The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"We Must Have Grace"
"Salvation in the Lord Jesus redeems us from "I can" to "I cannot," and then, to "I can… through Christ!"."
God gave the law of Moses to Israel for the purpose of exposing the pride of "ye shall be as gods" embraced by Adam and Eve in succumbing to Satan's temptation (Genesis 3:5).
Things went as expected from the start, revealing God's wisdom in using a perfect moral code to indict humanity's imperfect, immoral heart. "All the Lord hath spoken, we will do!" foolishly boasted God's nation, chosen to serve as the vivid example that even the best of humanity cannot relate to God on the basis of an if/then contingency (Exodus 19:8). Soon thereafter, a golden calf representing pagan gods leapt forth from the flames of deception that burned in Israel's heart, bearing witness to how little humanity knows God, and how little we know ourselves.
We must have grace, the freely given favor in the Lord Jesus Christ that changes the heart from pride to the humility that confesses that God alone is God, and we are not. "We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3). Rather than the proud delusion of "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do!", the Christian affirms, "All that the Lord hath spoken of what Christ has done, we will believe!" Indeed, walking with God begins by falling before Him in the repentant recognition that we have attempted to do for ourselves that which only He can do. Every day of the Christian life involves the same confidence in Christ, coupled with a "no confidence in the flesh" acknowledgement regarding our human capabilities regarding "all that the Lord hath spoken." "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him" (Colossians 2:6).
"Without Me, ye can do nothing" declared the Lord Jesus (John 15:5). This includes breathing the next breath He gives. "He giveth to all life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:25). Take this further to the quality of life God calls us to live in spiritual, moral, and behavioral terms. Do we think for a moment that we can independently fulfill our Lord's standard of absolute, pristine perfection? Left to ourselves, we do think in such terms of evil insanity. "All that the Lord hath spoken, we will do" runs deep in deceived human hearts, and in the flesh even of believers (Galatians 5:17). Thankfully, our Heavenly Father did not leave us to ourselves. He rather gave a humble Christ to live a perfect human life by Divine enabling as our example, and then to die a perfectly atoning death for our sin of pride and all its spoiled fruit. Forgiving grace flowed from our Savior's sacrifice, along with heart-changing grace whereby the eternal truth that "Thou art God alone" replaces the ancient lie of "ye shall be as gods" (Psalm 86:10).
Salvation in the Lord Jesus redeems us from "I can" to "I cannot," and then, to "I can… through Christ!" God made and redeemed us for this, to serve as the trusting temple in which He lives, and wherein He shines as the light, supplies as the life, and serves as the Lord. We trust Him accordingly, and thereby learn to "live through Him" rather than by and of ourselves (I John 4:9). A day will come when we will be able to say "All that the Lord hath spoken, we will do!" We will say it, however, having received not a law beyond our fulfillment, but a grace based entirely on Christ's fulfillment. The Apostle Paul knew such truth, and testified of its power…
"By the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me."
(I Corinthians 15:10)
"Let us have grace, that we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear."
(Hebrews 12:28)
Weekly Memory Verse
"Cleanse Thou me from secret faults."
(Psalm 19:12)
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