True Grace

On June 22, we had a glorious day! The morning started off with wonderful worship, including a powerful reading of His names. And then, we continued celebrating by witnessing 23 (if I counted correctly) classmates declaring to the heavenlies that they were dead to sin and self and alive in Christ just before they were baptized. It just kept getting better from there as we took communion together. The message we then heard that afternoon fit so perfectly as well.

The common question I’ve heard around here, after hearing the Reckoning with Truth message I talked about in the last blog entry, has been "why has no one ever told me this?" There's frustration at realizing the Gospel has been told in an incomplete way in most churches in America. That was how I felt when I heard the message on grace.

I've always heard grace explained as "unmerited favor", which is no doubt part of it. But it's incomplete. Grace is "the enabling power of God, given to the saints of God, to carry out the errands of God".

Jude 1:4 says how some have turned "the grace of our God into lasciviousness" - they've let it become an opportunity for the flesh to still reign. How sad, when it's supposed to be the opposite.

Christians are to die to self (flesh), to not fear death, to love His way, to be dead to sin and be slaves to righteousness instead, and to be holy and perfect. Impossible? For those who are not in Christ I suppose. But that was what was purchased on the cross - not just forgiveness.

We are in Christ - covered by his blood and clothed in His righteousness. And now, He wants to make our bodies the home of His Spirit, so that His will will be done. That's grace.

Colossians 1:23-29 displays that grace is Christ is in you. That grace is how we are presented perfect. Not stained and defeated, perfect. Or, as Oswald Chambers put it, "We are to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, not be struggle and effort, but by the impartation of that which is perfect."

Ephesians 3 makes it clear that His grace is given to us in order that His calling on our lives may be done. It also leaves us knowing, without question, that it is HIM who does the work through us. Grace is so much more than favor.

Grace is Galatians 2:20-21 - "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.