By Grace Through Faith
Ephesians 2:1-10
The poor peasant who does not know that he has been left a million dollars in an inheritance still lives as a poor peasant. He thinks like a poor peasant, he acts like a poor peasant, he dreams of an impossible future like a poor peasant. And so live the majority of the human race – living in poverty when, in fact, they are
unimaginably wealthy if only they knew it.
Something happened in that strip of land along the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea around two thousand years ago that broke open a wondrous fact: the full, true and complete life that people yearn for is available to all who
accept it. We miss out because our relationship with God is as good as dead, killed by our own self-centred and rebellious attitude, but God acted in Jesus Christ to give us this true life – an act of sheer grace and love, unearned and freely given. Accept it! That’s the invitation. Accept it, not as a proven theorem or scientific discovery, but as an act of faith. Then live it. It is by living our faith that we prove it. Only as we entrust ourselves to the God who acted so graciously in Jesus Christ do we discover the true reality.
We have a share in the immeasurable riches of God’s grace. Why live in poverty of spirit? Why be driven by self-centred instincts and desires when there is another, greater centre by which to live. Why trudge our way through pseudo-life when our lives could be ringing with the joy of true life?
• You might like to change the image of the poor peasant who is unaware of his wealth for the seriously ill person who doesn’t know that a cure is available. How do these images reflect the plight of the human race?
• There is a deadness about people who live away from God, but they can
come alive. How?
• Since we are saved by God’s grace, how is that grace received and made
our own?
• How have you experienced the immeasurable riches of God’s grace?