Three Things Grace Does

God is teaching me week by week more and more about His grace. One of the things God has given me to do to better understand, experience, and share His grace is to keep a grace journal. This is journal in which I jot down moments of grace as I encounter them. It has amazed me how much grace I have seen and encountered on a daily basis.

I am also amazed how much grace is in God’s Word when you look for it.

There are three moments of grace in the book of Luke that are overwhelming to me.

The first is in Luke 7. Jesus and His disciples are entering the Village of Nain. He encounters a funeral procession. Jesus inquires about who the person was that had died. He finds out that it is the only son of a widow. In verse 13 we are told that Jesus had compassion on the woman. Jesus then goes over to the casket and raises the young man from the dead.

This was done without anyone asking Jesus to do anything. There is no faith on the part of anyone. This miraculous act is done based solely on the compassion of Jesus.

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Grace brings life.

Grace brings physical life. It is by grace that we all have physical life. We are born by the grace of God and our life is sustained by God’s grace.

Grace brings spiritual life. It is by grace that we have salvation and eternal life. Salvation comes only by grace through faith.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is through the grace of God experiencing life.

In Luke 9 Jesus and three of His disciples, Peter, James, and John, were coming down off a mountain where they had experienced a miraculous time with Jesus being transformed.

Jesus encounters a man who had a son who was demon possessed. The nine disciples had not been able to get rid of the demon. Jesus then orders the demon out and the young man is healed.

Grace brings healing. This can be physical healing. Anyone who experiences physical healing experiences that healing through the grace of God. The healing can be emotional. When a person experiences the healing of wounded emotions it is through God’s grace. The healing can be spiritual. When we are touched by God and are healed of spiritual struggles it comes by God’s grace.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing healing through God’s grace.

Grace also overcomes our human weaknesses. The disciples could not expel the demon from the young man. Jesus in His grace does what the disciples could not do.

The disciples had seen Jesus do it, but they were depending on a method or formula to expel the demon. Jesus didn’t depend on a method or formula, He depend on the power of the Father and His complete dependence on that power.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is recognizing the power of God and relying on that power and that power alone.

The third grace moment in Luke is found in Luke 19 where Jesus encounters the tax collector, Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus is curious so he goes to see Jesus as Jesus enters Jericho. Jesus stops under the tree where Zacchaeus is and invites Himself to Zacchaeus’ house for lunch.

Jesus takes the initiative to connect with Zacchaeus. He interrupts Zacchaeus’ life and by doing so leads Zacchaeus to salvation.

Grace doesn’t wait for us to get good enough. Grace meets us when we are still sinners. Romans 5:8 tells us that Jesus died for us while we were still sinners. If grace only came to us after we had become good enough none of us would ever experience grace.

Grace doesn’t wait for us to be good enough, grace makes us good enough.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing grace and grace make us good enough.

Grace Brings Life

Grace Restores

Grace Overcomes

Grace Makes Us Good Enough

By Grace, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                  Joe

Jesus is Full of Grace

Where does grace come from?

John 1:14-17

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about Him, and cried out, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because He was before me.’”) For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Jesus is full of grace and truth.

Jesus gives us, out of His fullness, grace upon grace.

The law came through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus.

Jesus is full of grace.

Jesus relates to each person with grace and truth.

Truth without grace can be harsh.

Grace without truth can be soft.

Grace and truth reveal God and His will in a way that is loving but firm. It allows us to experience conviction which leads to transformation, but still know that God loves us.

Grace and truth are not just what Jesus gives us, they are also who He is. Jesus will never not tell us the truth and He will always relate to us based on grace.

Truth penetrates our lives and overcomes the lies of Satan.

Grace does it through mercy and compassion.

It leads to real healing and restoration in our lives.

Jesus deals with the woman brought to Him by the religious leaders who was caught in the act of adultery with truth and grace. He doesn’t condemn her but tells her to leave her life of sin.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the grace and truth of Jesus.

Jesus gives out of His fullness grace upon grace.

Jesus is able to give us grace because He is full of grace. And Jesus does not just give us grace, He gives us grace upon grace. Jesus gives us grace day after day after day.

Jesus does not just give us grace for salvation. Jesus gives us grace to live daily obeying Him and abiding in His will. Paul says in 2 Peter 1:3 that by His power God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.

God is not stingy, He will give us generously out His grace what we need. Jesus doesn’t give us anything because we deserve it or could earn it. He gives us everything out of His grace. Every good and perfect gift comes from above from the Father of lights.

When Jesus saved me out of His grace, He didn’t just save me a little bit, He saved me fully.

When Jesus blesses me out of His grace, He doesn’t just bless me a little bit, He blesses me fully.

I don’t have to beg Jesus for grace, He gives it naturally because grace is Jesus’ nature.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is receiving the fullness of God’s grace through Jesus.

The law came through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus.

This does not mean that there is no grace in the Old Testament or that Moses did not experience the grace of God. It means that if I choose to follow the law as given through Moses then I have to fulfill the law perfectly. If I choose to follow Jesus through grace then He, not me, has fulfilled the law perfectly.

