Statement #1: God is a God of perfect holiness. Statement #2: Each human being is a sinner. Statement #3: Therein lies the problem.

Fortunately for us, God is a God of love in addition to Him being a God of holiness. And it is out of His love that He extends mercy to each human being. This mercy takes the form of Him not immediately passing the sentence of physical death and eternal damnation that each human being’s sins warrant by violating His holiness.

Thankfully, though, God doesn’t stop at simply being merciful. No, He takes things one step further by offering grace to each sinner (Titus 2:11). Grace is nothing less than undeserved favor. So, now we’ve gone from God’s holiness, to His love, to His mercy, to (potentially) His undeserved favor.

You’ll note that I worked in the word “potentially” there. Why did I do that? It’s because the grace that God offers doesn’t just magically wash over us as we sleep. Instead, it must be purposefully accepted.

Okay, so how do you accept it? You accept God’s grace by accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. As God the Son come down from heaven, Jesus died as the substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of the entire human race and then arose from the dead and ultimately ascended back to heaven. What does Christ’s death have to do with grace? In regards to salvation, it has EVERYTHING to do with it! Consider the following:

• Grace comes through Jesus (John 1:17).
• We receive grace through Jesus Romans 1:5).
• Our salvation comes through Jesus’ grace (Acts 15:11).

And the grace that comes through Jesus doesn’t just stop at salvation. Once you have accepted God’s grace by accepting Jesus, who is the channel of that grace, you are then afforded all kinds of spiritual privileges by that grace. These privileges are referred to as “the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7). Here is a partial list of those privileges:

• It is by grace that you are saved from the eternal punishment your sins deserve (Ephesians 2:5,8).
• It is by grace that you are justified, which means “declared righteous” (Romans 3:24).
• It is by grace that you are given everlasting consolation (comfort, encouragement) and good hope (2 Thessalonians 2:16).
• It is by grace that you are guaranteed to spend eternity with Jesus (1 Peter 1:13).
• It is by grace that God’s holy throne becomes a throne of mercy and help to you rather than a throne of judgment (Hebrews 4:16).
• It is by grace that you are able to stand “in Jesus” (Romans 5:2).

With such spiritual privileges granted to the person who has accepted Jesus as Savior, you would think that everyone would accept Him. Tragically, though, this is far from the case. Even more tragically, if an individual will not accept God’s grace by accepting Jesus, all that is left for that individual is God’s eternal wrath, which stems from His holiness. This takes us back to the original problem: God is a God of perfect holiness, and each human being is a born sinner. God, in grace, has done the work to remedy that problem. So, now the question I put to you is, “Have you accepted that work by accepting Jesus as Savior?”