\u2026 and were by nature children of wrath, even as others. Eph.2:3<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are you a believer? Are you what is called a saved person, a child of<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God? If so, how did that come about? Why did God save you? If your<\/p>\n\n\n\n
answer is, \u201cbecause I believed in Jesus,\u201d then you are over-qualified to<\/p>\n\n\n\n
be a candidate for the mercy of God and are therefore deceived and lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God saves sinners who are \u201ceven as others\u201d and if you have distinguished<\/p>\n\n\n\n
yourself from \u201cothers\u201d by some kind of faith that you produced, you have<\/p>\n\n\n\n
disqualified yourself from receiving the unmerited, free, sovereign,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
distinguishing grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our text and its context clearly show that when God, Who is rich in<\/p>\n\n\n\n
mercy, displayed and dispensed that mercy upon men, that He did so when<\/p>\n\n\n\n
they were just like everybody else. If God saved me because I believed<\/p>\n\n\n\n
in Jesus and did not save \u201cothers\u201d because they did not believe in<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus, then the scriptures are meaningless and there is no such thing as<\/p>\n\n\n\n
pure grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What does it mean to be \u201ceven as other?\u201d Read Ephesians 2. It means to<\/p>\n\n\n\n
be \u201cdead in trespasses and sins,\u201d in the \u201clusts of our flesh,\u201d and to be<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cby nature the children of wrath.\u201d You may say, \u201cWell I was a sinner and<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God saved me by grace, but I \u2018improved\u2019 upon that grace, whereas others<\/p>\n\n\n\n
did not.\u201d Then you are not \u201ceven as others\u201d; God has surely passed you<\/p>\n\n\n\n
by and shall until you become so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was the Pharisee\u2019s problem. Luke 18:11. The Pharisee stood and<\/p>\n\n\n\n
prayed thus with himself, \u201cGod, I thank thee, that I am not as other men<\/p>\n\n\n\n
are, extortionist, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.\u201d Real<\/p>\n\n\n\n
sinners, such as the publican referred to here, make no such claim, but<\/p>\n\n\n\n
only cry out for mercy! If we have any objection to the title \u201ceven as<\/p>\n\n\n\n
others,\u201d it is only that surely there is no one quite as wretched as<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is your definition of grace? God saved me out of a world full of<\/p>\n\n\n\n
drowning worms just like me. If that\u2019s not grace, then I don\u2019t know what<\/p>\n\n\n\n
grace is. \u2014 Chris Cunningham<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2026 and were by nature children of wrath, even as others. Eph.2:3 Are you a believer? Are you what is called a saved person, a child of God? If so, how did that come about? Why did God save you? If your answer is, \u201cbecause I believed in Jesus,\u201d then you are over-qualified to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-chris-cunningham","category-grace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5786,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5785\/revisions\/5786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}