Grace in Action

My week has been filled with lots of news of people falling off from their Christian walk and messing up with their lives. It is sad to see friends being in such a situation simply because we put our world pleasure on top of our love for God and living in obedience to His Word. But sadly, many times we as Christians will take the legalistic approach of disciplining or worst case condemning these precious life instead of offering the grace of God to them and love them as what Jesus have done for us when we were a sinner.

As I was reflecting on this issuesa and toiling on the idea of grace, I realize how many times we miss the mark in understanding the grace of God in our personal walk with Him. Instead we end up defining how a Christian shoud live in our limited knowledge and when a fellow brethern sin, we cast the first stone of legalism and pound them with condemination (packaged nicely under the term Christian discipline),

Over and over again in the New Testament, Paul is absolutely clear that the gospel is simply grace. Anything else does not merely fall short of the full gospel, it is actually opposed to it. This makes it crucial that we fully understand grace, and understand how it can be undermined in our lives by its arch enemy, legalism, which is essentially any attempt to improve on what God has done for us by adding things that we do for him. Apostle Paul makes it clear that believers are "not under law, but under grace" (Rom. 6:14). To be "under law" is to "fall from grace" (Gal. 5:4) in the sense that one chooses to live under the lie that God's love is dependent upon one's performance in the Christian life. It is a place of fear - fear of losing God's love. God never places us "under law" (or under legalism), and it is a shame that so many Christians choose to live as though they are.

F.F. Bruce, the great scholar, has defined legalism well: It is "the idea that performance will win acceptance before God." Simply, legalism is a false, non-Christian religion that says God's love is gained or lost, increased or diminished, based on one's behavior. It is an "if-then" religion - "If you are a good Christian, then God will love you." Legalism is a lie, and the exact opposite of grace.

The victorious Christian life is not obtained on the basis of performance, but rather on the basis of grace. God's grace continues to set us free from legalism, and instead allows us to become expressions of Jesus who lives in and through us.

Be Blessed.