At the root of the gospel, the measurelessness of God’s grace for us in Christ is clearly stressed in Scripture, along with its incredible power. “From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace,” John tells us (John 1:16). And Paul says, “Much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many” (Rom. 5:15). It’s the nature of grace to abound—in quantity as well as effect. Paul proclaims how “the word of [God’s] grace . . . is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32). He tells us that “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” (2 Cor. 9:8). And Paul passes along to us a powerful word from the Lord at a point of struggle in his life: “He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’” (2 Cor. 12:9). There’s no power in the world like the power of grace. The operation of God’s grace on our behalf doesn’t imply any lessening of his demands. God has always and will always demand perfect obedience. But his grace is experienced when we realize that those demands for perfection for each of us have already been met by our Savior, Jesus. Jesus fulfilled all of God’s conditions on our behalf so that our relationship with God could be unconditional. Christianity is the only faith system where God both makes the demands and meets them. Tchividjian, Tullian (2011-10-14). Jesus + Nothing = Everything (pp. 142-143). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Posted on: Thu, 08 May 2014 15:52:31 +0000
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