Grace — beyond amazing…

 

On rare occasions my devotional reading prompts a word study. This time the topic is vast: GRACE, not a blue-eyed blond as the joke goes, but the grace of God. It is normally associated with salvation. We are saved by grace, not by our own efforts (Ephesians 2:8-9) but the NT use of this word also includes how we live. Galatians is a rebuke to Christians who were saved by grace but trying to live godly lives by rules and their own efforts. As I went through the many verses, God kept saying to me that this life of grace needs clarity. Too many of His children have not realized how important it is to walk in the same way that we were saved — by grace.

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, (Colossians 2:6)

This strongly says that since my efforts do not save me, my walk cannot be fruitful if what I do comes from my own efforts. I’m learning to identify those fleshy, old nature motivations as well as stuff that is from the world’s ideas or Satan’s lies, rather than from the Spirit of God. This word study on grace reveals even more, mostly on the positive side. As today’s reading says… If ever human love was tender, self-sacrificing, and devoted, if ever it could bear and forbear, if ever it could suffer gladly for its loved one, if ever it was willing to pour itself out in a lavish abandonment for the comfort or pleasure of its objects, then indefinitely more is divine love tender, self-sacrificing, and devoted, glad to bear and forbear, and eager to lavish its best gifts and blessings on the objects of its love… then put together all the tenderest love, the deepest and strongest and heap on it all the love of all the loving human hearts in the world; then multiply it by infinity, and you will have a faint glimpse of the love and grace of God! This is the grace that came to us through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17)

And this is the grace that came upon the apostles and early believers and that gave them their ministry. (Acts 4:33; 6:8; 13:43; 15:11; 18:27-28; 20:24 and 32)

Yes, it is the grace that saved all who are His, and it is a gift poured into our hearts that deals with our sin and gives us faith and eternal life. (Romans 3:23–25; 5:2–5;17-21; 6:14; 11:6)

But it is also the gift of God in Christ Jesus that enriches us, giving us spiritual gifts and the ability to serve God effectively. My own efforts cannot do that but my actions in obedience to the Spirit of God are effective and efficient, no matter how weak I am or feel. (1 Corinthians 1:4–8; 15:10, 2 Corinthians 1:12; 2 Corinthians 8:6-7; 9:8-10; 12:9)

Also, grace can be passed on to others, not just by actions of loving kindness, but even by words:

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear." (Ephesians 4:29)

This is serious truth. Paul said, “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose” (Galatians 2:21) and tells me that I am severed from Christ, if I try to be justified by the law; (and have) fallen away from grace. (Galatians 5:4) This means lots of sweat but no eternal value for it is not motivated by or enabled by God’s grace.

John Piper puts it like this: It is incredibly encouraging that God’s grace is both the inclination of the divine heart to treat us better than we deserve and is (also) the extension of that inclination in practical help.

PRAY: Jesus, we sing amazing grace in terms of being saved, yet rarely claim Your grace as the source of all that we do. Could it be that many of Your people are clueless about grace? Or are we relying on self and don’t realize that grace is more than being salvation? I’m seeing the vital importance of the source and reason for my motives, ideas, words and actions. Fill me with Your Spirit and enable me to live and serve You by grace, only grace.