Grace in the life of a believer

I spend a con­sid­er­able amount of time on mes­sage boards, one Chris­t­ian mes­sage board in par­tic­u­lar. And, as a result, I’ve really begun to con­sider how grace man­i­fests itself — and is demon­strated in — the life of a believer, by which I mean actions. The rea­son, you see, is because there is an awful lot of argu­ing (many times over noth­ing), to the extent that I wouldn’t know that the peo­ple I am with refer to them­selves as Chris­tians (the “rela­tion­ship” kind, not the “reli­gious kind”), had this par­tic­u­lar board not be overtly Chris­t­ian. As a result, I want to briefly con­sider how grace man­i­fests itself in the life of a believer, and I believe it man­i­fests itself in a num­ber of very obvi­ous, and some not so obvi­ous, ways.

Grace is demon­strated in a change of  atti­tude and action

In Gala­tians 5 Paul com­pares the deeds of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit (an inter­est­ing com­par­i­son, deeds with fruit, but any­way). So what exactly are the deeds of the flesh, and the fruit of the Spirit? In v.19–21 Paul tells us that the deeds of the flesh are, “immoral­ity, impu­rity, sen­su­al­ity, idol­a­try, sor­cery, enmi­ties, strife, jeal­ousy, out­bursts of anger, dis­putes, dis­sen­sions, fac­tions, envy­ing, drunk­en­ness, carous­ing, and things like these”. I think if we’re entirely hon­est with our­selves, this list pegs a few of our “prob­lems”. And if it does, then by the grace of God I pray you’re remov­ing these things from your life. But what of the fruits of the spirit? In v. 20 and 21 Paul tells us the fruit of the Spirit is, “love, joy, peace, patience, kind­ness, good­ness, faith­ful­ness, gen­tle­ness, self-control”. If we are in Christ, then we have cru­ci­fied the desires of the flesh (v. 24) and should be replac­ing those things with the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

Specif­i­cally, Grace is demon­strated in how we act towards others

One of the hard­est com­mand­ments in the bible is the sec­ond great­est com­mand­ment, “love your neigh­bour as your­self”. Equally hard is the com­mand­ment found in Eph­esians 4:32, “be kind to one another, tender-hearted, for­giv­ing each other, just as God in Christ also has for­given you.” If we are oper­at­ing under the flesh, this is impos­si­ble (don’t believe me? Read again the deeds of the flesh). Thus, if we’re to be kind to one another, render-hearted and for­giv­ing just as God as for­given us (which is where this com­mand becomes impos­si­ble), we must be oper­at­ing under the fruit of the Spirit. Remem­ber 1 Peter 3:15? I had it quoted to me a few days ago, “always be ready to make a defense to every­one who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you”. Notice what it’s miss­ing? First, it’s miss­ing the begin­ning, “but sanc­tify Christ as Lord in your hearts”. Sec­ond, it’s miss­ing its con­clu­sion, “yet with gen­tle­ness and rev­er­ence”. You see, it’s easy to give an answer. It’s hard to give that answer with gen­tle­ness and rev­er­ence, with Christ sanc­ti­fied as Lord in our hearts.

And, for my forum friends, grace is know­ing when to stop, “But avoid fool­ish con­tro­ver­sies and genealo­gies and strife and dis­putes about the Law, for they are unprof­itable and worth­less” (Titus 3:9).

Grace is a trans­for­ma­tion and renew­ing of our minds

Romans 12:2 says, “Do not con­form any longer to the pat­tern of this world, but be trans­formed by the renew­ing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleas­ing and per­fect will.” As it says else­where, in Christ we are new cre­ations. No longer of the world, but of the Spirit. To be of the Spirit also means that Christ has and is trans­form­ing our minds. The result? We don’t act like the world, we oper­ate accord­ing to the fruits of the Spirit.

Sum­mary

In short, grace is demon­strated in the life of a believer through a change of atti­tude, from jeal­ousy, strife and anger to love, joy and peace. As a result, grace man­i­fests through our actions towards oth­ers. We’re to be kind to one another, tender-hearted and ready to for­give. We also know when enough is enough and do not engage in fool­ish and unprof­itable argu­ments. Lastly, this is all pos­si­ble only through a trans­for­ma­tion of our minds and lives by Christ. When we oper­ate in grace, we dis­play the glory of God.

Related posts:

1. Book Review: Bioethics and the Chris­t­ian Life by David Vandrunen
2. Costly Grace: Inter­view with author, Jon Walker (Pt. II)
3. Costly Grace: Inter­view with author, Jon Walker (Pt. I)
4. Hail Mary, Full of Grace.. Was The Lord With Thee?
5. Book Review: Costly Grace by Jon Walker