Jn 1:16-18
"For out of his fullness (abundance) have we all received, grace upon grace (blessing upon blessing, favour upon favour).
For the law was given by Moses but grace (Gods unmerited favour) and truth, came by Jesus Christ!!
What Jesus actually did when he came to this earth two thousand years ago, was to bring our lives back into a place of favour with God.
If your in a position of being out of favour with a friend or associate of yours, you know about it. The way they look at you, how your perceived, the things that you won't have access too about them, all go to paint a picture of you out in the cold.
This was man in regards to God before Jesus came to bring him back, by the sacrifice of his life on the cross, into a place where we could have fellowship and friendship with God our creator.
It's such a precious thing to have been given grace and favour with our Heavenly Father.
Life without him was a cold and brutal place. It consisted of between forty and eighty years and then hell.
If you think of it in those cold factual terms, then you put into prospective the difference Jesus made to everything!!
Where we were cut off and looked upon with disfavour by the effect of sin, God could look upon our lives covered under the blood of Jesus and say, your acceptable to me!!
It's by grace you and I are saved. Undeserved favour, unearned and a gift of such tremendous proportions, that our human mind can not contain it.
2 Cor 5:19 says that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not holding over us our sins!!
In another place it says, let the redeemed of The Lord say so!! Declare the amazing work he's done in your life.
2 Cor 6:1-3 says that we shouldn't receive this gift of grace from God in vain! We are to let the Spirit of God work deeply within us to allow grace to have its perfect work in us.
This is because God works to a perfect timing and even though to our way of thinking, it takes forever for the good fruit we want to see growing in us, Gods plan will proceed and we'll get there!!
"I have heard you in an acceptable time or (in a time of favour) I have listened to and heeded your call and I have helped you on the day of salvation!! Behold NOW is truly the time for a gracious welcome and acceptance of you from God, behold now is the day of salvation!!!
What wonderful planning and forethought from God went into our salvation. Not only are you delivered from death in every form it takes but you come back into that special place of favour in Gods eyes.
It says that when Jesus was young he grew in favour both with God and those around him!!
This is the pattern of life we should now walk in. Once we belong to Jesus, we're part of Gods family and we receive all the benefits of that relationship. Good things begin to follow us, Gods mercy, his grace, his protection, his love.
Favour is a place that God brings us into with him and his hand of grace comes upon us to lead us and guide us into his best plan for our future.