Durruck
Pirate!
God’s grace sets you free
By Jon Walker
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God ....” (Ephesians 2:8 NIV)
Grace. If you carry away only one thing from these devotionals, my prayer is that it will be a mind-transforming, behavior-altering understanding of God’s infinite, indestructible, and immovable grace.
Not just a quick, yet correct sound-bite explanation – like the “unmerited favor of God” – but the deep, ancient meaning of grace that stretches across the depth and breadth and width and height of God’s character.
This is on my mind because these devotionals present some high standards for Christian discipleship. My hope is to press us both – myself as well as you – toward an honest assessment of our faith, a deeper commitment to our beliefs, and most importantly a sacrificial, wholly-abandoned love for our Lord.
The standard is high; in fact, it’s impossibly high. That’s why we need God’s grace. I can’t, but God can. “Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.” (2 Corinthians 3:4-5 NIV)
Although I strive for these standards in my own life, I often fail, but that doesn’t mean I should lower the standard or hide behind denial of failure, or that I should settle for a mediocre, warmed-over faith walk. It means I look to the things above, striving to become the man God wants me to be, and getting out of the way so the Holy Spirit can do the work of transformation in my life. Whether I succeed or fail, I fall upon the grace of God. I remain immersed in his grace, knowing I cannot be holy, but the spirit of God within me and the blood of Jesus Christ allow me to connect with a holy God.
If we don’t understand God’s grace, we stand in danger of growing weary in our walk with God, descending into a quiet resignation that the abundant life is just a notion that describes our “Sweet By and By” future in heaven.
Or, when we fail to embrace God’s grace, we’re in danger of slipping into legalism, believing we can somehow reach God’s holy standard through our own efforts. In effect, we’re saying we can achieve godliness without God’s power! We behave as if we become one of God’s children by the things we do or the things we don’t do and not from the extraordinary Grace of God. (2 Corinthians 3:4-6 NIV)
As if.
We become like the foolish Galatians, who began their Christian walk with the Spirit, but then they began to behave as if godly goals could be reached by human effort. (Galatians 3:1-5 NIV)
The Apostle Paul, who struggled with legalism himself, taught the Galatians that the law was only put in charge to lead us to the grace of Christ. (Galatians 3:23-25) The Spirit of the living God transforms us by writing the law into our hearts rather than on simple stone tablets. (2 Corinthians 3:3) The godly standard is set within, where it cannot be lost, or diminished, or forgotten, instead of on tablets of stone that can be broken, or misplaced, or simply ignored.
So, you and I – my sister, my brother – we share in an inheritance from God, and that inheritance comes from grace. In fact, that inheritance is God’s grace. We are his workmanship, not creations of our own hand. (Ephesians 2:7-10)
So what?
· God’s grace sets you free to fail – When Martin Luther was fighting the false belief that we could work our way into God’s grace, he wrote, "Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world." He was not teaching that it’s okay to sin; rather that all sins are covered by the grace of God – so we can stop living timidly, afraid to make mistakes. We can live boldly.
· God forbid we abuse his grace – God doesn’t give us grace so we will continue to sin; rather, he gives us grace so we are free, here and now, to not sin. He gives us grace so we can live in relationship with him, no longer fearing separation because of our sin. “So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there?” (Romans 6:1-7 MSG)
· Grace makes way for good works – “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 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. 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. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:6-10 NIV)
© 2007 Jon Walker. All rights reserved.
The above content is provided in its entirety from purposedrivenlife.com and used with the full permission of the website. Additional archives of the Purpose Driven Life devotionals can be found in their archive.
By Jon Walker
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God ....” (Ephesians 2:8 NIV)
Grace. If you carry away only one thing from these devotionals, my prayer is that it will be a mind-transforming, behavior-altering understanding of God’s infinite, indestructible, and immovable grace.
Not just a quick, yet correct sound-bite explanation – like the “unmerited favor of God” – but the deep, ancient meaning of grace that stretches across the depth and breadth and width and height of God’s character.
This is on my mind because these devotionals present some high standards for Christian discipleship. My hope is to press us both – myself as well as you – toward an honest assessment of our faith, a deeper commitment to our beliefs, and most importantly a sacrificial, wholly-abandoned love for our Lord.
The standard is high; in fact, it’s impossibly high. That’s why we need God’s grace. I can’t, but God can. “Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.” (2 Corinthians 3:4-5 NIV)
Although I strive for these standards in my own life, I often fail, but that doesn’t mean I should lower the standard or hide behind denial of failure, or that I should settle for a mediocre, warmed-over faith walk. It means I look to the things above, striving to become the man God wants me to be, and getting out of the way so the Holy Spirit can do the work of transformation in my life. Whether I succeed or fail, I fall upon the grace of God. I remain immersed in his grace, knowing I cannot be holy, but the spirit of God within me and the blood of Jesus Christ allow me to connect with a holy God.
If we don’t understand God’s grace, we stand in danger of growing weary in our walk with God, descending into a quiet resignation that the abundant life is just a notion that describes our “Sweet By and By” future in heaven.
Or, when we fail to embrace God’s grace, we’re in danger of slipping into legalism, believing we can somehow reach God’s holy standard through our own efforts. In effect, we’re saying we can achieve godliness without God’s power! We behave as if we become one of God’s children by the things we do or the things we don’t do and not from the extraordinary Grace of God. (2 Corinthians 3:4-6 NIV)
As if.
We become like the foolish Galatians, who began their Christian walk with the Spirit, but then they began to behave as if godly goals could be reached by human effort. (Galatians 3:1-5 NIV)
The Apostle Paul, who struggled with legalism himself, taught the Galatians that the law was only put in charge to lead us to the grace of Christ. (Galatians 3:23-25) The Spirit of the living God transforms us by writing the law into our hearts rather than on simple stone tablets. (2 Corinthians 3:3) The godly standard is set within, where it cannot be lost, or diminished, or forgotten, instead of on tablets of stone that can be broken, or misplaced, or simply ignored.
So, you and I – my sister, my brother – we share in an inheritance from God, and that inheritance comes from grace. In fact, that inheritance is God’s grace. We are his workmanship, not creations of our own hand. (Ephesians 2:7-10)
So what?
· God’s grace sets you free to fail – When Martin Luther was fighting the false belief that we could work our way into God’s grace, he wrote, "Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world." He was not teaching that it’s okay to sin; rather that all sins are covered by the grace of God – so we can stop living timidly, afraid to make mistakes. We can live boldly.
· God forbid we abuse his grace – God doesn’t give us grace so we will continue to sin; rather, he gives us grace so we are free, here and now, to not sin. He gives us grace so we can live in relationship with him, no longer fearing separation because of our sin. “So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there?” (Romans 6:1-7 MSG)
· Grace makes way for good works – “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 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. 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. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:6-10 NIV)
© 2007 Jon Walker. All rights reserved.
The above content is provided in its entirety from purposedrivenlife.com and used with the full permission of the website. Additional archives of the Purpose Driven Life devotionals can be found in their archive.