A Christian is a person who transitions from death into life and from darkness into light. How should we then live now that we have chosen to follow Christ? We are to live as people who have the identity of Jesus now, people of the light since Jesus himself calls us to be the light of the world. Paul writes a letter to a church to remind Christians what it means to live as children of light.
When a church closes its doors or no longer functions as a beacon of light for Jesus; it makes me wonder upon which foundation was such church built. When Jesus said he would build his church, he also made the promise that it will transcend time, not even the forces of evil will overpower it.
The church began with the preaching of the apostles and prophets, as Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
Every house or building begin with a foundation; they are as strong as their foundation.
The Bible tells us that Jesus promised to build his church and that the gates of Hell would not overcome it. Matt.16:18. The church belongs to Jesus because he is his architect, engineer, designer. It was his idea to build it. Have you ever wondered how Jesus began to build his church? What did he do to build it?
Today I would like to talk about another word we Christians throw around a lot and at many times, we don’t quite understand its meaning. It is the word “grace.” We hear things like you are saved by grace and there’s nothing you could have done. Salvation is a gift, that you don’t deserve it. Just as we spent time last week looking at God’s love and what we mean when we say it’s unconditional, today I want us to spend some time looking at God’s grace. What is it? What do we mean when we say we are saved by grace?