Good Morning Gorgeous,
It’s a brand new day. A fresh start. A new dawn is God’s gentle reminder that He makes all things new. Each day the earth is refreshed, revitalized, and new.
God’s grace is so vast and so far and so wide that He carried out the ultimate plan of rescue to save His people and make them new creations in Christ Jesus. This grace is the beginning of our relationship with Jesus and allows us to have access to all of the other types of grace that are available to the sons and daughters of God who have received the inheritance of salvation.
And this salvation is accessed by grace through faith. The simple act of believing in Jesus as the resurrected Son of God and speaking it.
Jesus is our Savior, our Redeemer, and our Lord. The ultimate completion of salvation came through the sacrifice of Jesus.
Jesus’s birth into the earth, His walk, His sacrifice, His crucifixion, and His resurrection, all show the extreme depths the Lord was willing to go to save His People.
Even though salvation is completed with Jesus, the picture of a God who saves doesn’t begin with the earthly birth of Jesus. God’s saving grace and His heart to save His people is found all throughout scripture. The Lord saved the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. He saved Daniel from the Lion’s Den. He saved Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fire. He saved Moses from murder. He saved the nation of Israel from their attacking neighbors again and again and again..
God’s heart is and always has been to save His people. He is merciful, kind, and available to pull you up and out of the fire. He is able to save you from your enemies. He will be your ever present help in times of trouble. You can count on Him, depend on Him, trust Him, and lean on Him. He is in the saving business. It’s what He does. He cares about you, your wellbeing, and your safety. If you call on Him, He will save you. He is our God and He does save us from the fires of life. Yet, He has a greater saving grace for us: Salvation Grace.
He has performed the most beautiful love story of all time. He has made available for all people salvation for our souls. An eternal saving that brings us into right relationship with Him and also gives us full access to the Lord as sons and daughters. He desired salvation for ALL people, so arrives Jesus.
God Himself chose to walk the earth among His people. He spent His days loving on them, teaching them, healing them, experiencing anguish and grief in the constraints of the human body, and ultimately dying a sinner’s death so that we could be in constant connection with Him here on earth and saved from eternal death and instead given the gift of eternal life. A gift by grace meaning its unearned, undeserved, yet freely given to us.
The most beautiful grace of all is the saving grace of Jesus made available to every person who believes and trusts in Jesus. What do we believe in order to recieve the grace of salvation?
I’ve been reading and re-reading Romans. The beautiful gift of salvation that is accessed by grace through faith has love written all over it. Paul preaches to the Roman Church that if we believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord, and then speak it with our mouth, a miracle occurs…
We are saved by grace, through faith! We are adopted into the royal family and receive forgiveness for our sins, salvation for our souls, and a relationship here on earth with the living God. Full access to the Lord and His guidance, heavenly counseling, Holy Spirit alive within us, AND eternal salvation. A saving that goes on for ALL of eternity!!
It’s right here written so plainly and preciously in Romans:
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:9-13
Grace is unmerited favor. Undeserved blessing. A pardon for our sins, and a gift we didn’t earn. That is the miracle of salvation. Jesus walked the earth and performed miracle after miracle after miracle. One of the apostles wrote that if all of Jesus’s miracles were written down then the whole world could not contain them!
Jesus walked the earth and revealed the nature and heart of God to save people. He saved people from physical, spiritual, and emotional pain. He taught a new way of loving and living.. He set people free to live out who they were designed to be in God..and He continues to do that in each heart of those who call on His name today.
When you believe in your heart that He is the Lord, born into the earth, died and raised again to triumph over sin and death, and you speak your belief, a miracle transpires in your heart. Jesus inhabits your heart. He lives in you. You begin to hear Him. He writes His Words on your heart. And you are sealed into the royal family of heaven. It’s a miracle that the bible says makes all of heaven rejoice. When a sinner repents and comes into the kingdom, they are now added among the saints! Not because they deserve it, but because of the love and grace of a good, good Father who desires that no one perish, no not one. But that all would have everlasting life in Christ Jesus.
That’s all it takes my Gorgeous Friends! A humble, believing heart who confesses aloud to the Lord that they recognize that Jesus is Lord and they are a sinner in need of a Savior. That they trust and believe that Jesus died and rose again to justify them from their sins and set them free to live a brand new life. When you pray that prayer, the miracle is that you actually become a brand new creation. The old has passed away, and now you are a brand new creation in Christ.
You are granted access to not just the kingdom of heaven, but to power here on earth. Jesus is still in the miracle business! Just as He split the sea, just as He entered the furnace with three young men and they all walked out unharmed without even the scent of smoke on them, just as He healed blind eyes and deaf ears, just as He brought the dead to life. He STILL is alive and at work, and every single time a person prays to recieve His gift of salvation, a miracle occurs between heaven and earth!! A life that was lost is now saved.
I shared my writing with my husband and he reminded me of his favorite verse: Revelation 3:20 Jesus said, “I stand at the door and knock. Anyone who invites me in, I will dine with them and them with me.”
Friends, Jesus will gently knock until you open the door. He won’t force His way in. He won’t bang down the door forcefully. He will never come in uninvited, but He will keep knocking. He will find ways to gently show you His love. He will whisper to you through friends, bible verses, messages, music, life situations, gentle nudges, advertisements, thoughts, church services, wedding services, funeral services, or other avenues. I have noticed several Christian songs making their way into mainstream radio..Just another avenue for Him to knock on the door of your heart and whisper, “I love you. I created you. Come and let me in, so that I can save you. I promise it will be the best decision of your whole life.”
That my friend is saving grace. It pulls us out of the darkest of alleys. The dirtiest of dungeons. The smelliest of dumpsters. The greasiest, slimiest, stickiest situations. It shines light in dark recesses. It changes a stone heart to beating flesh. It breathes life into dry bones. It makes what was once dead and dying, alive and flourishing.
And this saving grace can even save you AGAIN if you have drifted away, walked away, turned away, or struggled with your faith. You can come back, turn to Him, and say, “I believe in You Jesus. Forgive me for my wandering heart and my sins. I choose to live again for You.” He will joyously hold you in His arms. In His gracious love and even when you don’t deserve it, Jesus will put a royal robe on your shoulders and a signet ring on your finger.
Friends, this message has been on my heart for over a week, and I have so struggled to write it. I told my friend that it just felt too big and too important to cover well..I felt unworthy. Then, God reminded me: that is the WHOLE point of GRACE.
It isn’t about anything I can do, but it’s about everything He can do.
And every single time someone calls on the name of Jesus for salvation:
Grace Wins!
Dear Heavenly Father,
I praise You for You alone can save. I am in awe of the depths you go to so that Your people experience Your love and Your salvation. I am amazed by the way You seek each of us out, and You stand and gently knock. I ask for the eyes and ears and heart be opened for each person who reads this to lean into You and fling open that door! That they would feel courage rising up inside of them to open the door for the first time and say yes to You. Or they would open the door again and invite You in again to receive You either again or with deeper intimacy. That each of us including myself would be in awe of Your beautiful saving grace. That we would be filled with gratitude that a good, good Father knocked and knocked and pursued us everywhere we went until we opened the door. Lord, I pray to invite You in again and again and again all the days of my life. I pray that every day begins with inviting You in to dine with me. Lord, I pray that Grace Wins every day as I serve You. In Jesus’s name, Amen.
I stumbled across this song last night. I’ve never heard it before. It sums it all up!
Watch “Zach Williams – “Rescue Story” (Official Lyric Video)” on YouTube
Blessings and Grace!
Vanessa Lynn
Absolutely the best commentary on God’s grace I have ever read