Month: May 2015

Many church people…may pay lip service to the idea of grace, but there they stop. Their conception of grace is not so much debased as nonexistent. The thought means nothing to them; it does not touch their experience at all. Talk to them about the church’s heating, or last year’s accounts, and they are with you at once; but speak to them about the realities to which the word grace points, and their attitude is one of deferential blankness.

They do not accuse you of talking nonsense; they do not doubt that your words have meaning; but they feel that, whatever it is that you are talking about, it is beyond them, and the longer they have lived without it the surer they are that at their stage of life they do not really need it.
–J. I. Packer

Yesterday’s post was about this idea of grace – and the “level ground” that it places us all on. And yet, I find that Packer is correct – that many people do not have any sense of the meaning of grace and how necessary it is for us to embrace the meaning of God’s grace.

Do you have an understanding of the term?
Are you trying to learn more about the necessity of God’s grace?
Or have you come to the place where you are okay with the idea being beyond you?

God, help us to make the study of Your grace an important aspect of our lives.

The worst tragedy would be to turn the Sermon on the Mount into another form of legalism; it should rather put an end to all legalism. Legalism like the Pharisees’ will always fail, not because it is too strict but because it is not strict enough. Thunderously, inarguably, the Sermon on the Mount proves that before God we all stand on level ground: murderers and temper-throwers, adulterers and lusters, thieves and coveters. We are all desperate, and that is in fact the only state appropriate to a human being who wants to know God. Having fallen from the absolute Ideal, we have nowhere to land but in the safety net of absolute grace.
–Philip Yancey

The Pharisees held rigidly to the letter of the law. Jesus said that doing so wasn’t enough… you also had to keep the spirit of the law. Instead of refraining from killing someone (the Pharisees’ stance), you could not even hate them (Jesus’ stance). And so the legalism of the Pharisees wasn’t sufficient. It was not strict enough, it didn’t go far enough. And so in reading the words given to us by Jesus, we realize that we are all the same: people who need the grace that only comes through Jesus.

I may not be a murderer, but I have definitely been a temper-thrower.
I may not be an adulterer, but I have definitely been a luster.
I may not be a thief, but I have definitely been a coveter.

I am unable to meet the standard that God requires of me. And so that means that I need the grace of Jesus to cover up my failures. I have nowhere to land but in the safety net of His grace. And since everyone else is in the same boat as me, I have no place for pride, no place for looking down on others, no place for prejudice or bias.

God, please remove these ungodly things from me as I rest in the safety net of Your amazing grace.

This is what we mean when we speak of Christ dwelling in our hearts. His life on earth is not finished yet, for he continues to live in the lives of his followers. Indeed it is wrong to speak of the Christian life: we should speak rather of Christ living in us. “I live, and yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2.20). Jesus Christ, incarnate, crucified, and glorified, has entered my life and taken charge. “To me to live is Christ.”
–Dietrich Bonhoeffer

We return again to this idea of self-death. That we are to die to our own wants, desires, thoughts, attitudes, speech, and actions. Instead, we sacrifice all of that to God, allowing Him to kill all of that in us and giving us new desires, new speech, new attitudes, new thoughts … all which lead to new actions and behaviors.

What an amazing idea – a supernatural occurrence – that God can do this amazing work in me, such that I am still alive, but it is no longer my life, but His – Christ living in me, Christ working through me. The Creator of this universe has taken up residence in my body and taken charge of my life – or at least He will if I let Him.

Have you turned your life over to Him? Do it again today. In fact, for most of us, we will have to do it again several times each day – living moment-by-moment in turning it back over to Him.

You will make great progress if you keep yourself free from all worldly cares, for to value anything that is worldly is a great mistake. Consider nothing great, nothing high, nothing pleasing, nothing acceptable, except God Himself or that which is of God.
–Thomas à Kempis

Of course, God did create the world and all that is in it, but what is meant here is the idea we find written in the Bible by John:
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. These are the ways of the world: wanting to please our sinful selves, wanting the sinful things we see, and being too proud of what we have. None of these come from the Father, but all of them come from the world. The world and everything that people want in it are passing away, but the person who does what God wants lives forever.

Instead of focusing on these three ways of the world: pleasing self, coveting the things we see, and pride; we should put our eyes and thoughts firmly on God and on the good things of His character, just as Paul said:
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.

Ask God to help you today to keep your thoughts on the higher things – the things that please Him!

When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.
“To live is Christ; to die is gain.”
Fleeing from death is the shortest path to a wasted life.
–John Piper

For most of us, fleeing from death is a choice we make due to fear – the fear of dying. Self-preservation is one of our strongest instincts. And so, out of fear of death, we do all we can to preserve our lives. And yet, Jesus calls us to die – to die to self. But to do so requires us to fight every human urge and instinct within us. It is only when we are willing to die to ourselves – die to our goals, our plans, our dreams, our desires – and give all of them over to God that we will experience true life.

Jesus promises us abundant life, but the requirement to obtain it is to die to self and let Christ be the One who controls your every thoughts, every word, every attitude, every action. For most of the people in this world, we will be unwilling to follow Him that far… and that will result in us wasting our lives.

Don’t waste your life. Embrace self-death. Let Jesus take full control. You won’t be disappointed.