April 1: UNDERSTANDING GRACE (part 2)
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Revelation 22:21
The supernatural grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is at the heart of the gospel.
As His creatures, it is ours to gain an awareness of the love that He demonstrated toward us when we cared nothing about Him (see Romans 5:8). With this awareness, the question becomes a choice between humility and pride. Pride will say, “I’m a good person. I’ve done some really good things. People respect me. I feel that I’m accepted by God.” (This is “works theology”). But humility, in inexpressible shame and agonizing repentance, will say, “Love has been shown to me that I do not deserve. I will bow down before the Lord Jesus and accept His amazing gift.” What Jesus accomplished on the cross is the springboard of Salvation. But, in addition to accepting this gift — His life laid down in my place for justification — I must accept Him, and not only the gift.
If an individual has truly accepted Jesus as his Lord, he humbly yields himself to the lifelong process of sanctification. Paul called it being established.* And here is where an ongoing, all-sufficient supply of supernatural grace empowers transformation in a person’s life. The opposite of a “works theology” is a theology of good works that follow on the heels of true repentance before God. Another word for works is fruit (see Matthew 7:17-21). Never confuse the effect with the cause! Discipleship is developed entirely upon the supernatural grace of our Lord. This discipleship (root word: discipline), empowered by grace, enables one to live twenty-four hours a day as a holy saint of the Lord. It is not about being noticed by others or gaining their admiration. It is doing the ordinary things of life, that some might call drudgery, with excellence as we live and move among others. These things, when powered by grace, will draw the attention of people toward the Source of all life and grace.
Never allow yourself to buy into the false idea that the beauty of God’s grace invalidates His commandments. In fact, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ actually opens the way for you and me to live His law both in our actions and our thoughts. He desires to write His law upon our hearts and minds. And we allow Him to do exactly that as we lean into the amazing power of His grace. If His death has become your death (Colossians 3:3,5), His life also becomes yours! Paul enthusiastically attested to this over and over, in spite of the fact that he was somewhat ‘late to the party’ (see 1 Corinthians 15:8). The Lord was certainly able to establish Paul! By the time that John penned Revelation, Paul had been beheaded in Rome some 30 years earlier. Hear this poignant end of Paul’s letter to the Romans, so reflective of the grace of Christ, The Word of God (Revelation 19:13).
*The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith—to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Romans 16:24-27