Amazing Grace

I would like to begin a song of praise over the indescribable amount of grace that became ours through the salvation of our souls.

The scriptures say: Eph. 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.

1 John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!

By surrendering our will to the Lord we have therefore received so much – think about it, the salvation of our souls, the communion with the Father and his Son, a legacy that cannot be surpassed, and the privilege of being the children of the Almighty. And over and above that, protection against the world’s grief and sorrows. Think about alcoholism, drugs, love of power and money, irrationality, greed – the Lord protects us from all of these.

Our world is one of cause and effect. Another world without cause and effect would be absurd and the only meaningful world is one of cause and effect. This cause and effect follow on good and bad things and we, who by nature are inclined to the bad, can also quote this law as : actions and revenge. In Rom. 1:27 the scriptures speak about men who “…received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.”

I often have to answer questions about this aspect. People in the world say that they do not believe in the Lord because a loving God would not be able to see the grief and suffering in the world and let it continue without doing something about it. Previously I could not answer them or I did not wish to answer them, because I would have had to tell them (with doubt in my heart) that they had received their just deserts for their deeds, but it is becoming all the more clear to me that it could in actual fact be the only answer.

Why do most of these plagues not visit us as children of God, because many of our deeds are also wrong or even evil. The only answer I could find to his is in Ps. 91:1 – He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

Where is the shelter of the Most High? For He hides me in the fissure of the rock standing in a far thirsty land. (This means the Rock is to be found at the site of the tribulation).

How can we have a share in this grace ? 1 Cor. 1:4 – I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus (and)

1 Peter 1:13 – THEREFORE, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

When did I become a shareholder in this grace?

Rev. 3:20 – Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. This is a door only you or I can open, but also in that we have received a lot of grace to enable us to open the door. When we come to the realisation of how lost and helpless we are, the Holy Ghost immediately comes to our rescue to prepare us to believe, to open the door, to recognise the Lord for what He is and to say yes. We can go through these 4 steps only by the intervention and preparation of the Holy Ghost, because we cannot do it by ourselves – these are all gifts from the Holy Ghost. How indescribably huge does this grace become!

and

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

We also do wrong things and then expect the Lord to avert disaster from us or be lenient, and the Lord does so, but what greater grace can we receive if we listen to the voice of his Holy Ghost to not fall into Satan’s trap. When we do transgress, grace multiplies, but in Rom. 5:20 to 6: Paul warns – But where sin increased all the more, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 6 WHAT shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? 7 By no means!

He forgives us our sins without ever giving it a second thought. Is that not amazing grace?

P.K. Odendaal April 2005