ICS Daily Devotions
Loved Because of Grace
There are many people who are living without God and hope in the world. They will attempt to fill the void in their heart through good works, philosophy or religion.
Religion puts a yoke and a burden on people. Sets them on a performance treadmill to appease and please the god through offering good work and self- discipline. Yet they think that GOD is not pleased with them but in actual fact God came looking for them! Nobody will ever be good enough in their own effort because of the sin nature in them.
They fail to know that in the eyes of the true God, all their best actions are filthy through and through which will Never be able to bring them to stand righteously before Him.
When we use performance as a measure of God’s love for us then we will also use the same measure to love others. We will not love someone unless they change BUT the sad fact is it is only when we begin to change then we see the changes in others.
Therefore, understanding God’s kind of love is important and His love is based on Grace thus not based on performance. There is a huge difference between a religion and a relationship based on grace. When we fully understand God’s love then we will naturally want to respond in our love for Him and people around us using His principles of love.
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
GRACE is the unmerited favour of God towards sinners, it is something that we do not deserve but He willingly gives to us. It has absolutely nothing to do with us nor by works so that we will not boast! God loves us while we are yet sinners. He just loves us!
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God loves the sinner and hates the sin by dealing with the sin issues that separated man from God.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
God first loved us and extended grace to us!
God didn’t wait for us to change from being evil to good and then He loved us. God hates the sin but loves the man. We know that God’s love for us is not based on our performance but purely by His grace, therefore we can rest in His love and we are open to his rebuke and correction.
Sermon Series: Knowing God’s Love to Love Others
