God's Grace

Others point out that you cannot get into heaven based upon good works alone; if you could, then Christ’s sacrifice would have been meaningless. To gain salvation, you must receive God’s grace,

Though Jesus was sinless and undeserving of death, he offered himself as a sacrifice in atonement for all sin (Invitation to World Religions, pg.418). Paul was always emphatic in maintaining that salvation cannot be earned by “works”, whether humans’ effort to obey the commandments in the Torah or excellent work in general. Instead, he taught that the salvation made possible by Christ’s sacrifice is a gift, the ultimate expression of God’s love and grace. Salvation is given to those who respond to God’s grace in faith, the conviction that God has acted through Jesus Christ to amend for human sin. Although Paul was very clear in teaching that salvation depends on God’s grace and the individual’s turning to God in faith, he did not dismiss the importance of works (Invitation to World Religions, pg.419). For Paul, faith does more than bringing salvation; it unites the believers with Christ in a “newness of life”. He believed that the spirit lives in believers and brings them into union with God. As a divine presence within, the spirit encourages the growth of spiritual virtues, the greatest which is love and makes all Christians one in the church often called “the body of Christ”.

to live and living,they did not like how the christian churches did not fully allow the right of the

They believed that those who were not perfect and did not follow rules should be rooted out of the community. Since the ideal system of a community was to be a perfect society, anyone who did not pursue this was considered to be a sinner. And if one were thought to be a sinner, then he or she would

take away many things that the Jews stood for and soon, some began to loose their faith

If they did not, they were considered innocent, if they did, they were guilty and were burned at the stake.

Grace is the gift that God freely gave when we were the most undeserving of it (Acts 15:11, NLT). Since Jesus Christ is the gift of grace that God gave, all mankind must do to receive salvation is to believe and have faith in Jesus (John 17:3, John 6:29, and Acts 4:12, NLT). There is a lot of debate in the world today about fixing the world’s problems, how and who should do it. Just like the task that God gave in early Genesis, people are responsible to taking care of the problems that we make. But the real question is how. The answer not only transforms oneself but also society. Hebrews 12:14 and 15 (NLT) states, “Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God” (NLT) and 1 John 4:12 says, “…But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us” (NLT). These verses show that when we love others not only does God shine through us but also, we can do no harm in loving each other, “love for God does not come at the expense of love for one’s fellow human being” (Hiles and Smith,

He did not understand why that God was allowing such terrible things to happen, and why was he not showing pity on his own people. He also did not want to bless God and pray, as he said,”Every fiber in me rebelled,”(67). He refused to continue practice a religion where his God was not even sympathetic towards his own

God’s grace is a word frequently used to refer to “gift from God”. In many circles, it is theological defined as God’s unmerited favor (Hughes, 1998, Ryrie, 1963). Within this

Just like the fake, deceitful lives everyone led, there was a fake interest in God and religion. There was never any real understanding of the world in which they lived, with no attempt to explain why they were even there. In the world of the ash heaps and dusty

Doing good deeds are an important part of the Christian life, but they do not grant an entrance into God’s kingdom. Everyman, as a morality play, does still have some Biblical truth and teaches a valuable lesson about life.

Grace is defined as “divine help or strength … given through the mercy and love of God.” This grace can help us serve beyond our capacity to love, and in the scriptures grace is frequently used to connote a strengthening or

Grace peregrinates from auricular discerning, to reading, to lecture, and praying. Venturing into these channels opens us up to be crafted by the Spirit. Enrolling in the means of grace, opposed to passively waiting on God, is a kind of unique investment. Moreover, accepting grace is not about standing by waiting on God. This elucidates why Wesley was an advocate of “all who desire an increase of the grace of God are to wait for it in partaking of the Lord’s Supper.”

endure to the end of their Christian life. Finally, he taught that Jesus died only for the

Believers have been unified in salvation by grace and are called to live like Christ.