The full message of grace

“For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8-9 NET).

Grace operates in two distinct but related realms in our lives. They are the realms of “being” (who you are) and “living” (what you do or how you live). Spiritual catastrophe will be the result if we try to take one of these realms and exclude the other. Grace is partaking in the being of Jesus the Beloved as well as in His living. If we accept the being and rejoice in who we are in Christ, but live life short of that—or worse still, like the devil—a spiritual disaster occurs. If we try to live the life of Christ without first knowing and believing in who we are, another spiritual catastrophe will be the result. Grace shines from our being to our living. It is a continuous flow, from the inside out.

This concept is beautifully presented in the book of Ephesians. The first half (chapters 1 to 3), like our main scripture above, teaches us who we are in Christ. It tells you what God has done for you and cautions you not to try to work it out yourself. The second half (chapters 4 to 6) outlines how you should live on a daily basis. These two halves are connected by the first verse of chapter 1, which says, “I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live worthily of the calling with which you have been called” (Eph. 4:1 NET). You live worthy of who you are! God designed the Christian life to be an expression from the inside out. He does not want you to pretend. He makes you a butterfly and then asks you to fly! A butterfly does not struggle to fly—it is in its nature. Grace has made you a partaker of Christ, and then empowers you to live who you really are!

MEDITATE

Are there works in Grace or are we to keep our arms crossed? See the next verse after our main verse above, Eph. 2:10.

APPLY THE WORD

Bitterness is not compatible with your nature, nor is punishment, fear, jealousy, or hatred. If you are living in any of these or similar things, you are living another life that is not yours! Do you need to align yourself today with who you really are?