The Grace of God # 6

[please read this to the end. I think this is the best explanation of grace that one can read.  "It is a simple act of believing the truth (no matter what you think stands in the way of it) and then accepting to yourself that Christ died for us out of His pure love for us, and that if we believe Him and trust in Him to lead us through, and depend upon Him for everything,  and "My grace is sufficient for [each] of you.]

Grace for Thee (continued)

So there is no real excuse for you. God's word is just as much for you as for any other - "My grace is sufficient for thee." Would you dare to tell the Lord that His grace is not sufficient for you? Is it sufficient for you? Well, you have been failing - but why have you been failing? The Apostle wrote to the Colossians of a day (and what a day!) "since ye knew the grace of God in truth." Wonderful things had been happening in these Colossian believers. They were growing, and increasing in holiness, and pressing toward the goal of glory, the goal which is set before us here. The goal of grace is the blessed appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and when you have the grace of God in your heart, you have that hope burning brightly. That is the goal - the blessed hope of Christ's appearing in glory, and of our having our inheritance with Him in that same glory. That is the end, and that end is for you, presented to you by the Lord - and yet you have been failing. Well, what is the matter? It is because you have not the experience that the Colossians had - and what was their experience? It is very simple! They knew the grace of God in truth. That is how they began. There was a day, not when they resolved to be Christians, but when they said: "Now we know the grace of God!" The Lord had spoken to them concerning their sin and their guilt and their need, and had said: "My grace is sufficient to save you!" They said: "Praise God, we believe it is - we are sure it is!" and that was the beginning.

But every step of the way, every phase, every aspect, meant for them a new knowledge of the grace of God, a new speaking into their hearts by the Lord of His word: "My grace is sufficient for thee."

Now the Galatians moved from that ground. They did not give up being Christians. They tried to be Christians, and that was their trouble. The Apostle said to them: "You have fallen from grace!" That does not mean that they had slipped into sin, though it does lead into sin. They tried to have their salvation by works and by their own efforts. Paul said: "You have made Christ of none effect! You have fallen from grace!" And that is the explanation of a lot of trouble in Christian lives. It is not that we are not trying to be Christians, but that we "are" trying to be Christians, and we have been deceived into the thought that we can be. We fall from grace, and we fail.

The true path of the just, that path which is "as a shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day," is just a simple walk of a continually increasing knowledge of the grace of God. It begins in its appearance for our salvation, whoever we are. It takes us through a life of learning, of being instructed, of being chastened, and of being trained in a way of holiness. It will take us through to that blessed hope, even the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for us. That is the grace of God - Christ giving Himself, and that is the grace of God at every aspect. He gave Himself for us that He might give Himself to us, giving Himself to us to purge us from all iniquity and to purify unto Himself a people for His own possession. That is the same thing as the glory: glory for us being with the Lord, and glory for Him that at long last, after centuries upon centuries, He has a people who are His own peculiar treasure, precious above all else that He possesses - the peculiar treasure of a redeemed people. If you seek, and if in eternity it be sought, the secret that lies behind this people, the peculiar treasure precious to the Lord's own heart above all else - for He said: "All the earth is Mine" - it is just this: that they knew the grace of God in truth. The Lord said to them, kept on saying it, and the good of what He said remained: "My grace is sufficient for thee."

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(The End)