I've grown up in a christian home, and in fact I have known the definitions to such words as predestination, atonement, and even transsubstantiation, since I was a kid. I grew up living a life that said "I'm a Christian and here's why..." the problem is that while I knew a of a lot of things about the Word, there was a key principle, a key idea that I was never taught. That was the idea of grace. Sure I may have been able to define what grace was "God's unmerited favor" but the reality is the definition without a full understanding is lacking power.
I was talking with Donna last night about the whole job thing, and the thing is I kept coming back to the idea that I needed to do something, I needed to be better, I needed to search harder etc. But as we were talking it hit me, so much of how I see my life, and my relationship with Christ is based on how I live for Him. That's how I was trained all my life to view that relationship.
However something began to really strike me in bible college, and that was the idea that it's not about what I do for Him, it's about who I am in Him.
That more than anything has been something that I have been struggling with. It's grace, and the stuff I learned about it shows just my vast lack of understanding of what it truly means to live under grace. It's not the way that I have been taught to live, and it's not the way that I have necessarily been living, but it is the core to my relationship with God. Grace shouts "you do not deserve anything that I have been giving you, so stop trying."
Anyway so I have started to read the book "Why Grace Changes Everything" by Chuck Smith, and to be quite honest as I have just read the first two chapters so far I have felt so... freed. I don't know any other way to express it.
So far there has not really been anything that I have not intellectually known, but it is stuff that my heart has had trouble accepting and believing. But this time as I consider these things, I pray through them. I stop consider what I read and the type of ramifications this stuff will have on my life if I truly believe them, and I have been blown away. Here are the three main things that the Lord has spoken to me through this book so far:
1. Nothing I do, good or bad, can change my standing before God.
2.I am no more righteous than anyone else, nor is anyone more righteous than I am. It's not based on me at all, it's all based on Christ.
3. Anything and everything that is good in us, even things that we may not consider (such as a hard working spirit, a good memory, or the ability to overcome) are all gifts from God and not things we have to muster ourselves.
All of these things are all based on grace, and it when we are in Christ, that we can gain these.
Anyway I'll keep posting on the stuff I have been learning about grace. This has been such a blessing so far, and I am excited to hear what the Lord is going to show me as I continue studying.
1 comment:
Grace is one of those things that is you hear about it and you hear about it and you know it and you understand it and then one day, you REALLY hear about it and GET IT! It's funny but grace was not one of those things that I didn't get right away, really get. Love your neighbor as yourelf, now that's a different story. But I got that blown away sensation last week at bible study and I really got it. Applying it is harder but God is working with me on it. Sometimes I think the simpler the Christian concept is, the harder it is to get it right in your mind and your heart.
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