past life has brought you one step closer to heaven.

You just have to believe and receive.

I don’t know about you, but I’m so very grateful that God loves each and every one of us. I’m grateful that He had a plan for my salvation—a Gentile, middle-class American woman. He has the same plan for each one of us. What a good God He is!

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