Who is Jesus? by Caleb Olayiwola - HTML preview

6. Grace 1

Over the past few weeks we’ve been learning about Jesus in multiple dimensions, especially the sin aspect of man (which I greatly emphasized on) and the righteous aspect of Jesus.

The thing is, we won’t understand and fully acknowledge the hefty price that was paid for our souls if we do not know what the price was paid for. We may see God as powerful and mighty, but it COST him something to bring us back into his inheritance.

That COST won’t have any VALUE if we degrade sin and make it appear as if it is nothing in our lives, as we do in our churches today to appeal to our audience. Preaching salvation without letting people know the intent behind it won’t lead to salvation.

The world is wild with various doctrines and gazillions of interpretations; there are thousands of different sects and religions existing in every part of the world - to us, there is no perfection out there except in Christ.

The fundamental principle of salvation is to be like him. And if we are to be like him, we’ll have to leave that old life behind. This means, we’ll have to leave that sinful life behind and embrace Christ in his true form, as a man and as a God.

The word “GRACE” came into existence with one single act - God “freely” given us his son. That changes everything. It was a turnaround point in the life of man. Look at my son and live. Look at my son and be saved. Look at my son and be like him. Look at my son and have eternal life. His son stood for everything that God wants man to be.

GRACE cannot be achieve by power or by might, by wisdom or by strength, it is a gift that can only be freely given.

You can’t force it. You can’t take it. You can’t build it. You can’t claim it. You can’t make it. You can’t ask for it. Only the giver can give it and only he knows when to give it.

The Israelites have been waiting for the messiah to come for hundreds of years. A lot of prophets (i.e. Moses and Isaiah) spoke concerning him, but the exact time of his manifestation was hidden from men.

God passed the message of salvation across to his people but he did not reveal when the event will take place, or how the event will take place.

If he did, the whole Israel will be waiting at the manger to worship Jesus immediately he was born. The inn wouldn’t have been full and Mary wouldn’t have labor among the sheep. Man didn’t ask for salvation. Man didn’t beg for it. God knew what man needed and he simply gave it. Since when did man ever know what he needed?

God didn’t told men to do this or that, to make alters or burnt sacrifices before he could send his son. He didn’t ask anything from us or gave us any procedures to follow before he could send his son. Before he could handover his son’s life.

Grace is not something we can fully understand as a man until we look at Jesus, because he represents it all. Man’s blood was not qualified to be sacrificed for redemption in the first place talk less of that of sheep, ram, and pigeon, which were but temporary solution during the days of the priests and prophets.

Man had nothing to give. Nothing. We were empty vessels - no spirit, no life, no purpose. Sin had taken it all. Jesus came to give us what we had lost in that garden. Adam was chased out, but Jesus brought us back in. Grace is not a word of power or a word of authority, grace is a word of hope.

Grace have nothing to do with power and authority - it has everything to do with love. God loved the world so much that he was willing to sacrifice his only son just to bring us back to himself (John 3:16). He deemed us worthy when we have nothing. He saw us beautiful in our filth and mud. He saw value in our vagueness.

Grace is not ambiguous; it is simply what it is. His love for us is way out of definition because that love is God himself. Man will be able to “precisely” define what love is when he is able to define God. Now, we are getting to the sweet part that most of us like to hear.

In our limited understanding, GRACE cannot be quantified or measured, just as love does not have an end. It cannot be weighed, no, only the giver know the true value and the true worth of his gift. Grace is a gift - the package and its full contents were only known by the giver, except to whom he chooses to reveal it to.

There are no qualifications to receive this gift from the giver, none at all. Only the giver knows if you are qualified for it or not. Only the giver knows if you are worthy of his gift. Only the giver knows what to give. The giver is GOD and the gift is JESUS CHRIST. As we can see, God is the beginning and the end of it all.

We celebrate grace in our churches but we hardly talk about what brings grace. We cannot know the importance of grace, the giver and the gift, if we failed to acknowledge the existence of sin. There was a reason the gift was given, and there was a purpose for it.

The scripture says, “for by grace you have been saved” - Ephesians 2 vs 8 (NKJV). Saved from what? That’s what we are not preaching today. That’s why the Christian family is what it is today. We ought to let people know why they have been saved, and what they have been saved from so that they won’t be ignorant of it and walk back to where they came from.

Grace is sweet, but what makes it sweet? We all like free gift, but in this scenario, the “FREE” is “PRICELESS”, and not without a reason. The reason is the measure of the price that was paid.