In Romans 3:20 Paul says, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since though the law comes knowledge of sin.”

Law brings knowledge of sin but no ability to overcome sin.

Grace brings the forgiveness of sin and righteousness through Jesus’ finished work on the cross.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is depending on grace not the law for salvation and blessings from God.

2 Peter 3:18

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

In and Through God’s Grace, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                     Joe

Grace Overcomes Condemnation

A large and important aspect of grace is the truth that Jesus does not condemn us.

There are times in my life when I feel exhausted.

There are times in my life when I feel unworthy.

There are times in my life when I feel condemned.

When I have those feelings, I have learned two important things.

First, I am not to live my life or relate to Jesus based on my feelings.

Second, I go to God’s Word to realign my life with truth.

So, when I face those feelings of unworthiness and condemnation, I bank on Romans 8:1. That verse says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

There are three words in this verse that I need to hear daily.

Now No Condemnation

Condemnation:

To condemn someone is to expose them because of what they have done. We all deserve condemnation. I know this.

I know what I am. I know my thoughts and desires that no one but Jesus and I know.

Psalm 94:11 tells us that God knows the thoughts of men.

Matthew 15:18-20

But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.

Jesus knows that all these thoughts and desires have been in my heart. And on top of that, there have been times when I have squandered opportunities to love Jesus and love others.

So, yes, I deserve to be condemned by Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is recognizing that I deserve condemnation.

No Condemnation:

So here it is written in Scripture that there is no condemnation. Somehow it is possible to go from being condemned, all deserving that condemnation, to no condemnation at all. But it is in no way because of me. It is no condemnation based on being in Jesus. It is the grace of Jesus that delivers me from being condemned.

Being in Christ means we’re united with Him, so that what is true of Him is now true of us. What is naturally true of Jesus, He now shares with us. Jesus absorbs my debt (my sin); I gain His righteousness. Jesus was condemned so I could be forgiven and experience the freedom of no condemnation.

I cannot say. “There is no condemnation for Joe Byers.” But I can say for Joe Byers in Christ Jesus, “There is no condemnation.” This is truth only because I am His.

No condemnation means Jesus will never count our sin against us. Even the must shameful and disgusting things I have ever done will never be used against me. Jesus will always be for us and never against us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living based on the truth there is no condemnation for us when we are in Christ Jesus.

Now No Condemnation:

This is not some hypothetical or theological concept. It is a present-day reality. It is not something I have to wait for, hanging in there until it arrives. It is a right now reality.

I wake up everyday with Jesus telling me that I am in Him and therefore that there is no condemnation. This is a truth that I need to have at the very core of my being. It needs to define how I see myself.

I need not fear the condemnation of people when I am guaranteed the favor and approval of Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living every day with the knowledge that Jesus is completely for me.

Now No Condemnation is because of God’s grace through Jesus.

With No Condemnation, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                           Joe

Grace Saves and Enables

Grace is the truth that God loves me, provides for me, empowers me, and blesses me based on Him, not on me or my performance.

In Ephesians 2:8-9 we are told that we are saved by grace and not by works. Christians acknowledge that salvation is totally by the grace of God and not about what we do or ever could do.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is depending on God’s grace and God’ grace only for salvation.

Galatians 3:3

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Paul is asking these Galatian Christians how they could be so foolish to believe that they were saved by faith but are now to work to prove they are saved. Paul is asking if they really think that they can justify their salvation by doing works.

Matthew 5:3 says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

There are two words in the New Testament translated poor. One means poor in comparison to someone else. The other means completely bankrupt. The word that is used in the Matthew passage means bankrupt. When we realize this and acknowledge it, God can bless us.

It is the same concept that James communicates in James 4:6. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. When we humble ourselves and acknowledge that, in our own strength and our own resources, we cannot do anything of eternal significance, God blesses us and we experience His grace.

Jesus says that He did not come for the righteous but for the sinner.

We are all bankrupt.

Paul pictures that bankruptcy in Romans 3:10-12. He says, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

That is us before we experience the reality of God’s grace – Bankrupt! We have no assets, nothing we could hand over to God even as a partial payment on our debt. 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is acknowledging our bankruptcy apart from Jesus.

Grace is God paying off our debt.

Grace is not God just forgetting our debt. That would compromise God’s holiness. Grace is God paying our debt through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

My debt was so huge that I could not possibly pay it. Jesus paid off a debt that I could not.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is depending on grace to provide all we need for life.

John 15:5

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

It is the grace of God that enables me to abide in Jesus.

It is the grace of God that allows me to produce spiritual fruit.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is the grace of God enabling us to abide in Jesus and produce spiritual fruit.

God’s grace alone saves us, helps us grow, meets our daily needs, and guarantees our future in heaven. God’s blessings are never given to us based on our performance but based in Jesus’ merit.

Jesus paid it all. I mean all! He not only purchased our forgiveness of sins and our entrance into heaven. He also purchased every blessing and every answer to prayer we will ever receive.

God’s grace is huge.

God’s grace is awesome.

God’s grace is ours for the asking.

In God’s Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                       Joe