“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel” Galatians 1:6 (KJV).
Any gospel that is not rooted in grace is not the true gospel. Grace talks of all that God has accomplished for us in Christ through his incarnation, sufferings, death, burial, resurrection and ascension. It talks of his identifying with our humanity, his identification with our sin “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” 2 Corinthians 5:21 (KJV). Grace speaks of the cross he carried for us, the stripes, the wounds for our infirmities, the blood he shade for us for the remission of our sins, the exchange on the cross, the death he died in our place, the curses he bore for us, the shame the mockery and the rejection. Grace talks of the victory he won for us in the grave over Satan, over death. Grace talks of the deliverance he purchased for us over poverty and curses by becoming curse for us on the cross. Grace talks of the finished work of Christ which we are called to rest in.
Grace destroyed the addictive power of sin and enabled the once sinful man to walk in victory of righteousness.
Grace enables the believers to walk in holiness by empowering good works and godly lifestyle. Grace says, you do not have to do good works to be saved because Jesus did it all, and gave salvation as a gift. Grace says you are enabled to do good works now that you are saved because God’s nature is imputed in you and bears fruit through you.
Grace says, you don’t have to stay under the control and dominion of sin because you are empowered to live right.
Any message or teaching that puts you in bondage or that requires that you do good works, pray hard, labour or fast to earn God’s acceptance is not the gospel of grace but another gospel. Any message or teaching that puts the demand on you or mounts pressure on you to perform to earn God’s blessings is not grace. In grace, we perform because he enables us to. He is the source and the root, we are the fruit. Grace works it in, we work it out (Philippians 2:12).
PRAYER: Dear Lord, help me to be rooted in your grace in Jesus name.
Rev. Vincent Diolu