Good morning, friends. A thought occurred to me this past week about my 2019 life goal, Live in His grace, Give His grace, that I would like to share with you this morning. In previous years, my life goal statements have been these: “To know Him and make Him known.” “To Love God and Love people”.
As I thought about all three of these life goals, it dawned on me that they really are all saying the same thing and that all three are really a paraphrase of the words of Christ as found in Matthew 22:37-40. In that passage, Christ said that the first and greatest commandment is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength”. He went on to say that the second is equally important: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love God. Live in His grace. Know Him. If you do, you will love people, give His grace and make Him known.
We focused last week on living in God’s grace. If you are in Christ, you are loved more than you can even imagine. You are forgiven. You are recipients of God’s amazing grace. However, this morning I feel the Lord leading me to dig a little deeper into the subject of grace and what it is not. This is not easy believism. This is not cheap grace! God’s grace came at great cost-His very own Son’s life! We must never take His grace for granted!
I was reminded this morning of the passage found in Romans 6:1, where Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, asks this question: “Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of His wonderful grace?” He goes on to answer his own question in verses 2-5: “Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined Him in His death? …And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.”
I would like to put a “Selah” right here, a pause to go back and meditate on what you just read, to re-tune the instrument that is your life.
Did you get that last line? Really get it? Read it again: “We also may live new lives!” If we want to live in His grace, know Him, and love Him, we will want to live for Him, walk with Him, and obey His commands. Jesus Himself said this in John 15:10: “This is love for God- to obey His commandments.” Grace is not a license to sin! If we are truly trusting in Christ alone for our salvation, God’s Word will be our guidebook to life! No excuses! No picking and choosing! Just obedience to our Lord’s leadership through the pages of His holy Word!
So, while it is true that God loves us no matter what, that He will never leave us, and nothing can separate us from His love, as we talked about all last week, all of that pre-supposes that you are truly in Christ! Christ Himself said that “By their fruit you will recognize them.” Who is He talking about? He is referring to real Christians, those who have truly repented of their sin and come to Christ for redemption. My question to you today is this: Have you done that? Have you come to know Christ? Do you desire to walk in ALL His ways, obeying ALL of His commands? Not that anyone will ever attain to that perfectly this side of heaven, but is that your heart’s desire? Does your life reflect that desire? This week we will be focusing on this issue on Nana’s Nook. Join me there and be encouraged to Live in God’s Grace!
