John 1:16-17 (Amplified) says, "For out of His fullness (abundance), we have all received, all had a share and were all supplied with, one Grace after another and Spiritual Blessing upon Spiritual Blessing and even favor upon favor and Gift heaped upon Gift. For while the Law was given through Moses, Grace (unearned, undeserved favor) and Spiritual Blessing and Truth, came through Jesus Christ."
The Grace God has now granted us, is the ability to enter into perfect fellowship with Him. Fellowship with God was lost to man, after Adam's transgression in the Garden and sin and death ruled God's lost man. When Jesus was resurrected from the dead and ascended to Heaven as the Lamb of God for mankind, righteousness and acceptance was again restored to the Father.
Grace was and is, so much more than the forgiveness of sin. Sin was completely eradicated from the believer and righteousness has been restored to God's family again. We believed the reason God had no place in our lives before we were saved, was because we were "dirty and unclean." Sin did make us unclean, but it wasn't just because we had sinned. It was because sin had brought forth death. We haven't understood what Spiritual death was and didn't realize that God wasn't speaking about physical death, but Spiritual death. When sin entered into Adam, it brought death with that sin. Even though this death was manifested in the physical sense, it was Spiritual in nature and affected everything by its existence.
When you were born-again, it wasn't some religious experience, but was an actual birthing of a child of God from death to Life. God hasn't just brought a cleansed sinner back to Himself, but through the new birth, He created a new creation that has never sinned at all. This is hard for us to understand today, because of religious teachings have taught us we are "old sinners saved by Grace," for centuries. We were old sinners and it was by Grace that we were saved, but we need to know what Grace and Truth have really done for us.
Ephesians 2:8,9-10 (Amplified) says, "For it is by free Grace (God's unmerited favor), that you are saved, delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation, through your faith; And this salvation is not of your own doing (it came not through your own striving), but is the Gift of God." Paul explains the reason for and purpose in God's Grace by salvation in Verses 9-10, saying, "Not because of works (not the fulfillment of the Law's demands), lest any man should boast; It is not the result of what anyone can possibly do, so no one can pride himself in it, or take glory to himself. For we are God's Own handiwork (His workmanship, recreated in Christ Jesus, born anew), that we may do those Good works which God predestined (planned beforehand for us), taking paths which He prepared ahead of time that we should walk in them, living the Good Life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live."
The purpose of Grace was so God could create the family He had planned for. God's Grace prearranged paths for a Good Life, for His family to walk in. The predestined, planned, beforehand walk, was and is, the continuation of what God had in mind, when He created man in the beginning. God's Plan has never changed. God prepared paths ahead of time, so we should walk in them and live the Good Life. This is the same Plan and Life, God held when He decided to create man in His Likeness and Image, in the beginning.
Through faith in the works of Jesus, Grace has again put God's family into the place of perfection and holiness He had planned and predestined from the beginning. We are God's Plan A and not His Plan B. Man has changed, but God is the Same Yesterday, today and forever. Many have never placed their faith in God's Grace and don't see themselves as new creations. The world and its religion tried dictating to us, who they think we are. Paul wrote in Romans 8:1-2 (Amplified), "Therefore, there is now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live and walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit."
When we walk after the dictates of the Spirit, we walk in the paths God prepared, predestined and planned ahead of time. When we walk after the dictates of the Spirit, we're living the Good Life God made ready for us to live, according to Ephesians 2:8-10. Paul continues in Romans 8:2 saying, "For the Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus (the Law of our new being) has freed me from the Law of Sin and of Death."
So, we see why Grace must be initiated by faith. Grace has made it ours, if we live by the dictates of the Spirit. If we live by the dictates of the flesh, then the world, its customs and religious rituals will prevent us from receiving Grace by faith.
God created the heavens and the earth as a home for His family. We are the continuation of God's Plan and will, from before the foundation of the earth. The Father's heart hasn't changed. He created the heavens and earth for His children and predestined and planned beforehand for us to live and enjoy them. Even though it took Jesus to bring it back to His children, God's Plan has never changed.
We weren't an afterthought or a source of pity to God, but we're a source of joy in the Father's heart. We've come back into His Presence by Grace and are without stain, because of Jesus. We can come before God, without spot or wrinkle, just like He intended from His initial thought of family. That's why Paul writes about our being "saved by Grace through faith." Grace has made everything Adam lost in the Garden, available to us, but it's only by having faith in the Finished Work of Jesus, that these will be restored in our lives. God prearranged paths for His family, before the fall of Adam and these same paths have been made available to us again, by faith and Grace. Grace has made them available to us again and faith receives that availability, so we can walk in those predestined places with god.
Romans 4:16 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, inheriting the Promise is the outcome of faith and depends entirely on faith, in order that it might be given as an act of Grace (unmerited favor)." Paul continues saying, "Now faith has made those Jews under Law, and the Gentiles that new not the Law, all equal by faith in God's Grace." One group wasn't higher than another by face, color, nationality. All are equal by the same faith in the Same Jesus and the Grace He offers to those who will believe. This great inheritance was what the Father had already set aside for His children, before He ever formed the heavens and earth. Our inheritances reaches far beyond the realms of earth and now, through Jesus. We share an inheritance even beyond that of Adam, by the Last Adam.
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