Grace and Grace Alone

I started doing a new Bible study on grace and it amazes me what I have learned in just a few short lessons. I think most of us can understand the concept of grace but do we really grasp how powerful and freeing it really is? I have a natural bent towards keeping the Law. It is much easier for me to make a little "law" checklist and adhere to that than to simply accept grace as a free gift. Ephesians 2:8-9 couldn't be more clearer, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast."
We know it, most have memorized it. My prayer is that as I continue in this study, the Lord would reveal to me and make His grace known to me in ways that will blow my mind!
Here is an excerpt from Jerry Bridges on the spiritual principle regarding the grace of God:
"'...to the extent you are clinging to any vestiges of self-righteousness or are putting any confidence in your own spiritual attainments, to that degree you are not living by the grace of God in your life. '
This principle applies to salvation and in living the Christian life... Grace and good works (that is, works done to earn favor with God) are mutually exclusive. We cannot stand, as it were, with one foot on grace and the other on our own merit. "
What a way to start the day...