Ephesians 2:8-9 (KJV) You Can’t Earn This!

Ephesians 2:8-9 (KJV)

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Barnes says, “This is a favorite doctrine with Paul, as it is with all who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity.”

How could it be otherwise? 

Throughout our lives, we’ve learned the frustration, fragility, and fruitlessness of our own efforts. The very best of us are often fickle—strong, intelligent, and moral in one area, yet lacking in others.

-Strong leaders are often poor family men.
-The life-of-the-party types are often dark and depressed when alone.

-Passionate people are often prone to fits of temper.

I know I’ve spoken in generalities here, but prayerfully I’ve made the point.

“All have sinned.” It doesn’t take a Bible verse to convince us of this universal truth. And yet we find it confirmed in:

James 2:10 (KJV)
For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

Though there are many factions of professed Christianity—arguably the largest of which promote a religion of good works—when someone comes to know and love the Lord Jesus in sincerity, they find joy, hope, solace, peace, and rest in this truth alone: salvation is the gift of God.

Thank God for this unspeakable gift.

#SavedByGrace #GiftOfGod #NotOfWorks #RestInChrist #AllHaveSinned

You Can’t Earn This! Trying Fails, Grace Wins

💬 Are you still trying to earn what God already offers freely?
Stop chasing approval through performance and start living in the peace of His gift.

📖 Read Ephesians 2:8–9 today—then share this truth with one person who’s burdened by religion or striving.

🗣️ Question for you: What kept you from understanding grace in the beginning? Drop your answer in the comments.

📲 For more Bible-based answers to life’s biggest questions, visit marvinmckenzie.org for Bible studies, devotionals, and tools to strengthen your walk with Christ.

👉 Join our community in studying God’s Word and strengthening your faith.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6700 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Ephesians 2:8-9 (KJV) You Can’t Earn This! 

Ephesians 1:8 (KJV) Abounding Grace Flows Through the Local Church

Ephesians 1:8 (KJV)

Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

Oh, the abundance of God’s wisdom and prudence in His dealings with men—especially with the saved!

Wisdom is the full intelligence of God in His eternal plan.
There is no part of the salvation process that misses out or lacks. God’s abundance—the riches of His grace—pours over every aspect of salvation: the calling, the forgiving, the justifying, the sanctifying, the conforming. God knows who will and who will not be saved. He knows our strengths and weaknesses, and the best ways for us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of His Son, Jesus Christ. He knows where we best fit and how we best might serve to glorify Him. He also knows whether we are willing to avail ourselves of His wisdom, plan, and instruction.

Prudence is the moral insight into our struggles, inconsistencies, and therefore, our needs.
God not only knows—He also has the insight, the foresight, the prudence to put in place the means to give us the best access to the abundant riches of His grace. I propose that this means is the local, New Testament assembly of believers, organized into a body we know as the church.

The book of Ephesians is all about the local church. It is God’s choice, His calling, His election—His predestined plan—developed under the abundance of His wisdom and prudence, that every born-again believer be united into a local church. He fits us to the church of His choice, not our own. It is within this body that we are encouraged, edified, and equipped. It is out of this body that we are sent, authorized, and supplied.

And it is as members of this body that we march into battle against the darkness of this world, the flesh, and the devil.

A local, New Testament, Baptist Church—He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.

#AboundingGrace #WisdomAndPrudence #LocalChurchMatters #GodsPerfectPlan #BaptistChurchStrong

Abounding Grace Flows Through the Local Church: God’s plan seen in the local assembly.

📖 Are you planted in the church God chose for you?

God’s wisdom and prudence overflow in His design for the local church—where believers are built up, sent out, and made battle-ready. If you're serious about living out your faith, start by joining a Bible-preaching local church this Sunday. Don’t just study God’s plan—step into it.

💬 What helped you grow most in your local church? Drop it in the comments below! 

