Saved by Grace, But What Comes Next?
(All Bible verses quoted are from the New King James Version)

When we talk about GRACE, most people will say they know grace and that they have been saved by grace through faith (Eph 2:8-9). But that is only when you are saved, and from there on you have to move on to the more important aspects of the Christian life like sanctification, a “holy” lifestyle and becoming more effective for God. The churches of the Galatians did the same thing; let’s see what Paul wrote to them:

Gal 3:1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? 2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

When Paul talks about grace to the Galatians he is not talking about being born again to non-believers, but he is talking to believers, people that have already been born again. He said they started well in grace, but now they had come under the pressure of people that preach law, that say they now have to perform & obey to receive the blessings of God. Here in Galatians 3 Paul says that we should continue in the grace of God (also Col 2:6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord (by simply believing, not striving), so walk in Him). God’s blessings, healing & prosperity does not come through striving, performing or through trying to live holy. It comes through being established in the gift of righteousness, the righteousness we first received as a gift when we came into Christ. You see we can never leave our foundation behind. The bigger we build the building, the more we have to strengthen the foundation, which is grace.

In the modern day church there exists a dangerous misconception that God initially accepts you unconditionally on the basis of grace, but once you are saved you now suddenly have to perform at a certain level for God to continue to accept and bless you. The Bible talks about 2 types of righteousness: The righteousness of God (receiving salvation, God’s approval and blessings by faith) and self righteousness (going back under the law & trying to receive all the above by trying to earn them through good works). But prevailing in most churches today is a 3rd type of righteousness, one that is mentioned nowhere in the Bible: Once you are saved, you leave behind grace and the righteousness of God as a gift, and try to become more righteous by your own good works.

The only way to get free from this trap is by becoming more established in the righteousness of God as a gift. Once we realise that we can never add to the righteousness that was given to us as a gift, and that our best efforts are like dirty rags (Isaiah 64:6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags) we will see that only by trusting in the perfect obedience of the One Man, Jesus Christ, can we have confidence before God.

Some preachers start well, preaching grace and unconditional love to get people saved. But then when they see the people’s lives change because of the grace of God, they start seeing this as a fruit of their own teaching, and they begin to emphasise holy living at the cost of grace.

How do we know that we have been established in the grace of God? If we can say immediately after we have sinned (made a mistake) that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Cor 5:21) and that nothing we ever do can change that!! We need that innocence of a child restored to us, feeling as though we have never sinned (because God has forgiven all our sins past present & future – Heb 10:17 Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more) and also feeling like nobody has ever sinned against us. When we reach that place of boldly approaching the throne of grace, we can say we have been established in the gift of righteousness. God doesn’t us to feel guilty about any sins, because why should we be reminded of our mistakes if God doesn’t remember them anymore?

Heb 10:19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Yours in Grace
Andre van der Merwe

This entry was posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 5:01 pm and is filed under Previous Messages. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.