It’s All About Grace!

Amazing Grace!  How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!

Grace.  Amazing Grace.

Time and again I use the word “grace” on this blog.  Time and again I reference the amazing grace of Jesus.  Grace is everything my faith is wrapped up in but, when I reference it, do you know what I mean?  I would love if even those of you who don’t agree with my religious beliefs would read this even if only to understand ME better since my whole life is wrapped up in this one word – GRACE!  I’m not trying to secretly convert you (although, of course, I believe that my faith is the only Truth) but, instead, I would just like to share with you what it is that I believe.

Christians often get a bad wrap for being too opinionated and too fixated on what’s wrong with others.  We’re often the first to point fingers, the first to blame, and the first to be unloving all under the guise of being “Christ-like.”  I hate to say that I do it too, but I know that I do.  We are all WRONG for doing that!  It is absolutely NOT our place to judge the actions of others since we are just as messed up and sinful as they are.  We are supposed to love others and tell them about the promise of Jesus’ Grace.  That’s it.

I believe that everyone is sinful.  Everyone does things that go against God’s perfect plan and everyone breaks the heart of God.  There are no little sins and big sins.  No one is worse than anyone else.  Everyone is messed up at our core – even the “best,” most loving people.  The righteousness of God cannot live with humanity’s sinfulness so, ultimately, we all deserve to live and die apart from God.  We deserve to be apart from Him for all eternity.  God is so good and loves us so much that He (in the person of Jesus) came to the earth and lived a perfect life – the life none of us can live – but then died in order to pay the price that is required for a life of sin.  Since He was perfect He did not deserve to die, the sacrifice of death that He made was all it took to pay the price for the wrong things everyone in the history of humanity has done, is doing, and will do.  EVERY sin was taken care of.  All anyone has to do is believe the that this truly happened and accept the gift God gives us of His payment for the wrong things we’ve done.

Did you get that?  ALL WE HAVE TO DO is accept the gift.  Period.  No rules.  No demands.  No regulations.  That, my dear friends, is Grace.

Too many Christians add to that amazing message of God’s Amazing Grace.  Too many Christians say yes, you need to accept the gift but you also need to change this or that aspect of your life.  That is having to work our way into a relationship with God.  That is not Grace.

Of course, as Paul asks in the Biblical book of Romans – Since Grace covers everything, should we just continue sinning and sinning so that there can be more and more Grace?  And, of course, the answer is No Way!  The only way we can come to understand and believe that Jesus is the payment for the things we do that go against God is by God showing us that it is true (and He’s trying to show EVERYONE that it’s true!).  Once we’ve believed that truth God continues to work on our hearts and teaches us and helps us to gradually, little by little, stop doing some of the things that go against His perfect plan and start doing the things He sees as good.

Unfortunately, no one will ever be perfect and no one will ever stop doing things that are wrong.  Regardless of this, when we have accepted the payment of Jesus as the payment for our sins God views us as perfect!  He looks at us and He sees the perfect person of Jesus.  Even though we still do wrong things we are perfect.

That is what I mean by Grace!

Your Turn:
Does any of this surprise you about my beliefs?
What are your spiritual beliefs?  I’d honestly love to hear about them!
Want to talk more about this?  Feel free to email me at susannah.kellogg@gmail.com

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