Living in Grace

It is great to be a Christian! God’s grace makes life worth living. But how are we to live in God’s grace? We want to demonstrate responsibility and appreciation for the gifts God has given us.

Sometimes we may be tempted to look at God’s grace like paying off a credit card. We hate being in debt while we are getting the monthly bills. But as soon as the credit card is paid off, we immediately begin to think about what else we can buy.

We are not to treat God that way. We know God has paid the price for our sins in Jesus’s sacrifice and we know that he wants to forgive us. This can present us with a tempting situation to yield to temptation. After all, God will forgive me anyway!

Could we imagine a more disrespectful way to treat God? We could think of another way to devalue Jesus sacrifice? God knew we would be tempted to presume upon his grace and inspired Paul to write , “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein?”

In Paul addressed the same problem—does God’s grace enable sin? “Certainly not!” (ESV). He is particularly prone to say μὴ γένοιτο when it is suggested that freedom from law will encourage people to sin (cf. ., 15); if that were so, then Christ (as presented by Paul) would indeed be an agent of sin.

F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Galatians: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1982), 141.

Instead of enabling sin, God’ grace empowers the Christian to live in righteousness. So how does the Bible say we should live in God’s grace with responsibility and appreciation?

Be a Good Builder

Galatians 2:18 ESV

For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.

Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament, 27th Edition Chapter 2

κατέλυσα

When we have torn down the bulwarks of sin, we must not work to rebuild them.

2 Peter 2:20–22 ESV

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

English Standard Version Chapter 2

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

2 Peter 2:

Be a Good Student

Galatians 2:19 ESV

For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.

2 Corinthians 3:6–11 ESV

who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

Romans 7:4 ESV

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

Romans 6:11 ESV

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Be a Good Home

Galatians 2:20 ESV

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

What to do when the Devil sends temptation knocking at your heart? Tell him Jesus has taken up residence in your heart. So the Devil will have to deal with him.

Galatians 5:24 ESV

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

How could my life be more gracious?