The grace and the power of God has empowered every believer since the beginning of creation. This Gospel – or good news – is the most basic, foundational message of the bible. God is at work within you to will and to do of His good pleasure!
What is grace? The most common Christian definition is that grace is the unmerited favor of God. The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes grace as the unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification. Both of those definitions hold true in some respects; but to truly understand what grace is, we must first understand, why grace is needed. to truly understand what grace is, we must first understand, why grace is needed. Click To Tweet God gave grace to man because basically man wouldn’t accomplish anything without it. God made man in His own image and gave him one job, to be fruitful and multiply, and subdue the earth.
Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Gen 1:28
Fill the earth and subdue it. Simple enough, right? But when man encountered its first attempt at submission, he failed… miserably. Man (which God called Adam) couldn’t even subdue a serpent – actually, Adam let the serpent do the subduing. Adam stood by and watched as the serpent convinced his wife eat from the tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil, which God forbid them to eat from, and didn’t do, say anything. In fact, Adam ate the forbidden fruit himself and they both were ashamed. And knowing that he failed in the task which God had given him, man did what any man would do. He tried to think his way out of his problem on his own.
When God asked, “Where are you?” Adam thought of a great excuse.
“I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself,” Adam said.
Then God asked another question,
“Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”
and Adam had a “what had happened moment” when he tried to explain himself.
Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” Gen 3:12
What seemed like a great answer to Adam was really man’s way of trying to save himself. Man trying to save himself is like trying to fight fire with more fire. Like making an eye appointment with a blind optometrist. It’s just not going to work out good in the long run. Adam answer was only good because Adam thought it was. Man had developed a dreadful case of the disease called pride. But what Adam failed to realize is God already had the cure and the cure was called grace.
Once God heard what Adam and the woman (Adam had not yet given Eve her name) had to say about how the serpent deceived them, He immediately applied grace.
“Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” Gen 3:14-15
God subdued the serpent. Did you catch that? What God told Adam to do, but didn’t, God did! But watch what happens next.
To the woman, He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Gen 3:16
God said “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception” but then He said, “you shall bring forth children”.
Let me get this straight, Adam directly disobeyed a commanded from God and then basically tried to make a man-made excuse for it… and God still issued the declaration “you shall bring forth children”? Why?
Because of grace. More importantly, Empowering Grace.
Question: Have you ever thought of Grace as a form of empowerment? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
