YGrace
Grace. There's a lot to learn about it. Don't know if anyone visits this thing anymore but here's what I think God has to say about it.
We're all familiar with the struggle to live up to God's standards, and the irony that we know we can never ultimately attain them this side of heaven. And that's discouraging. Why strive for something you know you cannot achieve? For every time we obey God there is at least one time that we stick to our guns stubbornly and refuse to take the harder, stranger path. Paul says in Romans 7: "So I find this law at work: when I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members."
It seems that no matter how hard we try, we always fall short. Lots of times I find myself coming before God and running through the events of my day, finally concluding, disappointed, that I did not obey Him as much as I wanted to, and sometimes I just didn't want to. It's a horrible feeling, trying your hardest to please someone and never feeling as if you did. It's called condemnation.
Reading the Romans 7 passage on Saturday, I empathised deeply with what Paul was saying. I felt so broken, so tired, and I was so relieved that someone, even if it was someone who lived centuries ago, understood.
But Paul didn't stop there. What gave me hope was Romans 8:1: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death."
You see, I don't have to live life perfectly. God knows I can't. That's why He gave me grace and not condemnation. I don't have to live according to the law, because Christ has set me free from it!
But, "What shall we say, then? Shall we go one sinning so that grace may increase?"
"By no means!"
The way I see it, we obey God because we choose to now. It has nothing to do with the need to earn our salvation because we already have it through His grace. We obey Him because we want to, we love Him, and we know that it is the only way to live this life in all its fulness.
Grace does not have any conditions once we have recieved Christ and seek to obey Him. I scare myself by thinking one day my heart will be hardened and I'll start disobeying Him without even knowing it. But God's reminded me that He wants to have me obey Him, more than I ever want to, and if I choose to seek Him He will direct my walk with Him.
God doesn't say, "Obey me all the time and then I'll give you grace to get through JC." He knows I'm going to fall, and He already knows when. It scares me to know that He knows that, but why do I have to be scared when I have His grace? It doesn't mean I purposely disobey Him, but it gives me space to struggle and disobey and learn and grow.
It's a bit like a safety net, this grace. I don't know how else to explain it because the more you think about it, the more His grace pervades your walk with Him. But grace--grace amazing, grace astonishing--keeps us pure and gives us hope. Because I'm just a child, and I'm still learning.
jac was here with you
8/10/2005 09:06:00 pm