We have mentioned that grace has to do with God’s goodness, favor, and blessings. All because of His love. We have this grace today because of the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus. With His blood and death, He paid the penalty for all our sins, and that is why today we have this grace from Him helping us.

In this lesson, we are going to look at the most important thing that this grace brings us by reading some verses in Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians is one of the four letters that Paul wrote from prison in Rome. Let’s read Ephesians 2:4-9, “⁴ But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace we have been saved), By grace you have been saved! ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ Jesus and seated us with him in the heavenly realms, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, which he has freely given us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith. This is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one may boast.” (NIV)

Look at the last part of verse 5, and verses 8 and 9 again. By grace we are saved. This is the greatest gift that grace has, and the greatest gift in the entire universe. It is free; it is by grace. If we are saved, what have we been saved from? From sin, from the world, and from the flesh. From spiritual bondage and yokes and other things. We have been saved from eternal hell, and heaven is now our future home. It is as Christ mentioned in John 3:3 and 7. We have been born again. II Corinthians 5:17 says that we are new creatures. We are already different. Even though we look the same physically, inside in our spirit and soul, we are new and different.

Again, we have received all this by grace. Not by our efforts or good deeds, but by the pure grace of God. The only thing we did was what verse 8 says: “Through faith.” We only had to believe by faith, and this is not hard to do. The good thing is, God can save everyone. There is no case too difficult for Him.

In fact, I am an example of this and of His grace.

I did not grow up in a good church. Because of that, as a teenager and young man, I was involved in all the bad things of the world. I started drinking and getting drunk. Then I started using drugs. Just a little at first, but after a while, a lot, every day. I was doing other things like my friends, such as immorality and mistreating people, only thinking about myself. Well, Romans 6:23 says, “²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NIV)

Honestly, all these things were killing me. Emotionally, spiritually, mentally, etc. When I turned 20, my life was ruined, with no future and no hope, and my mind was badly damaged by drugs. I was 100% a slave to drugs and sin. One day, it was Sunday afternoon, August 21, 1977. I was standing on the side of the road hitching a ride, with my hair crazy and long. I needed to get back to my town, but I had no transportation. After a while, a car pulled up and inside were two young Christians looking to reach people for the Lord. They began to tell me about Christ, His love, power, and grace, and for someone as lost as I was, this was very good news. Half an hour later, when we arrived in my town, still in the car, I began to pray and ask God for help. His presence entered the car and my life. He touched me, forgave me, and set me free.

I got out of that car a different person. A new creature in Christ, born again, and all by His grace. About two months later, I went to visit a friend in another city. He was the son of a pastor in a traditional church.

I went with them to their service that Sunday. At the end of the service, they began to sing a hymn. Something in the lyrics of that song touched my life deeply. Through those words, I realized that I was now a completely different person than I had been two months earlier. I knew that I didn’t deserve any of it. A tear began to fall. And listen, I thought, I’m a man, I can’t do this, but I started crying uncontrollably, and I ran down the aisle of the church, completely broken. You know why? I was so grateful to God for changing me and saving me, and I understood it was totally by His grace.

He can do this for everyone. You just need to receive this grace today. He loves you and has beautiful plans for your life. He is your answer today.