Living with Grace

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

LIVING WITH GRACE

Eph 2:1-10

2:1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

NIV

Since we know that God loves us and does not want anyone to perish, but to come to repentance and be saved, we know that he wants us dead or alive. His grace is available while we were dead in our sins, and he made us alive in Christ. Now we also know that it is by grace that we have been saved through faith in Jesus Christ, and we know that is it God who gave us the faith in the first place so that we can know without question, that our salvation has nothing to do with us, that it is a gift from God. We can look at life from two different views. One view requires a mirror so that we can see everything in our life from our efforts and abilities. this might be also seen as seeing everything from the world's point of view. However, we would think none of us believers would ever what to look into that mirror. Instead, we have a God view concerning all things, especially our lives. Everything in our lives is based on the grace of God. This Greek word for grace is Charis or manner or act of graciousness. That would certainly be a gift from God for we know that we are not worthy of His gift, that is why it is of or from ourselves. However, at the same time, this Charis-type grace brings about something in our lives. It is seen as the divine Influence of God on our hearts and how that is reflected in our lives. This also brings us to the issue of our heart is seen from the Greek word kardia, as the thoughts and feelings (the mind) or by implication the middle. When Jesus said that out of the heart comes evil thinking, he is not implying the muscle that pumps our blood, but from the inner self, which comes from our thoughts, feelings, and mind. It is with our minds we think and produce those evil thoughts or thoughts about what is pure and lovely, which is Jesus. However, everything comes from God, his grace is all we need, for we cannot do anything about our salvation such as works or our deeds. We can never do enough to secure this gift from God. Therefore, we cannot boast about anything we can do about our salvation. But we should also consider that all boasting about self is evil. Even as believers we should not boast about our good works, or how much we do for the kingdom for that only gives glory to us or is looking for the praise of men. Because we are God’s workmanship, we are made in the image of God, and so everything we do should reflect His image, not ours. This can be difficult to grasp because it seems we do like to talk about our own lives, our past and present, things we have done and are doing, our likes and dislikes, our leisure time enjoyments, our interests in various aspects of life such as hobbies, sports, entertainment, and such. Yet, our main focus in life is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and he should be the center of our thoughts and feelings. Everything in our lives is about what God desires for us. Let us live under his grace all the days of our lives.