For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8-9.
For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:14.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
If you receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness you will reign in life through Christ Jesus. Romans 5:17. I tell you that great grace was upon all in the beginning days of the Church and there was no one needy among them.
Today we begin a new series of life lessons and it is called “The Surpassing Riches of Grace,” and today is Life Lesson No. 1: “What is Grace?”
You are saved by grace through faith. Grace is Me doing for you what you could not and cannot do for yourself, grace removes all sin from you, makes you holy and without reproach before Me, seats you with Christ at My right hand, and fills your heavenly account with every spiritual blessing. Grace is My Divine life flowing into you as the sap of the vine flows into the branch. And My grace gives you grace gifts, the gift of righteousness and the nine grace endowments of the Holy Spirit.
Grace does more than just forgive sin, by grace I make you a new creation in Christ, I take you from a stony heart to a living heart, from a spirit dead to Me and alive to sin, to a spirit alive to Me and dead to sin. Sin is no longer a master over you. You are no longer a sinner by nature. You have been set free as if you had never sinned at all. I put all your sins on Jesus and justly punished them, and, in exchange, I gave you My own righteousness. That is grace.
My grace makes you like Me, for it is My life flowing into you by My Spirit quickening your mortal body. The Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came to be through Jesus Christ. John 1:17. And of His fullness you have all received, and grace upon grace. John 1:16.
You live in the age of grace which began with the suffering, death, and resurrection of My Son. He announced it as the favorable year, the jubilee year, meaning it is a time when all debts are forgiven, and not just forgiven but cancelled as paid in full by My Son for everyone of you as your kinsman redeemer, lost territory is regained, sight is restored, and captives are set free. And it is the later days that My prophet Joel foretold and Peter announced on the day Pentecost was fulfilled and the called out ones, those who became by grace a new creation in Christ, stepped out of the shadows of the Old Covenant to shine like bright lights in a dark world in the New Covenant and everlasting Covenant, the Covenant of grace.
And it all has to do with Jesus and the gift He came to give you, the gift of the Holy Spirit, which was My promise to you from ages past. “It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” Joel 2:28-29. For by My Spirit in you and upon you, you become partakers of My divine nature and can be filled with all My fullness. This is by grace and grace alone, for by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is My gift; not as a result of your works but the works I wrought for you in Christ Jesus, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8-9. In Him, I reconciled you to Myself, gave you My righteousness, and sanctified you so that you can come with confidence to My throne of grace and receive ALL you need and an abundance for every good work. Hebrews 4:14-16. For you are My workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which I prepared beforehand so that you can enjoy them as you walk in them. Ephesians 2:10.
I described what grace does for you to My prophet Ezekiel, you would do well to pay attention to the words I spoke to the prophets for you see those words being realized in Jesus as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. No prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no true prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by My Holy Spirit spoke from Me. 2 Peter 1:19-21.
“For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.” Ezekiel 36:25-28. I for My own sake, because of the holiness of My Name, will save you from all your uncleanness.” Ezekiel 36:29
I made you in My own image, according to My likeness, to walk in oneness with Me. But you conceived evil within you and tarnished My image by conforming yourselves to another spirit, a created and fallen one, but you made him your master. Your spirit died to Me and you came alive to sin. You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them you too all formerly lived by birth into Adam’s line in the lusts of your flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But that is when grace appeared to all men in Jesus, the Light came into the darkness and I rescued you out of that realm to be pulled back into Mine in Him, because I am rich in mercy and because of the great love with which I loved you, even when you were dead in your transgressions, I redeemed you from the pit and made you alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and I raised you up with Him, and seated you with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come I might show the SURPASSING RICHES OF MY GRACE in kindness toward YOU in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:1-7.
And My apostle Paul, the apostle of grace who preached the gospel of grace was enthralled and caught up in the enormity of what My grace had done in and for him and for all men, “for we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:3-7.
Grace is the predilection I have towards you that draws you into Me and covers you with My own glory. Since before the foundation of the world, I knew you and I preordained you to be conformed to the image of My Son, who is My exact image, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and I also called you, and those whom I called, I also justified; and those whom I justified, I also glorified. I am for you, who can be against you?
The first time I use the word “grace” in the Bible is to describe why I did not wipe out the entire human race in the great flood. I preserved man because Noah found grace in My eyes. The word for “grace” in Hebrew is “chen,” but you say it as “hen.” It is written with the Hebrew letter “chet” (pronounced “het”) first and then the letter “nun.” Noah’s name is written with the letter nun first and then the letter het. Noah’s name reading backwards in Hebrew (which would be from left to right) is “grace.” The name Noah as it is means “comfort” or “rest.” The word “chen” is also translated as “favor.” And grace is favor on your life, unmerited favor that comes through the merits of Christ.
Grace is a beautiful place, the place in which you now stand by faith. Fair indeed is your inheritance, the delights at My right hand forever. The glory of grace is My goodness doing all to make you perfect and without fault. And you have seen My glory shining on the face of Christ, for My Word became flesh, and tabernacled among you, and you saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from Me, the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14. For of His fullness you have all received, grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came to be through Jesus Christ. No one had seen Me, the Father, when Jesus came, Jesus, the only begotten God (according to the flesh), who is in My bosom, disclosed Me to you. John 1:16-18.
Grace came out of My bosom and appeared in the Person of Jesus Christ and Jesus, in the flesh, accomplished the work of reconciliation that purified you of all your sins and filthiness, and then He pulled you back into Me in Himself—you in Him, Him in you, Him in Me, you in Me, and I in you. In Him, God and man become one. Jesus told you that by His death and resurrection He was going to prepare a place for you, and that was the place of grace, and that when it was ready, He would come back and take you there with Him. And He kept His promise, when I raised Him from the dead, I raised you with Him, and He has pulled you back into Me and I have seated you in heavenly places in and with Him and poured My Spirit into your heart, so that you now are a temple of the Holy Spirit and have access to the Kingdom within you. All because of the great love with which I love you. Ephesians 2:4.
For My grace has appeared, bringing salvation (Yeshuah) to all men, instructing you to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of your Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for you to redeem you from every lawless deed, and to purify for Myself a people for My own possession, zealous for good deeds. Titus 2:11-14.
Grace. You know it is true, grace and truth come to you in Jesus, and you know it has to be true, for no one ever invented a god like Me so full of love for mankind that I was willing to give My life for you in Christ Jesus. And no one ever dared to hope for grace as it truly is. No one can earn it, but everyone can have it by faith in the Name of My Son. Yeshuah.
I love you and that is what grace is all about. I have joined you with Me and put My Spirit in you and no one can snatch you out of My hand. Won’t you come and put your hand in Mine and receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness and reign in life through Christ Jesus? He is My gift to you.
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21.