Focus: Grandeur of Grace

Text: Ps.84:11. 

"For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give GRACE and GLORY: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly."

I love those two words - grace and glory. But let us concentrate on GRACE for now, for grace is the pathway to glory. Glory is the climax and crown of grace. Grace is God coming down to our level and glory is God taking us to his level. Grace and glory are forever linked.

By way of acronym I want you to see what God by GRACE has done (and is doing) for us. Through grace God:

*Grants us pardon

...the grace of pardon flows from Calvary. The blood of Christ ensures pardon for sin.

*Robes us in God's own righteousness.

...Christ has become to us righteousness. We're well adorned in God's sight.

*Arms us with divine ability.

...at Calvary we obtain pardon for sin, and at Pentecost we receive power over sin.

*Crowned with glory and honor.

...glory is the crown of grace. In the book of Revelation, Christ's crown is diadema, royal crown, while the believer's crown is Stephanos, the victor's crown. Grace enables us to win in the arena of battle, and places on our heads a crown.

*Enriches us with covenant blessings.

... Paul speaks of the "blessing of the gospel" and the "cup of blessing," and says that we are blessed with "all spiritual blessings" in Christ. He tells of the unsearchable riches of Christ, "riches in glory," "riches of his grace," and "riches of his glory," and these riches and blessings flow to us from the new covenant guaranteed by the God of all grace, who sits on the throne of grace. Hallelujah! I pray you feed fat at the banquet table of grace. Amen.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter