The True Measure of Grace

What does grace really mean?
Do you hear people talk about grace a lot? Yet, they do not practice it?
Scripture tell us that grace is the unmerited work of love and favor of God toward men. Not earned, but freely given because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross.
There was once a church that sought to “find out who in the church was saved.” Surely their motive was pure. They wanted to know just how to minister to him/her and to “encourage him/her into good works.” This should be a genuine concern, and purpose of every church that hopes to truly remain in the Vine.
Many people believe that because the have attended church all their lives they are automatically saved. That is a lie that is keeping many people from coming to experience true freedom from the wellspring of the saving grace of Christ.
“I assure you: Unless someone if born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” Jesus said to Nicodemus (John 3:3). How is that possible? You must admit you are a sinner separated from God, repent of your sin, accept and put faith in that Jesus is the Son of God, and who died on the cross for your sins. It is that simple, yet many have come to accept handed down religion, and diluted faith rather than a relationship with the living God, yet call themselves “saved.” Are they?
But, what happens when we say we are trying to find out if someone is saved or not, is that many times, we unknowingly become the judge of God’s work in our brother’s life because we measure his salvation by our fruit, not his.
Only God can measure His own work in our lives, and our works or words are not what save us, but the grace of God, and only He can see if we are sincere when we say we have accepted Jesus in our heart.
You can express your testimony eloquently; some times you do not know the right words to say it, and you can have a compelling testimony of salvation, but only God, who is all knowing can tell if in fact that is true, or an act.
Only God knows if a man is truly saved. Only God can see the heart.
So when we say we are trying to find if someone is saved, what we may find is not the truth but a fabrication.
Thinking that we have the same discernment of God, we may be in fact, grieving the Holy Spirit, by taking on attributes that belong only to the Godhead.
When we “try to see if someone in the church is saved” what we may find ourselves doing is measuring him/her against our own standard of living, and not necessarily through Christ’s standard of grace.
Have you ever found yourself asking your brothers in matters of faith, “Are you doing such and such? What Scripture passage are you reading? Are you taking enough time to pray? Are you in the Word?
While it may sound that you are genuinely concerned about your brother’s spiritual growth, what you in fact may unknowingly be doing is measuring him/her against your own spiritual walk, a stand commonly labeled as pride, the root of all legalism. We may think we are trying to “minister” to our brother, but in fact what we are doing is acting as a spiritual snob, and worse yet, trying to be your brother’s Holy Spirit.
“Well, what about the work of the preacher every Sunday? He preaches, and when he tells it like it is, is he also trying to be our Holy Spirit too?
The difference comes in each person’s individual calling. God gave gifts to all of us to serve, and to us these were given to serve God by building and encouraging the church.
The preachers’ calling is to preach the Word in love - while leaving whatever personal feelings out of the pulpit. This does not mean he cannot preach against ungodly behavior. The key here is ungodly behavior, not the ungodly. That measure of behavior that grieves the Father, and the Holy Spirit.
But when we single out a brother and constantly harass him by asking him where he is in his spiritual walk, it no longer Christian concern, but it rather becomes legalism.
Then, you may ask, “What about our calling to encourage each other to good works; how does that work?”
Encouraging others to spiritual growth does not come by accusing him for his lack of spiritual fruit. It is best done by us becoming an example of living God’s Word, having the mind of Christ, affirming each other, having a humble, teachable spirit, to serve each other, concentrating in and loving our brother in the way that it brings out the best in him. This will bring more glory and honor to God than becoming our brother’s accuser.
If you are a believer you are under grace, as such, you are free from condemnation and accusation. If a brother accuses you of a certain behavior, it is important to remember that satan is the one making the accusation.
When the enemy accuses you, do you think he is seeking to free you from this behavior? No, he is not accusing you in hope to make you change. He wants to destroy you because he wants to elevate himself; he cannot deny himself.
When an accusation does come, be humble enough to look inside first, admit it to God if it is true, confess and ask for His forgiveness, and for your brother if he/she is affected by your sin, repent or turn away from this sin and look to God to be able to live in an attitude of humble repentance.
After you search out your heart, it becomes your duty to see to it that the enemy will not have another shot at you. In the future, you need not put yourself in a situation where there can never even be a hint of this behavior in your life. This way you will not give satan a foothold from which you can fall, and give him the chance to come back and accuse you again. You may not always be able to control yourself, but you can always have control over the circumstance. Do not put yourself in a situation from where you can easily fall. Put on the armor of God so you can be ready the next time the enemy comes calling.
Then, by whatever Scripture passage God has engraved in your heart and mind about forgiveness, forgive the offending brother, and pray for him/her otherwise satan will have the last laugh. Why? Because in this case, satan managed to separated you and your brother, the primary reason behind the accusation. It is impossible to remain angry and have an unforgiving heart against a brother for whom you pray regularly.
Unforgiveness breeds disunity. You cannot love your brother while living with an unforgiving heart against him. You are in fact, keeping him from the grace of God.
Many of us have been convicted about what the Word says about sin. Yet, many of us take it to mean that we must point the finger at the sinning brother. Preachers expose sin when they preach; that is their calling. Let him expose the behavior, and let those listening become under conviction by the power of the Holy Spirit if the sin is present in their own lives. This is between the sinner and God.
If people do not come under conviction, perhaps it is because they have not truly been saved. Jesus said, “You cannot serve God and money at the same time.” We can only serve one or the other, but not both. The same is with sin. We cannot say we serve God while still live treasuring unrepentant sin in our hearts.
God’s Word says, “No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning.” 1 John 3:6. In the parable of the soils in Luke 8:12 we read, “Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the Word from their hearts.” Through this verse we see that not all of us will come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit when we hear the Word of God. In fact the Word tells us that “Even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ. ” 2 Cor. 4:3-4
Does that mean we can go around calling unbelievers “you sinners”? No, it does not.
The work of the inerrant Word of God stands alone in Truth and righteousness. But, there will always be people who never become convicted about their sin. What makes us think that our accusation can do any better?
There is a place in Scripture where the sinning brother needs to be confronted, but not so fast! This is a task for the church as a body to seek the truth, and help in the restoration of the sinning brother.
The key word here is restoration, not condemnation. We want to gently help him/her see what you see: the behavior that dishonors God, himself, and the church as a whole, with the hope for his repentance and restoration to God and each other. Otherwise, we may lose this brother forever.
We are called to love one another. “And above these things, put on love, which binds them all together.” Colossians 3:14. Leave the judgment to God. Put on love, and humility, and seek to build up the struggling brother. This is the true measure of grace.

Article Source: http://christian-topics.info

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated