Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
I have a precious few revelations in my life and grace is one of them. In the first few years after receiving the grace revelation I was pretty zealous, but life kept throwing me curve balls that got in the way of my revelation. What I thought grace was then and how I see it now is different. Life has a way of sorting and sifting human zeal, philosophy and doctrines of men from what is real. So here is some of my sifted reality of the basic elements of this amazing thing we call grace.
At the beginning there is the Romans 7:24-25 door. Without the revelation about your wretched self, including your efforts, abilities and power to live a Christian life that pleases the Lord, your revelation of grace may not really be yours.
The last part of verse 24 says, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Note the word is “who”: and not “what.” Let me tell you a few of my favorite what’s; revival, deliverance, inner healing, callings, prophecy, spiritual gifts, heavenly encounters, dreams, visions and so on. Each of these I love dearly and they are a vital part of my Christian life, but none of them can deliver me from me. That is not their purpose. That is one job only the Lord Jesus Himself can do. So when we come to the place that we stop asking for “a what” and start looking for “the Who,” there grace begins.
Romans 7:24-25 does not minimize or dismiss any of the what’s. God gave us the what’s. For example, just because we could not inner heal ourselves into total freedom does not mean inner healing is not vital. Grace does not do away with other spiritual realities; it just enables us to fulfill them. So grace is foundational to all things spiritual.
After enjoying the grace life for a season you discover some real life questions and issues that seem contrary to what you thought the grace would do for you. That is when you must go through the Romans 8:1 door. It says, “Therefore [connecting it to Romans 7:24-25] there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus who walk according to the Spirit and not the flesh.” This does not mean you are never going to sin again or never struggle with doing God’s will. It means God will never condemn us and we will never have to experience any shame. We still could have some conviction and may suffer some consequences of our sins and still get chastised by the Lord.
Grace is not a sin free life, a struggle free life, a guilt free life or a work free life. One of the examples I give people is that I work hard in crafting messages to preach (really it is the grace of God within me, 1 Cor. 15:10), but when I stand up to deliver those messages I do not trust in my hard work. I trust in the Holy Spirit to bring to my mind what He wants to say. That is a real picture of grace. Grace boils down to who or what you are trusting in.
Grace is Christ living His life through us, rather than us trying to make life work through our own efforts and resources and that does not all happen overnight. It is something we grow in (2 Peter 3:18). So when life throws curve balls at you grace will teach you how to hit them before you strike out (Titus 2:11-12).
If and when you do strike out you can “go boldly to the throne of Grace (Heb. 4:14)” because grace plus confession leads to understanding and healing as you sit in the Father’s lap and ask Him to show you why you failed. That leads to a life of freedom from our tendencies to fail (flesh) so we don’t fall for the same curve ball next time.
Many Blessings, BW