A NEW BEGINNING

THAT AMAZING THING CALLED GRACE

Exclusive: Greg Laurie notes, 'the law was given to open our eyes and to shut our mouths'

Mark Twain said, “Everyone is a moon and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.”

No one knows better how dark our hearts are than we do. 

No one, that is, except God. 

We know how we can think a good thought and a bad thought in a nanosecond. 

We know our nature and how we’re drawn to the wrong things.

And we know when we’re being bad. 

But sometimes we’ll be good, and we feel so good about it that we’re bad again, because we’re being prideful. 

It’s an endless cycle.

Everyone – immoral people, self-righteous people and religious people – are separated from God. 

We have to recognize that we’re lost so we can be found.

Now, I have no navigational skills whatsoever. 

In fact, I can even get lost using a GPS. That may seem difficult thing to do, but sometimes my GPS messes with me.

A while back my wife, Cathe, and I were driving to Los Angeles when the GPS told us to take the next off-ramp. 

And because the GPS told me to do this, I did it. 

But then it got worse. 

The GPS basically took us in a circle and then back onto the freeway.

I turned to Cathe and said, “What was that all about?” 

I think someone hacked my GPS. 

It made no sense.

So when our GPS gets us into trouble on occasion, I’ll finally call the people we’re meeting and say, “We can’t find it. 

You’ll need to guide us.”

The first thing they want to know is where we are. 

And then they’ll tell us, turn by turn, how to get there.

It’s a picture of what God does for us. 

We first have to admit where we are without Christ before we can find him. 

The Bible says, “No one is righteous – not even one” (Romans 3:10 NLT).

When the Bible uses the word righteous, it means “one who is such as he ought to be.” 

No one is righteous enough. 

No one is good enough because everyone falls short. 

And there’s no hope apart from Jesus.

Moral living and good works aren’t enough. 

Even attempting to keep the Ten Commandments isn’t enough, because no one keeps all of them.

Jesus said, 

“You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment!” (Matthew 5:21 NIV)

The commandments were not given to make us holy. 

They were given to show us that we’re not holy. 

They’re like a moral mirror. 

We see ourselves as we really are.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t love looking in mirrors that much these days. 

But sometimes looking in a mirror can be a good thing. 

Maybe you’re walking along and notice that everyone seems to be smiling at you. 

Then you see yourself in a mirror and realize that an entire piece of pizza is encrusted on your shirt. 

You wondered where it went.

The mirror revealed the truth. 

It wasn’t pleasant, but it was necessary.

In the same way, God’s law condemns us, but it doesn’t convert us. 

It challenges us, but it doesn’t change us. 

The Bible says, 

“For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are” (Romans 3:20 NLT).

In other words, the law was given to open our eyes and to shut our mouths. 

It’s depressing, isn’t it? 

But then we come to the good news.

God has shown us the way to know him through Jesus. 

The third chapter of Romans goes on to say, 

“But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are” (verses 21–22 NLT).

“But now God has shown us a way. …” 

There are a lot of great moments in the Bible that begin with the words “but God.” 

Years after Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers, he told them, 

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people” (Genesis 50:20 NLT).

God has shown us the way to be right with him. 

And what is that way? 

It’s called grace: 

“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins” (Romans 3:23–24 NLT, emphasis added).

Grace is a word we all need to understand. 

It means “God’s unmerited favor.” 

There’s nothing you ever will do or have done to merit the grace of God. 

But it’s by grace, the Bible reminds us in Ephesians, 

that we “have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God we have” (2:8–9 NIV).

God has extended his grace toward us. 

As Max Lucado said, 

“Grace is God as heart surgeon, cracking open your chest, removing your heart – poisoned as it is with pride and pain – and replacing it with his own.”

And Denzel Washington said this about grace: 

“Everything that you think you see in me, everything that I’ve accomplished, everything that you think I have – and I have a few things – everything I have is by the grace of God … it’s a gift.”

God has extended his grace by sending his son to die on the cross for us.

Read more at https://www.wnd.com/2019/08/that-amazing-thing-called-grace/#mtKAtrwsoQOEy73E.99