Precious SeedPreaching the word, in season and out of season; reproving, rebuking, and exhorting, with complete patience and teaching.

Weekends with Pastor Chuck

Each weekend the CCRussell blog brings you an excerpt from one of Pastor Chuck Smith’s many books. Pastor Chuck is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. This weekend’s excerpt is from chapter one of Why Grace Changes Everything.

You have a choice. You can strive to make it to heaven by your own efforts and try to be as good as Christ, or you can place your faith in Jesus and receive your right standing with God as a gift of His grace.

For me, this is no choice at all. I know there is no way that I, in my good works, would ever make it to heaven. I stand hopelessly condemned on the basis of my past sin. I have no chance of being received by God apart from His mercy.

The good news is, God has provided a way of acceptance before Him. God, who is absolutely holy and pure and so righteous that no sin can dwell in His presence, has made a way for people like us to have fellowship with Him. When we believe in this sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us – even though we didn’t deserve it – the Father grants us perfect forgiveness.

That’s the gospel of grace. Each one of us can relate to God, even though we are far from perfect. We can still have a beautiful relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ.

When we relate to the Father by faith through His Son, we have a solid relationship. We are now sons of God. Because He is our Father, we don’t have to wonder if we are worthy to come to Him. We do not come on the basis of our worthiness, but on the basis of our relationship with Him.

That is what the gospel of grace is all about. God looks at us as though we never committed a single trespass against Him. Now, I have trouble looking at myself like that. I look at myself in the mirror and say, “Chuck, you are a sinner. You can’t control your appetite; you have so many flaws.” And yet God looks at me and says, “Forgiven.” He loves me and accepts me as I am because I am in Jesus Christ. Even as He has accepted His own Son, so now He accepts me. Paul tells us that we have been accepted “in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). The Beloved one is Christ; and you, being in Christ, are accepted by God just as Christ is accepted.

That is why the gospel of grace is the best news I have ever heard. God forgives us because we believe in His Son, whom He sent to die for our sins. All our sins have been blotted out. There is no accounting of guilt. As Paul tells us, “Oh, how happy are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Oh, how happy is the man to whom the Lord does not impute sin” (see Romans 4:7,8).

As sons of God, we have every right to come to our Father to ask Him for anything that we might need. We have every right to trust the wisdom of our Father to either grant or deny the request, according to His knowledge of what is best for us. We can commit ourselves to our heavenly Father, who loves us so very much. He will give us only what is best.

What a joy it is to know that God desires to bestow upon us the richness and the fullness of His love – not because we deserve it, but because He loves us. This is the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ!

From “Why Grace Changes Everything” by Pastor Chuck Smith.