If we consider all the religions in the world we will find that they will all fall into one of two camps. They are either based on legalism or on grace. There are only two options. Either salvation is man made—legalism. Or salvation is God made—grace.
A legalist believes he is the supreme force of salvation. He would say that if he looks right, speaks right, acts right, and belongs to the right group he will be saved. That is, the legalist believes that he can erase enough sin in his life to earn access to the perfect heaven of God. When you look or listen closely you find that legalists are missing one thing: JOY. The reason for their lack of JOY is that they are driven by FEAR, ARROGANCE, or a sense of FAILURE. FEAR—they cannot do enough; ARROGANCE—they are the arbiters of how much they should do; FAILURE—they may have made an irreparable mistake.
Grace says: My salvation is based on God’s work through Christ and I rejoice because God loves me in spite of my flaws and not because I have to get rid of them. There is peace and comfort in this knowledge.
Pastor Luis Scott
Ambassadors of Christ Fellowship
(03/19/09)
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