You are NOT an accident of Time and Chance. You are part of a Plan that stretches back into Eternity Past! That Plan includes you for some very exciting and wonderful reasons. You may have many minor happinesses in life, most people do, but your major happiness can only come from an acquaintance with this Eternal Plan and the role that you play in it.

God created the Universe to demonstrate one major truth to the beings, angelic and human, with whom He wished to populate His Universe. That truth is the truth that He is infinite in His generosity...even to the point of giving every possible good to His enemies who deserve every possible evil. A word of CAUTION! If you are unsaved you may be feeling a strong inclination to stop reading right now rather than learn anything factual about the one true God and His will for you. I felt this powerful urge years ago when I was first approached about considering God and His revealed purposes. The desire to turn away from this field of knowledge was almost irresistible. Like a mighty ocean wave, it threatened to sweep me before it to some place where I would not have to consider such a serious and unsettling matter as having to live as a responsible being before the gaze of an all-powerful Creator and Ruler. But the consequences of turning away are incredibly disastrous. Our gain in listening to what God, from His heart of love, wishes to give us is beyond the ability of the mind to conceive. Our loss in refusing God His rightful hearing is awesomely frightening in the extreme.

The Greeks had a word for a gift that was given without any expectation of return...grace. But grace was always exercised toward a friend, not an enemy, in the Greco-Roman world. It makes sense in the world of unregenerate men to "love those who love you only" (Matthew 5:46). The world does love "its own" (John 15:19). But God loves His enemies (Romans 5:8-10) and thereby hangs a tale! The "gospel," or good news of God’s Grace, centers in this great fact--that God went to the extreme, doing what to man is unthinkable, becoming a man and dying for men, people, individuals, that He might reconcile us to Himself.

For us, salvation is our introduction to the Grace of God. ..salvation that is absolutely free because completely paid for by the Son of God on Calvary’s cross. But what is salvation? How far does it extend? How much does it include? Not one Christian in a thousand today can answer these questions satisfactorily, and yet the answers were given us two thousand years ago and are right there before us, plainly stated in the Word of God.

Not so very long ago, a millionaire was found dying on Skid Row. He didn’t know he was a millionaire, of course; he hadn’t been told. Someone had left him an inheritance, more money than he could ever need to live quite comfortably for a lifetime. He was sleeping in alleys, eating from garbage cans, wearing cast-off clothing when he could have been living on Park Avenue. He had a fortune, he was a wealthy man, but he lived like a pauper never spending Penny One. The man who never trusts Christ as Savior is like the man on Skid Row, dying without ever claiming what was provided for him. The man who trusts Christ, but never investigates the extent of his spiritual wealth is like him too, never spending a penny of his great wealth this side of heaven.

Possibly the most vicious error of our time is held by those who call God’s pure Grace "cheap," and salvation by pure Grace alone "easy believism." Nothing that cost God the life of His Son could ever be cheap, and coming to Calvary "hat in hand" to let God do all the saving while we do only all the being saved is not "easy!" Grace cost God the highest price that will ever be paid for anything, leaving Him free to give us salvation gratuitously...without any strings attached. Grace, by its very nature being a gift without any expectation of return, can never be cheap, nor can it ever be less than free--totally free.

If there were a less expensive way to save totally ruined sinners God would have found it. If there were any other way for Him to effect our salvation, it would have been immensely cruel and unbelievably wicked for Him to send Christ to the cross. Scripture calls Calvary the wisdom of God not the foolishness of God, though men hold it to be foolish (1 Corinthians 1:18). Scripture repeatedly insists that we are saved by Grace alone through faith alone. Grace is God doing all the difficult part in our salvation...faith is our doing the only thing that we can "do" without doing anything. Faith is not a work. Faith is a non-meritorious activity. Believing is not doing anything, actually it is ceasing to do anything, it is trusting in what Another has done. When God sent His Son to die for His enemies He did the hardest thing that He will ever do in all of Eternity. Nothing will ever compare with this sacrifice in its degree of difficulty. Nothing less than this could save us but, thank God, NOTHING MORE IS NEEDED.

We "Christians" have a problem more serious than bankruptcy...a disease more deadly than cancer. God gives us our NUMBER ONE PRIORITY in life and we make it an addendum. Everywhere in the Bible God tells us what is really important and we treat it as unimportant. Sadly, Heaven is filled with believers who went through their entire lives with the cart before the horse, and earth is filled with believers not only willing but desirous to follow in their train. God wants us to make a lifetime study of His Word (2 Timothy 2:15), majoring in the advanced knowledge of His Son’s Person and work (Ephesians 4:13). THIS is what life is ALL ABOUT, and everything else, even every other good thing, is incidental (Matthew 4:4).