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Introduction:
A Christian is saved by grace through faith. It is totally impossible to be saved any other way. Not by works, not by law, not by denomination, and not by our faith without grace. It is God's grace that does the saving. Not our faith. Grace allows us to be accepted and also allows for our mess-ups as we grow in the kingdom of God. We serve an absolutely perfect God. When we exercise genuine faith, God's grace justifies us. It allows us to enter into the kingdom of God, . We don't realize how much we need to be cleaned up. That also happens by grace through faith. Real faith is in Jesus Christ as He defines who the real God is that created the heavens and the earth.
While that may seem to some like a narrow minded view, it is just the way things are. I cannot change it, you cannot change it, and God won't change it. It however does definately provides us a solid foundation from which we can grow, if we are ready to get serious with the living God of creation.
When one is living a natural life, they do not realize the absolute purity and incredible precision of the scriptures of the Bible. They may even regard the scriptures as just plain stupid as many scriptures do not line up with how a person naturally thinks. Until the consequences of us living our natural life affect us directly, we may think the natural life is the best way to exist. It is easy to justify our natural thinking as just the way things are. But the natural life is just that, a natural existence. God has designed a much higher quality of life for people. He gives them a natural existence first, and those that genuinely are seeking real truth, they will find truth leads them to a completely new and different life which is only in Jesus Christ. 
Many will allow religion to ensnare them as they make that journey because they subtilely still want their old natural life. Those who choose to have the pure, righteous, overcoming life that can be had in Christ Jesus, will not be satisfied with half truths. Another snare along the religious path is legalism. If someone sees a concept in the scriptures, the natural response is to live it by making it a law unto themselves. Unfortunately that is just trying to live the scriptures according to our old natural life. It may look good on the outside, but it is far short of living as the new creation God designed for us. This brings us to the topic of grace.
How does God get us to live even partially in the purity and precision of His word? Legalism is not the answer. Grace is the answer. We are saved by grace through faith and without grace we could not grow. Grace is a very necessary part of God's love. Let's visit again how we are saved.
Scriptures:
“For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” [Ephs 2:8]
Discussion:
People naturally assume that it is their own faith that saves them. Instead it is God's grace that actually saves them. When a person realizes that they have messed things up and chooses to believe that Jesus Christ is the answer and they are willing to commit to making Jesus Christ their lord and savior, then God by his abundant grace brings them into the kingdom of God. Then God continues to supply abundand grace to us so we can grow. A persons understanding of how all this works, may be limited or foggy. But, if you exercise genuine faith, then the basic conditions are met and God extends you grace and brings you into His kingdom.
Example:
It is like you were lost far out at sea, your ship sank and there you are floating in the ocean. You have lost every thing you had and you don't want to go back to it. A boat comes along from a foreign nation. You have heard they possibly might be good people, but they consider you from a hostile nation. You agree that there are some really bad things about who you were, but you want a new start in life. You don't want to go back to your old life style. They tell you if you would live their way you could come live in their country. You gladly accept as you don't want to go back to where you were from. You don't understand this new country, you just understand they are offering you a chance to a new start and you are willing to believe in them. They see you as what you are, a mess with emotional baggage, even though you don't see yourself that way. They extend you lots of grace to save you and lots more grace to help you get cleaned up, healed and established. Your faith in them allows you to enter in to their grace. You may not have realized it but without that grace you would have eventually died.
So we are saved by grace and grace is also an extremely important part to our growth and becoming a new creation in the kingdom of God.
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