🔗 Hungry for more Bible-centered answers? Visit marvinmckenzie.org for Bible studies, devotionals, and tools to strengthen your walk with Christ.

👉 Join our community in studying God’s Word and strengthening your faith.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6700 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Ephesians 1:8 (KJV) Abounding Grace Flows Through the Local Church

Galatians 6:4-5 (KJV) Personal Responsibility

Galatians 6:4-5 (KJV)

But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.

For every man shall bear his own burden.

Albert Barnes said, “The man who forms an improper estimate of his own character will be sure to be disappointed. The man who examines himself, and who forms no extravagant expectation in regard to what is due to himself, will be appropriately rewarded, and will be made happy.”

It’s often noted that Galatians 6:2, which tells us to bear one another’s burdens, seems to conflict with verse 5, which says every man shall bear his own burden. But this conflict is resolved when we understand that while we rightly care for the souls of others, each person is responsible for their own soul.

In this light, Galatians 6 corresponds to Romans 14 and the clear biblical doctrine of individual soul liberty. Each of us will stand before God alone. No one else can stand for us or be blamed for our standing.

Therefore, it is our responsibility to make a fair and honest judgment of our relationship with God. Only then can we find true satisfaction in Christ.

To make no judgment—though it is our right—is a recipe for disaster. Consider the person who refuses to prepare for life’s work as a parable (an earthly story with a heavenly meaning). It’s his right, but it does not lead to his happiness. While others might help, his predicament is his own, and others can offer only limited relief.

Making a wrong judgment is equally damaging. False assurance of eternal life is no eternal life at all. A person has the right to believe as they choose, but a right is not the same as an assurance.

It’s often easy to recognize those who have honestly examined themselves and come to genuine faith in Christ. They are joyful in their faith. They do not force it on others but share it freely because it’s who they are—not a forced duty, but a matter of their nature.

I once knew a man in our church who came early, cleaned, set up hymnals, made coffee, and served busily. Yet he was always upset that others didn’t do as he did. Eventually, he turned away from God because he didn’t understand the liberty of Christ. He served trying to please God, not because he was pleased to be God’s child.

Care for the souls of others, of course. But remember, you are responsible for just one soul—your own.

#IndividualSoulLiberty #StandBeforeGodAlone #ExamineYourself #JoyInTrueFaith #BurdenOfResponsibility

Personal Responsibility: Your Soul, Your Burden, Your Joy in Christ

Are you ready to take responsibility for your soul and stand confidently before God? Don’t wait for someone else to carry your burden—take the first step today by honestly evaluating your relationship with Christ and committing to live out your faith daily.

What’s one specific action you will take this week to strengthen your walk with God? Share your answer in the comments below!

🔗 Hungry for more Bible-centered answers? Visit marvinmckenzie.org for Bible studies, devotionals, and tools to strengthen your walk with Christ.

👉 Join our community in studying God’s Word and strengthening your faith.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6700 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Galatians 6:4-5 (KJV) Personal Responsibility

Galatians 5:4 (KJV) Grace or Law—You Can’t Have Both

Galatians 5:4 (KJV)

Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

The Bible is a sensible book, understood by sensible thinking people. The fullest truths of the Bible may only be grasped by the saved, because it requires the Spirit of God to see them, and because, without the fear of the Lord and a saving relationship, the soul is, quite frankly, unreasonable—bent toward an adversarial position to its teachings.

Paul did not mean to say that a circumcised man could never profit from Christ. Paul would have most assuredly been physically circumcised due to his heritage and to his office prior to his conversion. He must therefore have meant being dependent upon circumcision. Further, since his audience would have included women, he must have meant more than dependence on the physical act, but on the system behind the act.

Albert Barnes makes a lengthy argument concerning what Paul did and did not mean in this context. I will leave it up to the reader to find and read that if he or she chooses. I think there are two things one must consider as lessons here:

A professing Christian who attempts to find justification through obedience to the Old Testament law has abandoned the liberty, the grace, and the fellowship with Christ that come as part and parcel with placing our fullest hope only in Him. 

