AMAZING_GRACE

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me,
I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see.
Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
and grace my fear relieved.
How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.

One of the most beloved hymns of our times was authored by a man named John Newton.
Newton was once captain of his own ship in the 1700'a and serviced the slave trade for many years.
During a violent storm at sea, John Newton met the Lord and was delivered when he asked, 'Lord, have mercy on us."
He came away from that experience believing that God had addressed him through the storm and that grace had begun to work for him.

John Newton wrote, "Thro' many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come,
'tis grace has bro't me safe thus far,
and grace will lead me home.
John Newton, infidel and libertine turned minister, continued to preach although blind, until the last year of his life.
John Newton was secure in his faith that amazing grace would lead him home.

Ephesians

Go with me now to the book of Ephesians where Paul is writing letters to the church at Ephesus. Paul writes:
{Ephesians 2:4-10}
4.) But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
5.) made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions -- it is by grace you have been saved.
6.) And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
7.) in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace,
expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
8.) For it by grace you have been saved, through faith --- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God ---,
9.)not by works so that no one can boast.
10.)For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do.

No, works alone wont work, however, because we are God's workmanship, we have been created in Christ Jesus to do good works and good works work!