1 CORINTHIANS 15:10 – But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

THEME OF THE DAY. THE GRACE-EMPOWERED CHRISTIAN LIFE. Every Christian knows salvation is by grace alone through Christ alone by faith alone. And every Christian knows the Christian life is also lived by grace alone through Christ alone by faith alone. Yet, here is where the disconnect often occurs. Just because we know a Biblical truth doesn’t mean we are living a Biblical truth. Now don’t stop reading and delete me. None of us for one second thinks we can live any part of the Christian life on our own. But too often we betray what we know and actually reduce the Christian life down to our performance.

Jerry Bridges wrote a book titled Transforming Grace: Living Confidently in God’s Unfailing Love. By the way, anything he wrote, please buy, devour, and put into your lives. They will be some of the best investments you will ever make toward spiritual growth and making you more like Jesus. Chapter one of this book is The Performance Treadmill. Bridges writes, “We are all legalistic by nature; that is, we innately think so much performance by us earns so much blessing from God. The Apostle Peter thought this way. After listening to Jesus’ conversation with the rich young man, he said to Jesus, ‘We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?’ (Matthew 19:27). Peter had already added up his merits points, and he wanted to know how much reward they would buy.” Bridges continues, “Not only are we legalistic by nature, our Christian culture reinforces this attitude in us. We are exhorted to attend church regularly, have a daily quiet time, study our Bibles, pray, memorize Scripture, witness to our neighbors, and give to missions – all of which are important Christian activities. Though no one ever comes right out and says so, somehow the vague impression is created in our minds that we’d better do those things or God will not bless us.”

If we think Bridges is stretching this too far, simply evaluate our lives when we go through “spiritual winter”, fall flat on our spiritual faces, or find ourselves committing the same sin again for the umpteenth time. Isn’t there some gnawing vague sense of God’s disapproval in our failures that is tempting us to doubt God’s love and favor to us? Be honest. I think all of us have felt a fearful (not in a good way) apprehension toward God in how He deals with us when we are spiritual failures. If so, we are living the Christian life in the bondage of our always falling short performance instead of God’s always empowering grace. Yet, we are required to give diligence in the Christian life. We are not called to just “let go and let God”, but we are called to “let go of fleshly religious performance and let God’s grace empower spiritually-minded Christianity.” How do we do that? Today’s scripture and one application to consider.

As we read today’s scripture, it may be a “head-scratcher.” The Apostle Paul says of his own spiritual walk with the Lord, “I became a Christian by grace alone and I live the Christian life by grace alone, but I do so with the greatest of personal effort.” At just a glance, it seems like a contradiction. Paul says, “Everything is all grace, yet I worked harder than anyone else.” There are no contradictions in the Word of God. What the great Apostle is saying defines Christian living. We truly do work hard; extremely hard in the disciplines of the Christian life, but simultaneously, we rely exclusively on the empowering grace of God to do the work. Here is an example. We are commanded to “grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). How does that happen? Our diligence in studying the Word, hearing the Word, and obeying the Word, We do what we are commanded to do while relying upon God’s grace to do what we are commanded to do. Maintaining this mindset keeps Christian performance in the right place. May the Lord help us to see the harmony between all of grace and all of our effort. They are not irreconcilable enemies, but harmonious friends.

PRAYER: “Father, I so praise You for not only saving grace, but strengthening grace too.”

QUOTE: “Depending upon God’s grace to save us must also extend to depending on God’s grace to live for Him.”