Galatians 2:19-21 For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.
Grace isn’t just for salvation grace is for living when we trust in God He empowers us to live a full and effective life.
How can we live by His grace?
a) FAITH
We live by depending or trusting in the grace of God by faith. We have to believe that His sacrifice is sufficient and take Him at His word. We have to stop thinking that we can sort out every problem ourselves and humbly ask the Lord to live through us by His Spirit.
The difficulty we have is that we live in a self sufficient society where weakness (especially for men) is seen as a negative thing and not being able to handle our problems is unacceptable. So we suffer quietly instead of turning to God, until we are absolutely desperate and there is no other alternative. There is another way; Jesus wants us to see that without Him we can do nothing that all our best efforts are not good enough, if we will just depend on Him, He will work out everything for our good.
John 15:4-5 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.
This way of living is not about striving it’s about remaining in Christ. Just as the sap in the vine flows through the branches and contains all the nourishment that is needed to produce a bumper harvest of grapes, so the Spirit of Grace fills us to overflowing to produce in us all that God has purposed to do in our lives.
2Peter 1:3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.
Leave a Reply