The Creed Magazine (Sept. 2018) TCM Magazine (Sept.) | Page 48

ken fellowship between God and man, both Jew and Gentile. Hence the only way of salvation for any person is “through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 15:11). who draws people to Christ to receive forgiveness, adoption to sonship, and newness of life, as well as every spiritual gift or grace (Eph. 4:7). Does the grace of God have limits? Will it be contradictory to ask if the ‘limitless’ One has limits to His grace? In itself, the grace of God is limitless once the rules of engage- ment are well followed – the gift is given by God, and is received by man through repentance and faith. When Jesus – grace person- ified – walked the planet, he ex- emplified countless times in dif- ferent encounters with people that grace was always available to those who were willing to cry for and receive. The Samaritan wom- an’s conversion, the sick and de- mon possessed who came to him for healing and deliverance re- spectively, the woman caught in adultery, Nicodemus the Pharisee who would seek his audience at an odd time would all testify of pro- portionate grace available to meet their varied needs. Jesus assured his listeners, “…him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out…” and truly, as the words of the fa- vorite hymn go …”the vilest of- fender who truly believes…” finds God’s grace limitless. The grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ is applied to mankind for salvation by the Holy Spirit, who is the One However, consider the other side of the coin which suggests that although the grace of God is free and underserved, it must not be taken for granted. For though the ‘grace of God had appeared to all men’, according to Titus 2:11; even when grace was personified, the bigoted, and stiff-necked Phari- sees and Sadducees who reject- ed him could not assess this over- flowing grace because they were not aware of it! But that isn’t un- familiar. In the days of the great flood, despite years of announc- ing the impending destruction of the then world, Noah would only have eight persons (aside the an- imals) coming into the salvation the ark afforded. The countless others, could not identify that No- ah’s pleadings were God’s grace at work, just as Lot’s in-laws in So- dom and Gomorrah were unable to recognize the call to escape as grace at work in the midst of im- pending destruction. The topic of grace features promi- nently in the letters of the apostle Paul. In Romans 3:24, he sets grace against the law and the works of the law emphasizing that salva- tion is not something that is