Tuesday, October 2, 2018

LIVING IN GRACE


Galatians 5:13
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.


                One of the foundational truths of our faith is God’s amazing grace toward us. By virtue of our sinful nature, we all deserve God’s punishment, but, by His grace, He offers us the exact opposite; Life! For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23) The life that God offers us in Christ is something we do not deserve, nor can we earn it. It is an amazing free gift. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesian 2:8-9) When we accept this gift of God’s grace, we are set free from the power of sin. Sin is no longer our master. Although sin still remains a reality in our life, it is no longer in control. We now have the freedom to honestly choose how we will live. And that is where the rubber meets the road.

                People understand freedom in different ways. Today, the dominant concept of freedom is the right to do whatever I want to do without interference from anyone else. No one has the right to define for me what is right or wrong. As long as I am not hurting someone else, I have the freedom to define right and wrong for myself. I am free! Or am I?

                All freedom comes with boundaries. Freedom without boundaries is anarchy. Freedom without boundaries leads to death. A fish is free to swim wherever it chooses within the boundaries of the ocean. It is not free to venture onto dry land. An astronaut may be free to venture into space, but he is not free to leave his spacecraft unaided. A driver is free to travel down whatever highway she chooses, but she is not free to drive the wrong way or at excessive speeds. Genuine freedom always has boundaries.

                Paul had to deal with this in his letter to the church in Rome. He had made the case that because of God’s grace we are free from the obligations of the Law. Because, no matter how well we keep the Law we cannot earn our salvation, God has given us His grace. It is the grace of God that has set us free from the demands of the Law. So, some took this to mean that grace removed all restraints. In fact, they were claiming that the grace of God allowed them to live however they liked. Paul had to quickly put an end to this fatal misunderstanding. What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (Romans 6:1-4)

                Paul wanted the Romans, and us, to know that God’s grace freed us from the power of sin, not that it gave us the right to indulge sin. As Paul stated, we have been set free to live a new life; a life of righteousness in concert of Christ. Paul was making it clear that there are definite boundaries to our freedom. We are free to live within the boundaries that God created for us. It is within those boundaries that we experience the life of Christ.

                With freedom comes choice. With choice comes responsibility. Paul tells us that we have a choice to make. Will we choose to live in God’s grace or will we choose to abuse God’s grace? The way we live our daily lives matters. By the choices we make, we are declaring to whom we have given our allegiance. Will we use our freedom to honor Christ, or we will use our freedom to indulge our sinful nature? This is a decision each of us must make every day, every hour, every minute of our lives. Paul puts it into very practical terms in Romans 6:11-14.

                In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

                Living in God’s grace is not an intellectual exercise. Living in God’s grace means actively choosing to follow Christ in everything that we do. It is choosing to use our freedom to honor Christ with our daily lives. We will not always get it right. There will be many times that we will stumble and fall. Many times we will get off track. But that is where the grace of God steps in. We are like children learning to ride a bicycle. We often lose our balance and fall, but God is there to pick us up. And when we finally gain our balance, we are free to experience a whole new dimension in life.

Ephesians 4:1
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

   

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