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February 28, 2009
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=========================== TODAY'S ARTICLE ==========================
The Ally of God's Grace, by Bill Denton
So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my
presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your
salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in
you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Philippians
2:12-13 NASB).
The matter of behaviour is ours, not God's. God does not make
our character; character is formed by the reaction of our inner
disposition to outer things through our nervous system. God
does what we cannot do: He alters the mainspring and plants in
us a totally new disposition; then begins our work, we must
work out what God works in. The practising is ours, not God's.
We have to bring the mechanism of body and brain into line by
habit and make it a strong ally of the grace of God (Oswald
Chambers, "The Moral Foundation of Life: A Series of Talks on
the Ethical Principles of the Christian Life.").
We need clarity regarding grace, mercy and reformation of life. Sinners
need to know about God's grace and mercy. The reason is simple. No
amount of reform resolves the problem of sin. That's hard for us to
grasp because the sense of justice demands that we somehow make up for
wrongs done. It won't ever happen. You can't out-good the evil in your
life. God's law of sin and death says, "If you sin, you die." There is
no provision for overcoming sin by the practice of good. Forgiveness
and salvation are the result of God's grace and mercy. By grace we get
what we don't deserve. By mercy we don't get what we do deserve. All
that comes from God, and it's what makes the gospel of Jesus good news.
But don't make the mistake of thinking that there is no room for
reformation. In the gospel, there is also the call for confession of
sin, repentance, and reformation of life. God's forgiveness and
salvation may be instantaneous, but there remains a lifetime of
"working out" our salvation. That doesn't mean that we work to earn
salvation. It means that we see it through to the end. It means we
don't give up on the effort to grow in God's grace and respond to God's
mercy by distancing ourselves from all that created distance between us
and God. "Repent" is a word that basically means "change your mind."
When you change your mind about sin, the most natural, sensible thing
is to change your behavior. When one repents, one begins the process of
change. Forgiveness frees us from the condemnation sin creates, but
involved in the process is our repentance, which produces a reformation
of life. Yes, God frees us from our sins, but he also provides a
process to free us from the practice of sin. It is neither easy, nor
does it necessarily happen fast.
Something you could never be without that grace and mercy.
Our behavior must become, as Oswald Chambers might say it, a "strong
ally of the grace of God." That's an excellent way to put it. There are
at least two ways in which Christians fail in this regard. The first is
thinking that God's grace and mercy are all there is to forgiveness and
salvation. This just isn't so. God saves by His mercy and grace, but He
also intends to change us. The second mistake is to think that
reformation of life isn't all that important. Paul would ask, "How
shall we who died to sin still live in it?" (Romans 6:2).
There is another way in which Christians miss the intended effects of
the gospel. We can ignore or deny the fact that we all have a long way
to go to become the person God wants us to be. We love to classify sins
into big ones and little ones, and then further classify our personal
sins as little. We fool ourselves into thinking there just isn't much
to reform. This is a bad mistake.
Accept the salvation of God rooted in His grace and mercy. Celebrate
the work of Jesus on our behalf, doing for us what we can never do. Be
glad that you are saved, not on the basis of your merit or goodness,
but on that of Jesus Christ. Now work out that salvation by being
transformed into something you could never be without that grace and
mercy. When you fail, God's grace and mercy will be there to pick you
up, dust you off, and get you going again, so that you can stay at the
task of reformation.
---------
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RELATED LINKS:
* Where Are You Going?
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200502/20050203_wheregoing.html
* Straight Lines with Crooked Sticks
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200610/20061030_crookedsticks.html
* Decreasing into His Purpose
http://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/my_utmost/utm.cgi?0324
* CrossTies
http://www.crossties.org/
This article can be found on the web at:
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200902/20090228_allyofgrace.html
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