Life Capsule for Today Date 25th Nov. 2024
Theme: Understanding grace (2)
Text: John 1:17
17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. NKJV
Topic: Christ as Grace
Today’s Reading: 2 Cor 13:14
14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen. KJV
Words of the Ministry:
Today we intend to proceed with our lesson on grace and we would be looking at Christ as our grace. Yesterday we saw grace as God’s ability and unmerited favor towards man. The bible indeed teaches as we can relate to the forgiveness of sins, several provisions from God, justification etc. A wider look at the bible concept of grace teaches that Christ himself is grace to us (1 Cor 15.0. Gal 2.20), grace is not just objective but also subjective and the unmerited favor we get which includes forgiveness, sanctification, justification etc those are not God’s goal of grace rather a means to the end of Grace which is Christ is us so that we can be an embodiment of Christ enjoying him to the fullest.
As we read the letters of Paul to the churches, in 2Cor 8.1, we see Paul emphasizing on the grace they have received, unlike our concept of grace which is we getting from God and men, Paul here was talking about their liberality despite their affliction and poverty, that was what Paul called grace, their ability to give out something out of nothing, this was not human but Christ as grace in them. Again we see the example of Paul himself, in 2 Cor 12.7-9, he asked the Lord thrice to take away the thorn in his flesh, but the Lord said his grace is sufficient for him, this is totally opposite to our concept of grace, while we would have seen the taking away of the thorn as grace and reason for testimony, Paul was told that his situation is sufficient grace, in other words taking it away would make him lose the sufficiency of Christ in him as grace , The grace mentioned here is not something done by the Lord or given by the Lord. It is simply the Lord Himself within us, supporting us, energizing us, and strengthening us to face the trouble, to meet the situation. This is a living grace, a real grace, and is nothing less than Christ as the very embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead (Col. 2:9) for our enjoyment.
Our human understanding cannot fully grasp God’s concept of grace and we therefore see it from the opposite perspective. Many saints go through day to day trials, some in their marriages, others in their businesses while some others in their health, they seek the lord and it seems the Lord is not answering but as they walk with the Lord, we realize that they are indeed enjoying the sufficiency of grace keeping them through trials. When such saints speak we sense the presence of God in the meeting or with them. We must learn to see grace beyond what we get externally to excite and comfort us but a living expression of God in us regardless of whether our external circumstances change or not. By this we can see that in whatever circumstance we may find ourselves, we must celebrate Jesus saying, thank you lord for your grace has brought me thus far as our growth is not just by various teaching but also by the experiences of Christ as grace. Amen.
Bible in One Year: 1 Corinthians 5-9
For further fellowship send us an email on godmanvideos@gmail.comor visit our youtube channel: @godmanmedia. You can also interact with us by dropping your comments on our facebook page. Our physical meeting (PENIEL) comes up once a month, every last Sunday of the month from 4pm to 6.30pm at Suite A10, Ahser Office Complex, opposite Hassan Stores, Arab Road, Abuja.