| David Jay Jordan's Grace Not Works If there is anything we have to get straight, it is that we are saved by GRACE. We didn’t save ourselves and we can never perfect ourselves and our total Righteousness is only the LORD. For the Lord’s WORD says that “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3: 23) Past tense, present tense and future tense. We shall never be holy and our complete holiness is just Him, so because we didn’t earn our Salvation, we can only be thankful for it….as we All are in the same boat …all sinners now and forever. For again it says “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23). Our salvation is and was and will always be a gift from the Lord to us because He loved us and payed the price for our sins. Simple and straight forward. We owe Him everything including our physical lives because He is our Creator. is the Creato And if by Grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise Grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more Grace: otherwise work is no more work. (Romans 11: 6) So you see it can’t be an obnoxious mixture of Grace and Works when it comes to our salvation. It is either one or the other…and seeing we can’t be good enough or perfect enough to obtain it, then it has to be by GRACE. For here again, it can be written that G-R-A-C-E , means a ……Gift – Received – At – Christ’s – Expense. Sure we can neglect our Salvation which is our foundation and the seed from the Lord and not build upon it, but still it remains. We can NOT lose our salvation. For whom the Lord has saved is always saved. (See The Lord has Not lost any sheep) For did He not promise “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13: 5b) I mean, even the apostle Paul said …”According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (Jesus’s Salvation by Grace is our Foundation) Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be SAVED; yet so as by fire. (In other words, the Lord wants us to grow in Faith and Grace and wisdom, but we will still be saved, even though losing everything when we could have gained so much, and done so much with our lives. Yet the choice and choices are up to us And so when James said “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. (James 2: 26) …this was not a contradiction because we should go on with the Lord and work for Him if we are normal and natural and ‘born again’, we will want to follow him out of love. We don’t have to, but we want to, and want to share his love to all that will accept His Gift and Grace, just like we did. We aren’t on a works trip or a holiness treadmill, but on the path of Grace because we believe in Grace. The Lord gave to us and we want to give to our brothers and sisters, for we are all the same and none of us are righteous except Him. For if any man glory, let him glory in the Lord. (2 Corinthians 10: 17) This is our equality, because we are all birds of like feathers and none of us can fly without the Lord. It’s all by His Grace, and if we have it …we’ll work for Him to give it to others. In Our Opinion according to His Love and Grace David and Joy Davidjayjordan@yahoo.com |