Most of us like receiving presents and free gifts are even more exciting (though sadly, they often don’t live up to their advertising hype!) Supermarkets frequently offer us ‘free gifts’:
Insurance companies may offer us ‘two months for free’, but usually the prices for the remaining 10 months more than make up for this offer! God’s free gift of grace is not like these offers, however!
Mark spoke from Rom 5:12-21 this morning, reminding us that God’s free gift of grace abounds to us all, and even where sin abounds, grace abounds so much more.
Grace could be said to stand for:
G – God’s Gift (God gave us Jesus, and whilst the cost of this gift is free to us, it cost Jesus everything)
R – Righteousness (God’s gift puts us in right standing with God; we are given robes of righteousness to wear)
A – Acceptance (Eph 1:6 reminds us we are accepted in the beloved; we are acceptable to God through grace. God accepts us just as we are.)
C – Continuous (God’s grace is always available to us; it overflows to us, like the Niagara Falls. 1 Tim 1:14 reminds us that grace is ‘exceedingly abundant’.)
E – Everlasting (God’s grace leads to everlasting life; there will still be grace in eternity!)