I’ve met more than a few Christians who are miserable because they never feel like they can measure up to the standard of Christ—not realizing they don’t need to. To walk with Christ, He holding our hand, is true grace!

Those who seek justification by the law are likely not saved. Not that they lost salvation, but that they never had it in the first place.

I will quote Barnes for my final words: “The two systems cannot be united. The adoption of the one is, in fact, a rejection of the other. Christ will be ‘a whole Saviour,’ or none.”

#GraceNotLaw #ChristAloneSaves #LibertyInChrist #FallenFromGrace #WholeSaviourOrNone

Grace or Law—You Can’t Have Both: A Whole Saviour or None at All

Are you trusting in grace or still trying to measure up through your own efforts?

The Bible is clear: “Christ will be a whole Saviour, or none.” If you're depending on anything other than Christ alone, you're walking a road that leads away from true peace and freedom.

👉 Question for you: What are you relying on today—Christ's finished work, or your own religious performance? Drop your answer in the comments!

✅ Take action now: Share this post with a friend who’s struggling to feel “good enough.” Then, schedule a time this week to personally share the gospel with someone who needs to hear it.

🔗 Hungry for more Bible-centered answers? Visit marvinmckenzie.org for Bible studies, devotionals, and tools to strengthen your walk with Christ.

👉 Join our community in studying God’s Word and strengthening your faith.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6700 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Galatians 5:4 (KJV) Grace or Law—You Can’t Have Both

 

Galatians 4:5 (KJV) From Slaves to Sons

Galatians 4:5 (KJV)

To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

There are some powerful concepts to be considered within this simple verse. It, of course, cannot be taken out of its context. The chapter begins and ends with the sons of God. My intent is to examine these individual concepts, but to keep the context in mind as I do.

Redeem
The word means “to buy out of the hands of a person, to set free.” God’s Word presents us as having been born slaves. We were never free. We’ve been possessed since the day of our arrival on this planet. The master, though, has been a sly one. He’s worked tirelessly to make us believe we are our own. When people chant things like “my body, my choice,” they don’t realize those are the words of their master—not their own. Jesus died to buy us out of the hands of that master. Once purchased, He truly does set us free.

Under the Law
I marvel at the so-called people of faith who believe Christians must obey the Old Testament law. The Word of God portrays such as not being free, but being under—subjected to, even trounced on by—that law. If Satan is the master of the atheist, then religious legalism (also the tool of the Devil) is the master of the Judaizer. They are so trapped by their rules they cannot see the liberty they might have in Jesus.

Receive
To take or possess. Thayer says it means “what is due or promised.” Strong adds “in full.” All that we receive from God is of grace. We could never have earned it, and we therefore do not deserve it. But because of the cross, God looks at the redeemed and says sonship is their due—and that in the fullest sense.

#RedeemedByGrace #AdoptedThroughChrist #FreedomInJesus #NotUnderTheLaw #SonsOfGodForever

From Slaves to Sons: Set Free to Belong Forever

📖 Are you still living like a slave when you’ve been offered sonship?

Jesus didn’t just die to forgive you—He died to redeem you, set you free, and bring you into the family of God. Too many are still trapped under the weight of law or the lies of self-ownership. But Galatians 4:5 says you can be adopted, free, and called His child.

💥 Take action today: Share the Gospel with someone who still believes they belong to themselves. Start the conversation. Use your voice to spread the truth that Jesus redeems and adopts.

💬 Question for the comments: What’s one way you’ve seen legalism or self-rule hold people back from the freedom we have in Christ?

🔗 Hungry for more Bible-centered answers? Visit marvinmckenzie.org for Bible studies, devotionals, and tools to strengthen your walk with Christ.

👉 Join our community in studying God’s Word and strengthening your faith.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6700 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Galatians 4:5 (KJV) From Slaves to Sons