By His Grace

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God" - Eph 2:8

I wonder what the phrase "For it is by grace that you have been saved" meant to us. Was it just a nice memory verse? Or a reference for commonly defining grace as "unmerited favour"?

It makes me think again - Why am I doing the things I am doing?(Or wanted to do?) Is it because of a man's soul? Is it because it looked good on me? Is it because I am supposed to obey a commandment?

I realized what must truly inspire, propel and compel me to love is His grace that is embodied in His love. It was by grace we have been saved - we don't deserve it. What is more shocking is that Jesus, being God Himself, chose to reduce Himself to becoming a human being and endured injustice, humiliation and pain for our sake. So that our sins can be wiped away and our death sentence pardoned. We have all received His gracious gift of eternal life when we turned away from a self-ruled life to follow Him. And by His grace, He has given us abundant life on earth too.

When I think about His grace, how He gave Himself so willingly for me on the cross, I realized that His grace is the power and motivation for any loving action. It is because I have seen and understood His love for me, as demonstrated on the cross, that a desire to love flows out within me. It is because of His grace that I must love. For it is impossible not to love when I realized how undeservingly I have been saved because of Jesus' love.

Supposed a killer is about to kill you & your family and a stranger appeared from nowhere to rescue you(losing his arms and legs in the process), will you not swear to take care of him forever? Or even to lay down your life for him? How much more then should you feel within your soul what Jesus had done for you? Will you not climb the highest mountain and cross the deepest ocean for Him? Or even to lay down your life?

For it is by grace I have been saved. I have nothing at first. But by His grace, I have everything now. His overwhelming grace given in His immense love for me had warmed my heart again. I rejoice that He cared enough, that He would give up all things for me. I understood once again my basis for love, the power to love and the restfulness of love. It is by His grace.

1 Tim 1:14 -"The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus." Amen.