Means of Grace

547- Today's Prime Time Devo comes from: 2Sa 14:14 "For we will surely die and become like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises means, so that His banished ones are not expelled from Him. ( 2 Sam 14:14) One of the things I love about the reading the Word of God is stumbling across gems like this. I don't know how many times I've read this portion of Scripture, but I've never paid close attention to this verse until now! And what a treasure it is! The widow speaks about the inevitability of death echoing Ec 3:20, “All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust.” Then she says two beautiful words, “Yet God.” You see the wages of sin is death. And all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Since sin cannot dwell in the presence of God we are all under the curse of banishment. “Yet God,” does not desire for us to be banished. He loves us and so He has devised “means” to deliver us from banishment. In Lutheran circles we love to talk about the “means of grace.” Most notably God's Word, (which is the primary means of grace,) and the Sacraments (which are subsidiary means) Now lest I be misunderstood here, let me emphasize that Christ alone saves! The Bible has not saved one soul and neither has any of the Sacraments. But the Bible is the primary “means” by which Christ is brought to the soul. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom 10:17) These “means” are the methods in which God delivers His grace (the forgiveness that is in His heart for the banished) We need this grace to be saved! Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. Take heart from the words of this widow. God has ways to bring Christ to our souls and He will use whatever “means of grace ” He can to bring a soul back from banishment.