God assures
us that His gift to mankind is free.
But there is a great difference
between Adam's sin and God's gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam,
brought dweath to many. But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift
of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. And the result of
God's gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man's sin.
For Adam's sin led to condemnation, but God's free gift leads to our being
made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. For the sin of
this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God's
wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live
in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. Romans 5:15-17 (Underlined or
emphasis.)
God gives
His gift—His Son Jesus—forgiving sins through Jesus’ obedient sacrifice. It is “free”
for us—but look at what Jesus gave—His human life. Resurrection is a gift to us
all, since we will one day experience that resurrection, too. That is part of
God’s promise. We must have faith.
Faith is believing without seeing. Faith
like Abraham, who left his homeland at God’s command. He trusted God to provide
him with a land and a family. He was obedient—like our Lord, Jesus. Abraham was
known as a friend of God. We can have the same relationship with God. Be His
friend. To know Him, we can read and study His words in scripture. We cannot
see Jesus now—but one day we will see Him…and every knee will bow before Him. All
humanity throughout history will be bowing. It will be a glorious day.
Have you or will you be accepting
God’s free gift? It really is free to you, but obedience is the key or the
price that anyone pays who wants to be a true friend of Jesus…of God. Simply
put…Jesus commanded this to His disciples.
You are my friends if you do
what I command. John
15:14
Do you
want to be a friend of God…a friend of Jesus? Can you obey Jesus’ commands?
So
the promise is received by faith. It is given as a free gift. And we are all
certain to receive it, whether or not we live according to the law of Moses, if
we have faith like Abraham's. For Abraham is the father of all who believe.
That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, "I have made you the
father of many nations." This happened because Abraham believed in the God
who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing.
Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping—believing that he
would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, "That's
how many descendants you will have!" And Abraham's faith did not weaken,
even though, at about 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead—and
so was Sarah's womb. Romans
4:16-19
Prayer
– Lord Jesus, thank you for Your tremendous sacrifice. I am in awe of You.
Meditate.
Think about Jesus’ sacrifice for you.
Verse
of Salvation ~ God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take
credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good
things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God's
masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good
things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians
2:8-10
© 2025 Text, photos, and illustrations by Mickey M. Hunacek. All
rights reserved.
All scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless
otherwise noted.
New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale
House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream,
Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Biblical search from Blue Letter Bible - http://v3.blueletterbible.org/search.cfm.
Books by Mickey M.
Hunacek
Available as e-books or paperbacks at Amazon.com
Parenting Day By Day - Daily Devotional for Building Character
Coins in the Bible: New Testament Stories
No comments:
Post a Comment