DESSERT

Today was about Romans chapter 5 - the DESSERTS of GRACE. I had a beautiful chocolate cake made by Lisa Kurman that looked extremely similar to the one at left, only better. It represented the decadence of grace. And that is exactly what grace is - DECADENT. It is outrageous, shocking, staggering, scandalous. It is God’s undeserved favor that NONE of us merits. It is so incredible that, at times, it borders on the offensive.

Years ago, scholars from around the world came together to discuss comparative religions. The topic of the day was whether or not there was anything particularly unique about Christianity. One scholar suggested that the incarnation was uniquely Christian, but other scholars said, “No, many religions have a notion of deities become human.” Someone else proposed that unique to Christianity was the idea of sacrifice and substitutionary atonement – in other words, that someONE or someTHING paid for your faults by standing in for you – but on that point, several scholars insisted there had been numerous religions that offer some kind of sacrifice as a way of paying for wrongdoings. It was midday at that conference when another scholar showed up ... his name was C.S. Lewis, author of “THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA” and “MERE CHRISTIANITY.” C.S. Lewis asked what the topic of discussion was and when he heard the question, he remarked, “Well, that’s easy. What is unique to Christianity … is grace.”

The truth is: God loves us no matter what. He gave His Son, Jesus, to die on a cross for us. And He calls us to simply believe in Him, confess our sins, and receive His forgiveness. He lives to pour His grace into our lives every single day. It doesn’t get ANY BETTER than this.

PS - That was about the best chocolate cake I have ever tasted, by the way.

And be blessed.