We’re just over a week removed from Easter and the celebration of all Jesus did for us through His death, burial, resurrection.
What an incredible gift to humanity.
What an overwhelming love God has for us.
Amazing grace.
The unmerited favor of God.
We didn’t deserve it, but God wrapped Himself in flesh, came to this earth as a man, and paid the price for our sins with His very life.
Grace made a way.
A way to escape the wages of sin, which is death (Romans 6:23).
A way to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).
A way to spend eternity in heaven.
Grace made a way! Now what?
That’s the important question, isn’t it? When we find grace in the eyes of the Lord, what happens next?
There was a man in Genesis who, in the middle of a sinful and wicked world, found grace in the eyes of God (Genesis 6:8).
His name was Noah, and the Bible says he found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Now what?
Grace handed him some very detailed plans for a boat that would save Noah and his family from certain death as God cleansed the earth of wickedness with a flood.
A way of escape.
But Noah had to build an ark.
Not only did he have to build it, but it had to be built according to all God commanded Him.
And he did (Genesis 6:22).
Noah found grace, and that grace provided him a detailed plan for a boat. And he followed that plan.
In a manner of speaking, when we find grace in the eyes of God, we too must build the boat.
Grace made a way for us at Calvary, and now we must choose to walk by faith and follow the plan “according to all God has commanded us.”
The Easter story doesn’t end at the cross, or even at the resurrection.
Following Jesus’ ascension in the book of Acts, God handed us the plans for our ark--a detailed plan, just for us.
In Acts 2, after the Holy Ghost fell in the upper room in Jerusalem, we find Peter preaching about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the first sermon, preached at the birth of the Church.
After the message, the people responded by asking, “What shall we do?”
“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:38-39).
Grace provides a plan. Only this plan isn’t for a single family. It’s for everyone.
I invite you today to take hold of the promise offered to us by grace.
Repent.
Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.
Receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
After Peter answers the “what shall we do” question in Acts 2:38, there’s the real response. Here’s grace, offering the plans to salvation. And there is a choice to be made: do we build the boat or not?
And there were about 3,000 people who “gladly received” the grace. And they followed the plan.
The book of Acts shares the stories of all those who willingly responded in obedience to this beautiful message, giving us precious examples to follow.
I’m so very thankful that grace made a way.
