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by Jason DeZurik

Grace: What is it, and do we really understand it in light of our culture today?

A miracle: What is it, and do we really understand what a miracle is, also in light of today’s culture?

Recently someone asked me, “Why all of the focus in the Old Testament? Didn’t Jesus come to offer grace and love?”

Well yes, this is true: Jesus Christ did come to offer grace and love to all people. He also came to help us understand that we not only need to confess our sins and ask for forgiveness of those sins, but He also came to remind us that we need to repent of our evil and wicked ways and turn toward the path of righteousness and believe in Him. He really was teaching right living, if you are willing to be honest about it. (Check out the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7.) It seems many people have forgotten this, or at the very least they do not understand what grace really is.

It seems to me that people today think that a miracle is actually grace from God.

Please bear with me here. When a person goes against God and His good and right ways, the penalty and consequence for that action is death. We know this because of Romans 6:23. Yet, when someone goes against God and His ways, just like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, it is actually quite rare that a person immediately receives the wage they are due. In fact, they go on living their life and are given grace by God to learn why not to live in sinful ways. They get an opportunity to confess, ask for forgiveness, and to repent of their sin in order to live out good and right ways. This is so very important because learning the benefits of righteous living far outweighs a sinful life filled only with negative consequences. Yet, do we really believe this? I’m asking this of everyone reading this post, but more importantly I’m asking the believer in Christ if they really believe this, since you claim to follow Him and His ways.

In today’s world, it seems that people would like to take this one step further and get rid of the consequences to their actions that are all a part of God’s natural law. For instance, don’t be shocked when a person starts doing illegal drugs and gets addicted to them, then they start reaping the consequences of God’s natural law because of this decision. Let’s not be left scratching our heads when someone we know has smoked for a long time and gets cancer, or if a person possibly gets cancer after eating very unhealthy foods for many, many years. Also, don’t be surprised when year after year of playing the victim yourself, your children take that mentality to a whole new level and you begin to wonder where you went wrong. They were trained by you to think that way. But in and through all of this, God gives grace. Yes, grace.

Almighty God gives grace time and again to each one of us because He loves us. He does this so we can grow, mature, and become complete in and through Him, so that you and your children can learn His ways and put into action what is good and right and true. Will we still receive our just wages of death? Unfortunately, yes. This is a part of God’s natural law though, so we really shouldn’t be shocked.

If you are hoping and praying for God to take away these natural consequences from you or your family and friends, then you are not really wanting grace anymore; you are wanting a miracle. Think about it.

When I finally did a serious self-examination of my thoughts, beliefs, and actions on this while seeking God’s direction, I began to see how far away I really was from the truth. I made intentional life choices and actions to start down the narrow path of Jesus Christ.

I encourage you to do the same. Need help to know how to do that? Leave a comment here or contact us on Facebook and we’d love to have a discussion with you.

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