Grace
& Holiness, Friends at Last
Do we need more of God's grace, or more holiness? Yes, trick question. But so many hearts fall for it. So many embrace one and virtually abandon the other.
We need both in greater measure. Grace and holiness work together. With just one or the other, we get nowhere. And the devil is very good at getting us believers to latch onto only one side by watching the mistakes of people who focus only on the other side.
Let's talk about grace. Grace is what gives us life, God's life. It's more than just forgiveness, it's the life of Jesus inside of us.
How do we get God's grace? If you humble yourself, you will receive God's grace. Guaranteed. His Word promises it. God gives His grace to the humble, but resists the proud. Humble yourselves under God's mighty hand, and he will lift you up. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Every mountain will be laid low, and every valley will be raised up. So if we want God's grace, the key is to humble ourselves before Him and before our fellow men.
Grace is not earned. It's freely given to those who confess they are unable to earn it. Grace is something that we cannot manufacture ourselves. We cannot give ourselves life. Grace is what God pours into us. He is the source, we are the recipient.
How long can we contain God's grace? That depends upon the condition of our "containers," our spirits.
Suppose my spirit, or "grace container" has gaping holes in it. Will I get God's grace? If I humble myself, yes. He will pour His grace into me. God gives His grace to the humble. But His grace will be a fleeting thing for me, as it gushes out of the many holes in my container. I may experience it again and again, as often as I turn back to God and humble myself. But I won't get a lot of miles per gallon. It will seem like I have a tiny gas tank. I will find myself needing to refuel every other block. What's my problem? Tank size? No, size isn't the issue. My tank isn't too small, it's too porous. The holes in my tank are too big and too many.
What are the holes? Sin in my life, especially unconfessed sin. What does sin do? It grieves the Holy Spirit, and often causes Him to depart. And sin puts me under deception, until I begin to forget God's call upon my life. I forget that I need to be holy. And I forget that I need to fuel up. I start thinking I'm my own fuel supply. That's what the first sin was, it was man's effort to create his own fuel supply.
If sin creates holes in our tanks, then holiness is what seals up the holes in our containers. Holiness is our choosing to obey God, and to reject sin. Holiness is choosing not to allow any holes in our spirit. Holiness is our response to a holy God. Holiness is adding the plumbing to contain grace.
Is holiness all up to us? No, God even gives us grace to be holy. But it's our choice. We need to make the effort. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
Grace is from God, and holiness comes out of man's decision to obey God. We need both. We need a gas tank and we need fuel. Without either one, we're stranded, right?
If I want to be filled with God's spirit, I need to humble myself so I can receive His grace. But I also need to be walking in daily obedience to God, so His grace doesn't leak out of my spirit.
Sometimes holiness gets a bad name, because we look at people who worked real hard at making their gas tanks leak proof and shiny, and showed it off every chance they got. But those people got cut off from the fuel supply, because God only gives His grace to the humble.
When we start thinking that our holiness is a source of life for us, we're deceived, and we end up with a beautiful gas tank, hermetically sealed, but empty. Huge, empty fuel tanks. No leaks, but no intake.
You see, avoiding sins doesn't give us God's grace. Being holy doesn't fill us up with God's life. It only seals my container. If I stop there, and expect to live a God-filled life, I'm going to be disappointed. It's those who seek God, and humble themselves, who find God. If I expect God to pour His life into me because I've been good, like it's a point system, then why do we need a cross? If I can earn God's grace, then Jesus didn't need to sacrifice His life for me.
The truth is that I have no ability to fill myself, no matter how holy I am. The only fuel that works in my tank is man-free fuel, the stuff supplied by Jesus. His sacrifice is a source of life that we will never begin to truly understand until we get to heaven. He's the real fuel. And no substitute will work.
When I pursue holiness, but don't seek God's grace - or if pride blocks me from receiving God's grace, I'll have a nice, empty fuel tank, and I won't get very far. Jesus had an analogy to describe this kind of person: He called them whitewashed tombs. Beautiful on the outside, but dead on the inside. To this person, Jesus says:
You diligently
study the scriptures because you think
that by them you possess eternal life. These are
the scriptures that testify about Me, yet you
refuse to come to Me to have life.
John 5:39-40
It must break His heart to see people settle for outward appearances of godliness, but no life. Put yourself in Jesus' shoes for a minute. For starters, you love people more than they will ever know. You are ready to die, so they can live. And You alone can fill people up. Only you can give them real life, real meaning, real satisfaction that doesn't drain away. And you watch as people pretend to be full and complete when they haven't allowed you to pour a drop of your grace into them.
Most people can tell when they aren't getting God's grace, and they repent. Not many people will settle for a nice tank and no gas. But some will keep fooling themselves, making their own holiness an object of worship. And people look at those Christians and say, "If that's what being a Christian is about, count me out." Or maybe we don't reject Christianity, maybe we just reject any call to holiness, because we've seen it abused. We've seen holy people with no Holy Spirit inside, and it carries no attractiveness; that's not a life style the average person would choose. That's not living for God, that's living for religion.
Religion is not a compelling reason to let go of our sin. But getting, and keeping, God's grace - that's different. If you could get a real live, close-up glimpse of God's life in you, you would never be the same again. You would give up anything and everything. You would chase after God like an addict chases a fix.
Before Jesus came and brought the fuel, He sent someone ahead of him named John the Baptist. What did John do? Did he bring any fuel? Did he give people anything that would sustain them or give them life? No, he exhorted people to repent, to get serious about being holy. But he made it clear that the reason why we needed better gas tanks was because an incredible fuel was coming. He was sent to get people ready.
In the gospel of John, we see a picture of a person who stumbles across a huge source of grace, but has nothing to hold or contain it: The Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus told her about His fuel….
"If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water." John 4:10-11, 13-18
She asked for a fill up. "Sir, give me this living water…"
Jesus responds: "Before I fill you up, let's take a look at your tank. Is it going to hold what I can give you? Or is it just going to drain out?" He addressed her holiness problem, by saying "Go and bring your husband." He brought her infidelity to the light. First let's patch up these leaks, so you can contain this living water. You don't want a temporary fix, you want the eternal life.
God wants to come to us in greater power. The finest hour for His church is still coming. A greater outpouring is almost here. But first, He wants us to be ready. We need containers that will keep what He gives us. We need to get rid of the sins in our life that cause His grace to trickle away. We need to pursue holiness as if our lives depended on it. And we need to seek God's grace just as passionately.
A sealed tank and lots of fill ups, we can go for miles.
Back to Nuggets of Truth for more Christian teachings
< Back to Home <
 Gospel
of Matthew |
| God
and Man |
| God
Calling |
| Nuggets of Truth |
| Customer Support |
| Call Every Member |