October 20th, 20

Living in Grace in a Grace-Resistant World

Job 9 - 10 and Acts 13-14

There is a powerful message of grace, but it’s a grace-resistant world.  The beautiful message of Barnabas and Paul is God’s grace.  God has offered all people, Jew and Gentile alike, life through His Son.   This grace and real life doesn’t come through obedience to the Law, or personal piety and virtue, but simply through faith in the Lord Jesus.  God’s Messiah has offered himself as an atoning sacrifice for our sin, to make a way for us to be forgiven and clean before God.  Then he gives us His Spirit to dwell in us so that we might have His power to live this life now. This powerful message of grace has real power to transform a human life. Yet the world is grace-resistant.  As powerful, good and gracious as this message is, it meets resistance because of the other powers and messages that govern human life.  

But these are radically overturned by the message of Christ. 

In our own human ‘sovereignty’, we end up colluding with this world’s lesser powers to survive in this broken world.  But we survive as slaves when we do.  Once we are truly are set free by the powerful message of grace, and life in christ, are we free to be what we were always intended to be - forgiven, empowered and gifted.  But make no mistake about it, we will meet resistance in this grace-resistant world.  Acts 14:22 says,

They encouraged them to continue in the faith, reminding them that we must suffer many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.

This is a grace-resistant world but it’s only grace that will change it.  It’s only grace that will transform you and me. It’s only Him.  

Are you meeting resistance?  Don’t be surprised.  Draw courage from the fact that grace has met you, through the person of Jesus.  He’s offered his life to you. Rejoice in the powerful message of Christ.  Let the powerful message of God’s grace meet and confront all the resistant parts in your life so that he can transform you, through and through, by his love. 

You are loved!