The Energizing Power of Grace

Today's Three-minute Bible Study
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Title: The Energizing Power of Grace------------------------------------------- Date: 6/5/2003
Keywords: "grace"
Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation.

The beginning of the Gospel of John is "shallow enough for the beginner to wade in and deep enough for the experienced to never touch bottom." We began on June 1, 2003, to explore John's Prologue (John 1:1-18) for a few days. We're seeing what we can discover about God and Jesus, grace and forgiveness, and the life-changing power of God.

Passage: John 1:1-13*

1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2. He was in the beginning with God.

3. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

4. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

5. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

6. There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John.

7. He came for a witness, that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him.

8. He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light.

9. There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.

10. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.

11. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.

12. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,

13. who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

14. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

15. John bore witness of Him, and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’"

16. For of His fulness we have all received, and grace upon grace.

17. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

18. No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

Questions

1. What does John 1:16 say is the gift Jesus has given us?

 

2. How does this particular "gift" affect you when you think about a problem you might have with a besetting sin, like porn addiction?

 

Practical help

Grace is exactly what people who struggle with sin need. Grace is forgiveness, the kind that is offered over and over and over again. God’s grace doesn’t ever come to an end.

Having come to know Christ by faith, there never comes that time when God looks at us after a sin and says, "That’s it, I’ve forgiven you X times. That last one was the last straw. No more forgiveness. No more grace." (to find out how to know Christ by faith, click here.)

No — God has given us grace — and grace upon grace in Jesus. The realization that forgiveness is a rock solid promise of an on-going gift from God, not a tentative-I’ll-forgive-you-this-much-and-no-more kind of thing has an amazing impact on us.

It does not, as some would think, free us up to sin more. It energizes us to resist temptation.

Bask in the glorious knowledge that God has dealt with you in grace, and allow that knowledge to move you to purity. We are eXXit are praying for you!


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*"Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."

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