Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Grace”
Our Bible verse for today: “Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:18 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Special grace comes to us through our relationship with Jesus.”
So far in our study of grace we have learned that grace is “Undeserved blessings freely bestowed upon people by God.” And we learned that “common grace” is called common because it involves the blessings of God which are automatically available to and experienced by all people, simply by being inhabitants of planet earth.
Today we want to turn our thoughts to “special grace”. The Dictionary of Evangelical Theology defines it like this: “Special grace is the grace by which God redeems, sanctifies, and glorifies his people.” This is different from common grace in that special grace is bestowed only upon those who have received the gift of eternal life by coming to God’s Son Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins.
Rather than just experiencing the simple benefits of common grace such as sunshine, rain, social order, etc, those who receive special grace are blessed with redemption, sanctification (transformation), and glorification. Special grace is the conduit through which the best and most important blessings of God come to us. Think of it as common grace on steroids. This is a completely different level of being blessed by God.
But please remember, just like common grace, special grace comes to us as a free gift from God. We don’t deserve it, there is nothing we can do to earn it, and therefore we certainly should not be prideful about the fact that we have it and someone else doesn’t.
Please note the way Paul phrased 2 Corinthians 5:18. First of all, special grace comes from God. He is the originator of it. Second, it comes through Christ. Were it not for Jesus, there would be no special grace. Third, God reconciled us to Himself. We didn’t reconcile ourselves. The action was taken by Him. And fourth, once you have been reconciled and therefore have received this gift of special grace, God then tasks you with the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, you now have the privilege and the responsibility of sharing Jesus with others so that they too can be reconciled to God and thereby experience His special grace.
Special grace is deep and rich and there is more that needs to be said about it. We’ll continue exploring it tomorrow.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 