PORRIDGE FOR THE SOUL: GRACE: WHERE WILL WE BE WITHOUT IT?

Sunday 7 July 2013

GRACE: WHERE WILL WE BE WITHOUT IT?

In the preceding post, I have written on the dangers of going overboard on grace. *

However, that does not mean grace is unimportant or irrelevant in the life of a believer.

The poet Robert Frost penned that “all you really want in the end is mercy.” I think he was spot on there with this one-liner.

As we look at our own lives, weigh our brownie points against our sin, we will definitely conclude that a fair judgment on God’s part at the end of our lives here on earth would be this—‘guilty’.

For we have all sinned and fall short of God’s standards. If not for God’s mercy, where will we be?

As Christians, we are saved by God’s grace, not by our good works, AND stay on in this journey of faith because of His grace.

Like the penitent tax collector, we constantly need God’s grace and mercy. We, in fact, need a lot of His grace and mercy.

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Luke 18:9-14.

Yes, there is nothing wrong with a teaching that emphasises grace provided …