God didn’t switch from being a God of requirements to being a God of grace. He’s been a God of grace all along. In this article, we take a closer look at this, beginning in Genesis 15.
A Holy God Pursues a Sinful People
Tag: grace
Nonconformity: Does It Even Matter?
Because of grace, there are no excuses for sinful living. Only, God is for us. Not against us. Too often we live the Christian life expecting ourselves to be more perfect then even God expects us to be. As if holiness is something we are to accomplish before we have peace with Him. But that matter was taken care of by Christ on the Cross. We have peace, period. We can now live in relationship with God, and it is from that relationship we find the ability to live as He designed, to obey Him from the heart instead of obligation as they did under the Old Testament Law.
We still live in a fallen world, though, bound by a fallen nature. Living as He designed goes contrary to our nature. We have been grafted in—we’re not a part of the trunk that gave us root. It feels more natural to live without Him.
It is within this context that Paul is writing in Roman’s twelve.
What I Believe About Salvation
God does not have a reverse economy. Satan does, and we chose to settle for his perversion of God’s economy, God’s perfect creation.
Nothing exists that God did not create. No creature, no desire, no ability, and no pleasure. He made it all and it is good. The normal way life functions is the way God designed it to. We are the ones who reversed the economy of life. We are upside-down from what God created.
Lust is not our longing of something Satan created, but our settling for his perversions as a way of fulfilling our longing for what God created. In order to live a life that truly matters, life as God intended, we need a supernatural salvation.
When Children Become Well-Behaved Jerks
Children raised without the grace of God become well-behaved jerks.
When I was still at home and people would visit and compliment my parents on raising good kids, they would always say, “But for the grace of God! It’s nothing we did.” That never made sense to me. Dad and Mom were extremely intentional with how they raised us kids. What do they mean, “It’s nothing they did?”
Growing up in Christian culture, the burden of our parenting isn’t so much that our kids come to know Christ—although we would all verbalize that’s what we want. But in actuality it isn’t. What we really want is well-behaved, sensible kids with a passion for Christ that make us look like perfect parents. We want to raise our kids without needing to lean into the grace of God.
