Notes of Faith March 26, 2025
A Teacher Called Grace
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us [to deny] ungodliness and worldly lusts.
Titus 2:11-12
One of the clearest examples of the awakening of faith leading to a changed life is when the Jewish leader Nicodemus approached Jesus with questions (John 3:1-21). That encounter illustrates what Paul wrote about in Titus 2:11-12 when he described the grace of God “teaching” us about a changed life. It raises the question, how does the grace of God teach us?
The grace of God appeared when Jesus came to earth and began to reveal God to man. Prior to Jesus’ appearing, mankind was the enemy of God in terms of behavior (Romans 3:10-18). But when Jesus began to teach, eyes and ears began to open. So the grace of God was manifested in the Person of Christ—His righteous life and anointing from God. Ephesians 2:8-10 says we are saved by grace “for good works.” That is, we were saved by grace, which has the power to change our lives.
Did your life change after you met Christ? Is it continuing to change? Ask God to open your eyes ever wider to see who you can become in Christ.
The Scriptures were not given to increase our knowledge but to change our lives.
D. L. Moody
1 Cor 15:9-10
9 For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me/
The life of Paul was transformed form a labor of evil through his understanding of the “Law,” to a labor of love through the understanding and work of the grace of God in and through him. Sometimes I wonder about my own transformation or lack thereof due to that in which I labor. Do I spend my life, the new life given me in Christ, giving this earthly life for the sake of the eternal life given me through Christ? My heart desires to give every waking moment to know God and serve Him with all that I am. Consider the change in the life of Paul at his conversion and ask yourself if you have been truly transformed by the grace, mercy and love of God!
Pastor Dale