Monday February 26
What, according to Ephesians 2:8, is something else we have been given by God?
Grace is “undeserved favor.” It is a gift you do not deserve. God has poured out His grace on this planet and, if we would simply not reject it, His grace will reach down and transform our lives, now and for eternity. All the wealth and power of heaven is embodied in the gift of grace (2 Corinthians 8:9). Even angels are amazed at this ultimate gift (1 Peter 1:12).
No question: of all that God gives us, the grace given us in Jesus Christ is the most precious gift of all. Without grace, we would be without hope. Sin’s doleful impact on humanity is too great for humans ever to free themselves from it. Even obedience to God’s law couldn’t bring to us life. “Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law” (Galatians 3:21). After all, if any law could save us, it would be God’s law. But Paul says that even that can’t do it. If we are to be saved, it would have to be by grace.
Read 1 Peter 4:10. How is stewardship related to grace? Explain how giving to God and to others displays His grace.
Peter said that as we have received the gift of God’s grace, we are to be “stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10) in return. That is, God has given us gifts; therefore, we need to give back from what we have been given. What we have received, by grace, is not just for pleasing and benefitting ourselves, but for the furtherance of the gospel. Freely we have been given (which is what grace is all about); freely, then, we need to give every way we can.
Think about all that you have been given by God. In what ways can you, then, be a steward of the grace you have been so freely given?
