Life Capsule for Today Date 27th November, 2024
Theme: Understanding grace (4)
Text: John 1:17
17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. NKJV
Topic: Grace as love expressed
Today’s Reading: John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 1:14
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
NKJV
Words of the Ministry:
Today still on the theme understanding grace, we intend to see grace as love expressed. Today’s reading verses may be said to be the most quoted verses in the new testament, not only is it true but it encapsulates the lesson of today. We believe God is love, the bible teaches it and our experiences confirms it but how do we know God is love or shows us love as love in itself is abstract. God is love and when that love is expressed towards us it is grace, without an expression, love is abstract.
When we look at our salvation experience we see the love of God but the love is abstract, it had to be expressed as sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross for our salvation, sanctification and justification. We may talk all day about the love of God but we may not be able to relate with it without experiencing the grace of God The difference between love and grace lies in the fact that love is within and grace is without. Love is primarily an inward feeling, while grace is an outward act. When love is turned into action, it becomes grace. When grace is traced back to its feeling, it is love. Without love, grace cannot come into being. Grace exists because love exists. God so love the world (Jhn 3.16) and expressed his love through the sacrifice of his son, from man’s perspective we have received grace from sin but from God perspective he has shown us love. Jesus during his earthly walk was love personified but those who he healed and saved received his love as grace, so grace is love expressed.
When we come in contact we a beggar or the less privileged, we may say we love him, that is abstract and within us, except we express the love as giving him financial assistance, food or cloth, we have not expressed that love and we have not become grace to that beggar. Jesus reveled his love to us by being grace to us and in us. We must also add that grace is not just love expressed but love expressed to a destitute, a lowly that is below us. Imagine God and Jesus who are both co-equal in the trinity, we cannot say God shows grace to Jesus because they are equal but we can talk about the grace of God towards man and the grace of Jesus towards man. Man being lowly can receive the love of God as grace because man cannot help himself and is lowly. When we express love upwards towards God it is love and not grace because grace can only flow from up to down and not down to up. This is to remind us of the need to be humble to receive grace. A man who sees himself as not needing God cannot receive God’s grace as God resist the proud and gives grace to the humble, the destitute and those in need.
Bible in One Year: 1 Corinthians 14-16
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