Part: 1 of 3 / God’s Grace

Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

Grace with No Strings Attached

It’s like this: I have come upon hard times and squandered all of my money foolishly on get-rich-quick schemes. On top of that, I lost my job because I was late too many times. I have become delinquent on my mortgage, and the bank will not give me any more extensions; eviction is inevitable. I’m pleading with everyone I know to help me, but no one is able, or in reality, wants to.

A man hears of my predicament and goes to the bank on my behalf. He pays off all of the penalties and completely pays the mortgage. Now, my standing at the bank is restored. The man then comes to my family and me with the mortgage deed marked “paid in full”. As he hands me the papers, all he asks in return is nothing more than a thank you. I owe nothing else. We stand at the door, stunned; then all at once, we run back into the house, rummaging through every room, looking for any money we can find. We come up with a handful of loose change and offer it to him.

The look on the generous man’s face is one of utter disbelief. He says to me, “I have offered you your house back, paid in full, and you offer me in return a handful of coins. Have you no humility to accept my gift as it was intended? What will you say to those that asked what happened here today? Will you say that a good man helped me out of debt, omitting that your response was so insufficient that it’s demeaning? You prideful man, I rescind my offer that you didn’t deserve in the first place.”

The illustration above shows how absurd it would be for the family to give the man a handful of change for a gift of that magnitude. When we die and stand before God, He will put a simple question to us: “Why should I let you into My Heaven?” If we present a list of the best of our lives—and that is exactly what the Bible says the multitudes will do—aren’t we being just as absurd as the family offering a few coins to the generous man in return for his kindness? The family didn’t deserve the generous man’s kindness or compassion, just as we don’t deserve God’s generosity, compassion, or kindness offered through Jesus Christ. The only way to receive the gift of God’s grace is to fully know in our hearts that we don’t deserve it and humbly accept it by faith.

The Meaning of Grace

“Grace is an essential part of God’s character. Grace is closely related to God’s benevolence, love, and mercy. Grace can be variously defined as God’s favour toward the unworthy or God’s benevolence on the undeserving. In His grace, God is willing to forgive us and bless us abundantly, in spite of the fact that we don’t deserve to be treated so well or dealt with so generously (gotquestions.org).”

Pg.76 ‘A Mechanic’s Handbook To The God Of The Bible, Why God Just Makes Sense / Chapter 6 God’s Grace

Part: 2 of 3 / God’s Grace: Why do we need it?

Do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained by keeping the law, (trying to be a good enough person to gain peace with God) Christ died for nothing! Galatians 2:21

If you don’t know you’re lost, you’re not looking to be found.

When did I realize I was a sinner? When I started to see my sin as God views it. Stretching the truth is dishonest—lying; looking at the opposite sex in the wrong way—adultery; not fulfilling promises—disobedience; building myself up—egotistical; grumpy and unkind—anger; talking behind someone’s back—malice. Finally, seeing these sins and many others in my life for what they really were in God’s eyes—unacceptable—it became evident that I was lost.

Agreeing with what the Bible says concerning sin, I was going to be condemned to Hell. It didn’t matter what I believed condemning sin was; I had to go by what God said it is. The few verses I have already quoted from the Bible state clearly what sin is and what punishment awaits the unforgiven sinner.

That’s when I figured it out: no one, including me, was ever going to be good enough to go to Heaven without a Saviour. Thankfully, God provided a Saviour in the person of Jesus Christ.

You might wonder which of my sins was so terrible that it convinced me that I was Hell-bound and not Heaven-bound. It wasn’t one specific sin, but my realization that my attitude towards sin was way off base. My personal convictions didn’t line up with the Bible in so many areas. When the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to see my sin from God’s perspective, that’s when I really started to take a good look at my life because I wanted my final destination to be Heaven—not Hell.

Pg.81 ‘A Mechanic’s Handbook To The God Of The Bible, Why God Just Makes Sense / Chapter 6 God’s Grace

Part: 3 of 3 / God’s Grace: In Action.

Now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation.

The consciousness that God instilled into all of mankind that He is the one and only true God, got all screwed up in my life at first because of my pride and sinful nature. My thinking became futile, and my heart was darkened by going through life just thinking that there was a God and that was good enough.

By not searching out God, I was saying that Michael Borthwick was his own god, determining his own fate—as if I have much control over my own life or the next beat of my heart and the next breath I take. After quite a few brushes with death over the years, especially in my motorcycling years, I now have an unmistakable awareness that my allotted days here on earth are totally in God’s hands and His hands only. On that revelation, I finally humbled myself before God.

Salvation is moving head knowledge to heart knowledge. So, I came to believe in the one and only God of the Bible. I believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus Christ was the Word of God made flesh who died on the cross for my sins. He was raised from the dead on the third day and now sits at the right hand of God. I believe it all, but the question that was put to me by God was this: now that you have knowledge, what are you going to do with it?

My head knowledge was the accumulation of Biblical facts, comparable to memorizing mathematical equations. The heart knowledge would be using those mathematical equations to build something amazing. In the same way, I had to take my biblical knowledge of God and use it from a heart perspective to change my thinking: not to trust in my own righteousness for salvation, but to trust only in Jesus’ amazing gift of salvation through His righteousness.

As I said in the early part of my testimony, I was very aware that not making a decision was going to be considered rejection on my part. The Holy Spirit showed me the foolishness of my thinking, and I went from having a foolish and darkened heart to an enlightened heart, by asking Jesus’ for forgiveness by faith and accepting His gift of salvation.

My Prayer

How did I make that decision by faith? I moved that head knowledge to heart knowledge and accepted Christ’s offer of grace through prayer. I prayed the sinner’s prayer from my heart: I acknowledged I was a sinner, deserving punishment for my sinfulness, and that nothing I could do on my own could rectify that. I believe Jesus is God and lived a sinless life. I placed my trust totally in what Jesus did on the cross, acknowledging Him as my newly found Saviour, making Him Lord of my life from that moment on. I asked Him to guide my life and help me to do His will (become more like Him). I prayed this in the name of Jesus.

With that, I became a born-again Christian. Nothing else had to be done; my salvation was complete and my journey to Heaven was bought and paid for by Christ Himself.

Pg.156-158 ‘A Mechanic’s Handbook To The God Of The Bible, Why God Just Makes Sense / Chapter 17 The Holy Spirit And Salvation