With That Grace

1 Timothy 1:14b " . . . With that grace came the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus."

What was Paul talking about the "grace that came with faith and love that are in Christ Jesus?" Do you realize who Paul was as a former Saul who thought that all Christians who accept Jesus Christ were really wrong? Paul as Saul was given authority to arrest every Christians and put them in jail for "wrong belief."

Paul, from Jerusalem was on his way to Damascus to find more Christians who escaped from that city and to put them in jail. Paul actually thought he had done the right thing until Jesus appeared to Paul as Saul. He was shocked when Jesus told him that "he was wrong." His former name Saul was changed to Paul because he was a changed man after he met Jesus. This was what Paul wrote to Timothy how much Paul appreciated "with that grace."

1 Tim. 1:12. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who gave me strength, because he trusted me and gave me this work of serving him. 13In the past I spoke against Christ and persecuted him and did all kinds of things to hurt him. But God showed me mercy, because I did not know what I was doing. I did not believe. 14But the grace of our Lord was fully given to me, and with that grace came the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

I want you to notice something, "but the grace of our Lord was fully given to me . . ."  Paul embraced that grace because he realized what he had done. Now do you ever felt guilty of what you had done and thought maybe God would not forgive you? Just remember what Paul wrote and you could say, "But God showed me mercy, ... and with that grace came the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus."  Oh, this is amazing grace!

So let us embraced God's grace!

Dorothy
PS. Just thought of a song, Amazing Grace for the next blog.