The Bible says that you and I have been accepted by His grace, which can be defined as God's kindness and favour towards us without any merit on our part.

In the Old Testament, only the high priest could be in the presence of the Ark of the Covenant, this symbolised the very presence of God. Just think for one moment though of all the thousands of people on the outside, unable to get anywhere close to God personally. Instead, they're whole concept of relating to God involved living up to laws and achieving acceptance on the basis of how good they were. The forgiveness of their sins was even based on animal sacrifices. By contrast our Lord Jesus came in order to die for our sins and be a permanent, one-time sacrifice. On the day of His crucifixion, the veil hiding the Ark of the Covenant was rent; it was split from top to bottom, symbolising that God had opened the door so that we too can have an intimate relationship with Him. God has made it possible for us to talk directly to Him and to know that we being heard. And that relationship is the difference between grace and law. Sadly there are millions of people today who sincerely but wrongly believe they will be acceptable to God based on how good they are. Deceived by the false doctrine of working to earn the Lord's approval.

This is why we must view ourselves the way God sees us. People trying to live up to an impossible, invisible standard never know when they have pleased God. If life were a matter of rules and regulations, we would never have any peace or contentment in our lives. In Phillipians 3 we read that, by God's grace the great apostle Paul's thinking was changed he realised that everything he had counted as valuable was worthless compared to knowing the surpassing greatness of Jesus Christ His Lord.

We have a choice to make. We can set rules and live a legalistic life of fear and uncertainty. Or, we can choose to live in the wonderful acceptance that comes by way of the Cross. Jesus' death settled the basis of our acceptance once and for all. In fact, if we haven't done so already, it starts by asking Jesus to come into your heart and to ask him to forgive you for all the wrong things you have done in our life. And though our conduct is sometimes not what it ought to be, we are nevertheless embraced as children of God and we are given eternal life. We live and grow in grace. We are God's work in progress being changed from glory to glory into the likeness of The LORD Jesus Christ.