Grace v Works...and Bunnies

My brother in law (see Joels page) recently posted an interesting discussion about grace and and works and how the concepts are often regarded by the Lutheran church. I thought I would add my 2 cents worth.

Grace is what we are saved by. Not a lot of christian people actually disagree that it is by grace that we are saved through faith. It is somewhat of a motto for the Lutheran church! We know that grace SAVES us. We know that it was Jesus who was subsituted for us on the cross. Works or doing good things are an entirely different (yet intrinsically connected) issue.

If someone gives us an amazing gift for no reason we are not required to give them a gift in return but we often feel we ought to. Why do we feel we ought to? To prove we are as good as they are? To prove we deserved the gift they first gave to us?Probably not. We usually give gifts to those we love. The gift of grace given by God was/is a gift that requires nothing in return and yet we desire to give a gift of gratitude. The gift of doing good does not repay the debt to Jesus nor does it replace the original gift of salvation - it is simply a thank offering.

The greatest thing we, as christians have to offer is our lives. This sounds rather drastic (I am not referring to a mass suicide) but it really is the only suitable gift for someone who gave us everything he had. In the book of James it is written that faith without works is dead. James wrote that we shouldn't just listen to the word but DO IT - otherwise we decieve ourselves. Our lives are to be a fragrant offering to God. This is not to obtain salvation - but to acknowlede the gift that we received through grace.

If Bill Gates gave you $2 billion would you be quiet about it or tell everyone how generous he is? How much more so should we tell the world of Jesus sacrifice and love for us?!

For fear of waffling on I better put on the brakes. I have realised that I can't concentrate enough atwork to write a decent blog about these matters.

ON THE TOPIC: I found this rather interesting:

http://www.mbrem.com/shorttakes/fthworks.htm

OFF THE TOPIC:
I was perusing some random blogs today and found a page all about rabbits. It's intriguing what people write about. I stole this picture because I thought that it was oh, so cute (a ball of fluff or an animal???) We used to have pet rabbits when we lived in Victoria. When we moved to QLD we gave them away "to be eaten" mum told us. Why would she tell us that??? I cried. I love bunnies.