A man had a pet snake and he purchased a mouse to use as food for it. He dropped the unsuspecting mouse into the snake’s glass cage where the snake was sleeping on a bed of sawdust. This tiny mouse had a serious problem on his hands, he was in great danger of being swallowed alive. The mouse had to come up with a brilliant plan. What could he do?
He quickly set about covering up the snake with sawdust chips until it was completely buried. The mouse couldn’t see the snake anymore and he sat back thinking that he had solved the problem. However, we all know the mouse’s problem was not solved. Eventually the snake would wake up and that would be the end of the mouse. The solution to the mouse’s problem came from outside the cage. The man took pity on the poor mouse reached in and removed him from the snake’s cage.
People can be like that mouse, trying ever so hard to cover up the wrong things in their lives. Trying to do good things so that others and even God will not see the sin in their lives. Yet when you try to cover over your sin with your own good actions, it really isn’t gone. Just like that snake, sin will eventually get you. Only by the grace of God can you be saved from the deadly peril of sin in your life.
Grace is undeserved favor, it is mercy that we don’t expect or deserve. Grace is the hand of God reaching down, removing you from deadly danger and bringing you into a relationship with God. Grace is God’s gift to you. NIV Eph. 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– Every person needs God’s grace, because every person has the deadly serpent of sin in their lives. Not one person is exempt. Grace is God’s gift to us. Grace is for every person. Grace restores us to our relationship with God. Grace is needed to keep us daily walking with God. I’ve called today’s message “Growing In God’s Grace” to answer the question, “How can we continually live in God’s grace?”
To hear more about this topic, listen to my November 13, 2005 message entitled Growing In God’s Grace