My Bible study group
recently concluded a two month study on the book of Ephesians. I love this book
for several reasons, but mostly because of Paul’s bold instructions for
Christian living and for its message of grace.
The Lord has used His Word
and His people to teach me a lot about grace over the last year. It all began
with a little book called Jesus + Nothing = Everything by Tullian
Tchividjian (who happens to be a CIU graduate and, oh-you know, Billy Graham’s
grandson.)
In his book, Tullian
stresses the importance and practice of grace in our Christian lives. Because,
after all, it is by GRACE we are SAVED! It is by GRACE we are ABLE to mature
spiritually. Not because of our constant striving or working or doing. It is by
GRACE we are able to become holy, sanctified, and righteous before God. Tullian
explains this kind of grace by saying, “When gospel grace grips your heart,
life becomes all about gospel grace. When the gospel reorients how you think
and feel and live, all of life becomes about the work Jesus accomplished for
us, not what we can accomplish for him – or anyone else for that matter. We’re
liberatingly decreased while Christ is gloriously increased.”
Learning about true, gospel
grace has set me free from climbing the proverbial ladder to heaven.
Understanding true, gospel grace has taught me that it’s not about me or
how good I can be… it’s about Christ and what He has already done.
Studying Ephesians the past
couple of months has only driven that point home even further. Paul tells us in
2:8-10 that “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not
from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that
no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do
good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” I have understood
since I was a little girl that accepting Christ as Savior and believing that
His atoning sacrifice for my sin is what grants me eternal life. But am I
living in His grace by constantly “checking spiritual boxes” in my mind and by
being enslaved to the notion that I must always “measure up?” No. Because
that's love of self, not love of God.
Martin Luther sums up our
plight best by saying, “The sin underneath all our sins is the lie of the
serpent that we cannot trust the love and grace of Christ and that we must take
matters into our own hands.” Learning to rest fully in God’s grace is a
life-long endeavor, but I am thankful that no matter how often I take matters
into my own hands; His grace knows no end.
God’s message of grace has
transformed my life in every way. I hope and pray that you, too, will be
awakened to “the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to
us in Christ Jesus.”
((Ephesians 1:3-10))
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in
Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and
blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us
for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his
pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he
has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he
made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure,
which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their
fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
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