We could make a long list of the good works that we could do for Jesus (and which we should do for Him!); but there would be not an iota of merit in all those “good works.”
We are not saved nor are we benefited by any “good works” that we might be able to do; “our beloved brother Paul” has told us that it’s only “by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (2 Peter 3:15; Eph. 2:8).
It’s not by anything “good” that we might be able to do (actually, “there is none righteous, no, not one,” Rom. 3:10), but it’s by the good things that Jesus has already done for us that any of us are benefited or saved. Let’s concentrate for a moment on what the Lord has already done for us:
He “hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3). Past tense and also present tense! God, who sees things that “be not as though they were” (Rom. 4:17), sees us as though were already safely settled in the grand new earth that He will create in the future.
He also, thanks to the cross of Christ, sees us as though we had never sinned! Yes, Romans 5:15-21 says: “God’s act of grace [the cross!] is out of all proportion to Adam’s wrongdoing” [in the Garden of Eden]. “For if the wrongdoing of that one man brought death upon so many [all of us!], its effect is vastly exceeded by the grace of God and the gift that came to so many by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ” (REV). The idea is that the grace of Christ is far greater than our sin!
“And again, the gift of God is not to be compared in its effect with that one man’s [Adam’s] sin; for the judicial action, following on the one offense, resulted in a verdict of condemnation [which has come down upon all of us!]; but the act of grace, following on so many misdeeds, resulted in a [judicial] verdict of acquittal” for all of us, even the most sinful (vss. 15, 16).
Therefore the heavenly Father is now free to treat every person as though he/she had never sinned! That is the meaning of the “much more abounding grace” of the Lord (cf. Rom. 5:20).
Does this mean that God will take very person into heaven, even against his own will? No, for it is possible for us to resist and reject this “much more abounding grace” of our Savior!
Oh, may the dear Lord save us from ourselves!
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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