07/05/2020
This is Fresh Fire, a God’s Favourite House Devotional by Femi Monehin
Thursday, May 7
*Grace = Mercy + Favour*
Eph. 2:4-5 (NRSV) _“*But God*, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved”_ (emphasis added)
Eph. 2:4 (NRSV, emphasis added) _“*But God*, who is rich in mercy…”_ What is mercy? Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Does anyone go to bed praying and pleading for God's judgment in their lives? Does anyone go to bed saying, God, I need your judgment in my life, give me everything I deserve. The truth is we cannot and that is why David said, _"If You were to mark iniquity who shall stand? But because there is forgiveness with You, therefore we fear You!"_ (Ps. 130:3-4). There is forgiveness with God, therefore we fear Him!
_“*But God*, who is rich in mercy…”_; He does not give us, He has not given us what we actually deserve. He has done better to us than we actually deserve and that is mercy! While mercy is not getting what we deserve. Favour, on the other hand, is getting what we do not deserve. Yet God has put the mercy and favour together in grace. When the Bible says, _"…by grace are you saved…"_, it means that for you and I to be saved, we actually needed God's mercy (God not giving us what we deserve) and we actually need His favour (Him giving us what we do not deserve – the death of His Son on the cross of Calvary) before we can be saved.
Grace equals mercy plus favour and that is what we need to be saved. It is not by works, lest any man should boast (Eph. 2:8-9). Salvation is purely by grace! But what I am saying to you today is that you need to come into that grace, you need to accept it. Remember the illustration of the scale from yesterday's devotion. On the right side, there is grace and favour but on the left side, there is judgment and wrath. God is saying to us today, come to the right side of the scale so that the grace will be upon you.
Eph. 2:4-5 _“But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that *even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead.* (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)_ (emphasis added). God is rich in mercy; He wipes off everything that is written against us. Col. 2:13-14 (GW) _“You were once dead because of your failures and your uncircumcised corrupt nature. *But God* made you alive with Christ when he forgave all our failures. He did this by erasing the charges that were brought against us by the written laws God had established. He took the charges away by nailing them to the cross.”_ (emphasis added).
*Prayer* (song): Your grace has found me just as I am…empty handed but alive in Your hands… Majesty, Majesty… forever I am changed by Your love… in the presence of Your Majesty. ..Amen!
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Mark 14:35 “He went on a little farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by.”
