"We should not express our prayer merely in syllables, but the power of prayer should be expressed in the moral attitude of our soul and in the virtuous actions that extend throughout our life… This is how you pray continually — not by offering prayer in words, but by joining yourself to God through your whole way of life, so that your life becomes one continuous and uninterrupted prayer." "
"just as by melting two candles together you get one piece of wax, so, I think, one who receives the flesh and blood of Jesus is fused together with Him. And the soul finds that he is in Christ and Christ is in him."
Grace is "the gift of Father God" to mankind. The Gift of God is His incarnated Word, His only begotten Son Jesus Christ whom He had sent to save us from the grip of sin and to change our sinful nature . Through Christ, Father God has shown His love, favor and mercy toward humanity. In Christ He brought us out of the depths of sin and despair and has raised us up to be alive with Him "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. …16 For of His fulness we have all received, and grace upon grace" (John 1:14,16).
Through Christ we have the hope of salvation. We see this from the words of our Lord to the woman at the well in Samaria. "Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water" (John 4:10).
Grace is all that God freely does for man on the basis of Christ's person and His work on the cross. Without Christ Jesus, we would not have the Grace of God. We are sinners and our nature became sinful and fallen. Repentance cannot remedy fallen nature: we are corrupted and need to be restored to the grace of God's image, and no one can renew but He who created. He alone could recreate all, suffer for all, represent all before the Father. Once transgression had got a head-start, human nature ended up completely corrupted and deprived of the grace which we once had from being in the image of God. Our repentance was no longer enough to restore this grace and give us the new beginning that we needed. What was needed then? The Word of God, who at the beginning made all out of nothing; only He could restore the corruptible to incorruption. He alone, being the Word of the Father and above all, was able to recreate everything.
So Grace of God comes only through Jesus Christ's work on the cross which reconciles us, delivers us, justifies us, and glorifies us. He has come to our sphere, and made His home in one body like ours. As a result, the whole plan of the enemy against mankind has failed, and the corruption of sin and death which previously overcame them is destroyed. The human race would have gone to destruction, if the Lord and Savior of all, the Son of God, had not come among us to meet the end of death. No work done by man alone can ever remove the power of sin, or gain eternal salvation. This was the point that Paul was making in that most famous verse in Ephesians "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air…. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions…For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:" (Ephesians 2:1-8).
God's grace, which comes through Jesus Christ is extended to all, not just to a select people; Paul said that "the Grace of God brings salvation," (Titus 2:11). This Grace is not limited; it has appeared so that all men might have an opportunity to be partakers of the divine life in Jesus Christ. How did God's Grace "appear" to all men? It has appeared in the incarnated Son Jesus Christ, His birth, life, death, and resurrection.
Although the Grace of God has appeared to all men, this does not mean that all men are saved. It means that all possess an opportunity to take advantage of the gift of God, which is Jesus Christ. Our salvation comes through our faith in Him, accepting and receiving Him, and when we do what Grace demands. Paul teaches that we all have sinned and come short of God's glory "Everyone has sinned. No one measures up to God's glory," (Romans 3:23). As such, we are in our sins and in need of salvation. Our salvation can come only through Jesus Christ "God didn't choose us to receive his anger. He chooses us to receive salvation because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done," (1 Thessalonians 5:9). To receive the benefits of the Grace that God offers, we must go to Christ.
The Grace of God has come by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The fact that Jesus Christ died is meaningful; If that is all He did, then we are lacking God's Grace. It was through the resurrection of Jesus Christ that God's Grace became effective. Peter says "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead," (1 Peter 1:3). We were dead in our sins, but through Christ we can be made alive. The key is "through Christ." This helps us to understand Paul's statement: "Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)" (Ephisians2:5). Peter makes a simple statement about the Grace of God: "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved," (Acts 4:12).
Grace is a gift which Christ has provided for all humanity. It is free for the taking "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,… 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved," ( Ephesians1:3,6). But, in reality, no one can receive the benefits of that gift until they take possession of that gift. Possession occurs when we accept and obey Jesus Christ "Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you, for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal." 28 They said therefore to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" 29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent," (John 6:27-29).
Only then can we take possession of that gift; When we receive the gift of Grace, by our obedience, and Jesus becomes the author of our salvation. Until that moment, Jesus is not our savior. "And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him," (Hebrew 5:9). "But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord," (Rom. 6:23b).
We cannot be vindicated by our own works or those of the Law. Our justification comes through the Grace of God. The only way for our salvation is Jesus Christ. Every one of us must stand liable for his own soul. We can do things that can separate us from the Grace of God. We can fall from Grace when we depart from the truths revealed by that Grace. No one can separate us from God's Grace except ourselves. Peter gives a very firm cautioning about going back to our former sinful condition. Once we have been saved, or freed from the stain of sin, and we go back to those former things, we are, in reality, in a worse condition "For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them," (2 Peter 2:20-21).
So thank God for giving us His son who in Him we have God's life which is His life eternal. What a grace had been given to all who believe, receive, and obey Father God's Son and gift Jesus Christ.