Grace and Grace Alone
Last weekend my new album Free At Last was released – some of you may have joined me for the online launch I did during my Encounter video that Sunday. You may also have heard the songs when I released the lyrics videos on YouTube earlier this year. This week I want to use the songs to guide our daily devotions, and we’ll start with the first song of the album Grace and Grace Alone which begins like this:
We worship you O God, we lift your name on high
You came to rescue us, to save and sanctify
He Saves and Sanctifies
You’ll hear a lot in these songs that I am talking about God who saves and sanctifies. For me, this was a wonderful realisation: that what God offered me was not just salvation from the guilt of sin, but sanctification – power over sin, so that I am able to live a life that pleases him. So the chorus is a celebration of this, as you can hear in these words:
O hallelujah, hallelu!
All glory God belongs to you
Our hearts are cleansed, we've been sanctified
By grace so great, so high, so wide
It is God’s grace that sanctifies us. This was the main point I wanted to make on all the songs in this album – which is why the subtitle of the album is “Songs of Sanctifying Grace”. It is God’s grace that saved me, and it’s His grace that cleansed my heart so that it no longer goes after sin. And believing in His power to sanctify, not just forgive, has really changed my life.
Sanctified by Grace
So, take a listen to the bridge:
Grace and grace alone, grace and grace alone
Grace and grace alone rescued me
Grace and grace alone, grace and grace alone
Grace and grace alone set me free
It’s grace that rescued me when I was a sinner, lost and alienated from God. And it’s His grace that set me free, so that the old sins don’t hold me down anymore.
Believe For it
Here’s my question for you today: do you know God’s saving and sanctifying grace? Is your faith in Jesus for both these things – forgiveness of sin, and freedom from sin?
I believe God wants to do both of these great works in your heart friends, by His grace. I believe that if you are convinced of His ability and willingness to do both, by His grace, then you will also be free at last.
Put your faith in Him and His grace today won’t you, and perhaps you’ll also be singing these words of worship with me as you do.
