By Bro. Manu Charley
Romans: 11.6: “And if by Grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, Grace would no longer be grace.
But tell me something, where do you stand on prayer, worship, tithing, fasting and so on?
When any of these are done for the purpose of getting God to do something for us, they become nothing more than an act of self-righteous performance. Jesus loves me no matter what, when I am good and I am bad. Our relationship with God is totally based on the perfect, finished and completed work of Jesus.The gift of life is indeed a gift and is not earned in any way by us; freely given by grace, not earned by us. We can approach our heavenly father confidently and boldly because in God’s eyes we are perfect, there is no evidence of sin or imperfections. We are perfected only through the one sacrifice that Jesus made and we can claim God’s perfection only through Christ Jesus. It is by the blood of Jesus that God forgives the children of Adam their sins and gives them the right to dwell in God’s holy presence forever.
The Pharisees were so used to their own traditions and doing things their way, that they could not see God working in a new way through Jesus. If we focus on any act of self-righteous performance to attain favor with God, we once again fall short of the mark, and end up turning to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, rather than to the Tree of Life- Jesus. Rom.3:24- reveal that “we are justified by grace - the unmerited and undeserved gift of God”. This gift can only be received when one forsakes all efforts to save him or herself and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. All our sins have been punished and condemned but in the body of another that is Jesus Christ.
It was God’s Grace that saved me and there is nothing I can add or purchase to make it any better. He wants us to trust Him, and that only happens when we dare to take our eyes off our self, trust the power of His cross, and begin to set our eyes on Him. In this way God alone is worthy of all honor, glory and praise.