"For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men,instructing us, to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world."
Many professing Christians today utterly ignore the biblical truth that grace "instruct us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age". Instead, they live as if grace were a supernatural "Get Out of Jail Free" ticket with no strings attached, a general leniency and self-awarded immunity from what we should be living morally. It is really an attitude of complacency which have taken root in us, especially if we have sat in the pews of church for years and yet lived as if Christ was never going to come back in our life.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer a German Lutheran pastor and Nazi resister spoke powerfully against the secularization of the church during the Nazi Regime"
"Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian "conception" of God. An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure the remission of sins. The Church which holds the correct doctrine of grace has, it is supposed, ipso facto a part in that grace. In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God. Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything, they say, and so everything can remain as it was before. "All for sin could not atone." The world goes on in the same old way, and we are still sinners "even in the best life" as Luther said. Well, then, let the Christian live like the rest of the world, let him model himself on the world's standards in every sphere of life, and not presumptuously aspire to live a different life under grace from his old life under sin" - Quoted from The Cost of Discipleship [New York: Collier, 1959], 45-46).
Summary of the quote above is a call for us to humbly understand that the church cannot afford to live as the world does. Someone died to redeem us from our sinful lives and have us the gift of eternal life! Therefore we who call ourselves Christians should live 'fearfully' to meet the standards of God, and not live lives like a non-believer.
We live each day in undeserving grace. It was the loving choice, plan and power of God though and by His son Jesus that we can someday go to heaven. This should keep us humble and make us grateful to learn of him. We did nothing to deserve it. Oh that you and I can start to understand His love, His power, His choice, His patience and the cost to sacrifice His Son just so you and I have hope.
blessings,
M.
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)
