The Awesome Power of Bold Grace!
Bold grace has a purpose, a magnificent purpose that we can be excited about. Bold grace is not just for the forgiveness of sins, or for letting us humans have a pass while we live this life. Bold grace comes from our perfect God through the life of His son Jesus Christ and its power is far reaching. Paul the apostle enlightens us on what is the purpose of this bold grace of God.
Titus 2:11-1511 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 15 These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.
- First of all Paul tells us in verse 11 that this bold grace has appeared to ALL men. That means undeserved favor has appeared to all men. It does not appear to men or women who deserve it because there aren’t any.
- Secondly, he clearly shows us that this bold grace has some very specific purposes for all of our lives. It teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. Teaching us to live soberly, righteously, and godly, and he is clearly talking about our earthly lives (this present world). Now the very obvious thing about this bold grace is that it is given to us before hand in order that we can have all these wonderful goals. Without the knowledge of being loved even though we don’t deserve it we could never move toward what grace teaches us.
- Third, in verses 13 & 14 we also see the clear description of what Bold Grace really is. Christ giving himself FOR US! Not a few of US, or some of US, or just those of US who deserve it, but for ALL OF US! And just what is HIS goal for us? To purify unto himself a peculiar people, zeolous of good works.
Now for me, I am convinced that He accomplishes this in every single life. You might say: "Well Cliff, I just don’t see that in a lot of people that I know." What you are forgetting is that we are human and very limited in our understanding of God. Every day that I allow this bold grace to teach me I am more and more in awe of our PERFECT GOD. To deny the power of grace, is to limit our Perfect God to our thinking. God’s thoughts are not my thoughts, and His ways are past finding out.
Paul describes our creator as the GREAT GOD and OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST. Ask yourself, how great is your God? The God I see preached in most of our churches is powerless, with more power to send people to HELL then to HEAVEN.
John the baptist said: BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD WHO TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD. We have a creator that can and has accomplished more then we could ever ask for or imagine. It’s time the world heard the truth. We have the awesome power of Bold Grace and it has appeared to all men………Do you see it?
Paul Wrote:
It teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts.
Geo here:
ungodliness & worldly lusts are when we seek to follow and obey God though our words actions and deeds and in doing so we think it brings us closer to God and His acceptance of us! And in doing so we deny the power of The Cross and are ungodly and lust filled! More than anything in this life the flesh desires its own righteousness through what it does! And again when we seek to please God through our words, actions and deeds we are denying The Finished Work of The Cross and are ungodly and filled with worldly lust!
Peace
Geo
I just recently went to a Catholic wedding where I sat patiently waiting for the ceremony to end. As I sat there I kept thinking to myself, “this priest is going to make me throw up if his crowd of people repeat him one more time.” I mean I was literally screaming inside for them to shut-up. I walked out of that temple or church or whatever the building is called believing that all of those people who attend there have seriously missed so much in life by following the words of that priest. It seemed like a cult to. I was waiting for them to bring out the lamb and sacrifice it and drink its blood or something. What is it exactly that they think they are getting by being there and following the rituals of Catholicism? Do they think that if they follow the rules they will get to go to the front of the line? That priest wouldn’t know what Grace was even if it bit him in the rear end!! When it was over I swear I couldn’t get out of there quick enough.
Do you know what the saddest thing was about that whole experience? It was me sitting there upset that I was in a Church. I DESPISED it soo much that I couldn’t see the beauty in these two lovely people committing to each other for the rest of there lives. I missed out on a great moment in life. I am such a dumbass and I felt that I needed to share my dumbass experience!
Thanks for listening,
Mindy
Well said Geo. The whole idea of Bold Grace is that it is the Work of God and not our work.
Mindy, You have just given a perfect example of how religion can become exactly what Geo is talking about.
Mindy,
You are in NO WAY a dumb ass!
The Bold Grace we know of allows us to have those feelings of honesty about the world around us. In the same way Bold Grace allows those who were in attendance there to see it as a Holy Thing that the priest was doing.
Bold Grace is deeper, wider & higher than any of us can imagine. You my sister are a shining example of someone who is understanding more daily just how marvelous BOLD GRACE is! Keep being YOU!
Peace
Geo
Great post and comments.
Verse 14 above states that Christ redeemed us from ALL iniquity, not just that which we confess or not just that which we “repent” of (and the church would imply stop doing) but ALL iniquity. There in is the power of the gospel.
And George is right in encouraging Mindy. There is no reason for us to feel like a dumb ass because we have been granted the insight to see through the futiltity of much of religion. After all there is no priest, other than Christ that intercedes for us. There is no drinking of blood, or grape juice or no eating of wafers that cleans any of us one bit more than what Christs atonement already accomplished.
On a side note, it doesn’t look like I am going to be able to attend the gathering in August due to work conflicts. It saddens me that I will miss the opportunityy to meet people like Cliff, Mindy, our friend Tom from “Effortless Grace” and others, or at least not this year. I am sure you guys will have a wonderful time and schedule other such times in the future.
Hi cliff,hope you are well my friend.I have to say that my lust was to selfrighteousness.Since understanding the imputted righteousness that was given to me by our father.Those selfrighteous lusts have completely gone.I see myself one with the entire world now with the righteousness of christ upon me and them also.What a gift this is cliff.My heart and mind are no longer on my flesh or the flesh of others.For that flesh was crucified in the body of christ once and for all.It frees me to have no more war with my body.We have been accepted fully in the beloved “period”.Now i can start to live a life that is free from guilt fear and condemnation.If we have any sort of faults or failers in our lives now we can deal with them and help others to deal with them also.It others words we can stop seeing each other as being different in the eyes of our God.Paul came to the knowledge that the only thing that counts now is faith expressing its selve through love.He was speaking about the faith and the mind of christ.We have that mind now that is full of love and acceptance of others for whom christ tasted of death for.Heb2v9.US ALL.
G&P,
kenneth
Thanks for your words of wisdom Kenneth.
Thankyou cliff my friend.I know you that you have the love of God in you my brother.Your posts are full of wisdom and love for all.For this i thankyou.
G&P
kenneth.
Steve,sorry to hear you will not be going to the gathering.I’am sure you will be missed there.We can keep each other company even though we are miles apart.I ‘am looking forward for george to make a video of their time together.Hope you remember to remind him to do this for me and for you.
G&P
kenneth
Will do Kenneth.