The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"The Dynamic Duo"
"Grace empowers godliness in light of the truth that grace provides no less than God to our hearts. That is, of all the gifts we receive through Christ, the gift of Himself transcends all."
"Let us have grace that we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear" (Hebrews 12:28).
How does grace lead to acceptable service to God, along with the proper attitude toward Him?
First, we recall that while grace may sometimes be mentioned in Scripture by itself, an inseparable companion always accompanies it. "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). God's freely given favor in His Son must ever be known, received, and experienced in the context of Scriptural revelation. "He that believeth on Me as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). We receive the gift of salvation in Christ by believing the truth - "as the Scripture hath said" - and thereafter live by the same dynamic duo in order to love, trust, and obey God as His sons and daughters in Christ. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him" (Colossians 2:6).
Grace empowers godliness in light of the truth that grace provides no less than God to our hearts. That is, of all the gifts we receive through Christ, the gift of Himself transcends all. "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6). He made us for this, to serve as His spiritual dwelling place - the "habitation of God through the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22). Only God Himself could provide such a blessing, and to a race of the rebellious, only grace makes possible the reality of His vital and empowering presence. First, we must be forgiven, which only the Forgiver can bestow as a gift. Then, God must indwell us to serve as the Life of our lives, a provision of sublime generosity that certainly we can never merit or earn. Grace alone, received through faith in the truth of Christ, establishes our potential and empowers the actuality of serving God acceptably in both heart and life. "By the grace of God, I am what I am" (I Corinthians 15:10).
Grace - God's freely given favor, presence, and working - moves within the spirits of those who believe the truth "as the Scripture hath said." Thus, we live by receiving the ongoing benefit of our Lord's presence, just we we made alive in Christ by our initial receiving of such grace (John 1:12). Indeed, anything less than a life of reception is deception. To "serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear" requires the promise and provision that "it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Only thereby will we find the means to "work out your own salvation, with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12-13). Grace, grace and truth in the Lord Jesus, supplies our hope for the life of faith and faithfulness to which our Heavenly Father calls us. No other way exists, nor do we need any other way.
"God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."
(II Corinthians 9:8)
Weekly Memory Verse
By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified."
(Hebrews 10:14)
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