Fallen From Grace

Would I be wrong in saying that in most of the world, including the church world, the phrase "fallen from grace" usually means that a person has been in some sort of "respectable" position, but then has done some bad deed or deeds? As long as I've heard people using that phrase, that's generally what they've meant by it. And I do understand it... because the word "grace" does have several meanings. It can mean "a pleasing or attractive quality or endowment." So in a worldly (and religious, legalistic) sense, to "fall from grace" can mean to fall from such a respectable position.

But thank God that that's not what it means to Him! To be walking "in grace" has absolutely nothing to do with any "respectable position" that we hold among our peers, or even before God, through our own deeds or performance. Walking in grace means to be trusting solely in the finished work of Christ, and in the life of Christ that indwells us. It means that we have trusted in God's grace, not only for justification, but also for the living of our daily lives in Him.

You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. (Gal 5:4)

It's not those who have "performed well" and then have turned to "performing poorly" who have fallen from grace. It's those who have once trusted solely in grace but have turned to trusting in their own deeds for justification and daily living.

Some would argue that Paul's words to the Galatians (not only the verse above, but the entire passage surrounding it) are only in regards to "getting saved." But Paul is not talking about getting saved here! His whole epistle is written to those who are saved by grace through faith but are trying to maintain their salvation by their works!

Paul goes on to say:

You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. (Gal 5:7-9)

They had been "running well." What, on the basis of their performance? No! Performance set aside, Paul was talking about their living by grace, not by their works or performance. They were now hindered from "obeying the truth." What, on the basis of obeying laws and commands? No! Obeying the truth of lives that are lived solely by grace!

O foolish Galatians! O foolish church! Come back to grace!

Titus 3:4567

Titus 3:4,5,6,7
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
NIV

Oswald Chambers - Justification By Faith

Oswald Chambers - My Utmost For His Highest - October 28

"For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Romans 5:10

I am not saved by believing; I realize I am saved by believing. It is not repentance that saves me, repentance is the sign that I realize what God has done in Christ Jesus. The danger is to put the emphasis on the effect instead of on the cause. It is my obedience that puts me right with God, my consecration. Never! I am put right with God because prior to all, Christ died. When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals I can accept, instantly the stupendous Atonement of Jesus Christ rushes me into a right relationship with God; and by the supernatural miracle of God's grace I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, not because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The Spirit of God brings it with a breaking, all-over light, and I know, though I do not know how, that I am saved.

The salvation of God does not stand on human logic, it stands on the sacrificial Death of Jesus. We can be born again because of the Atonement of Our Lord. Sinful men and women can be changed into new creatures, not by their repentance or their belief, but by the marvellous work of God in Christ Jesus which is prior to all experience. The impregnable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself. We have not to work out these things ourselves; they have been worked out by the Atonement. The supernatural becomes natural by the miracle of God; there is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done - "It is finished."

The Joy of Salvation (repost)

(First posted 10/11/06)


Salvation means you've been saved from something.

Jesus came to save us.

Have you lost the "joy of your salvation?"

Have you forgotten that it's not about you saving yourself!

Trust Him to keep you

Back in the day (really not too very long ago) I was involved in a lot of "Can a Christian lose their salvation?" discussions. The number of Christians who fear, at least a little (and sometimes a lot), about whether or not they'll remain "saved" is probably more than you can imagine.

While I haven't participated heavily in discussions like that in quite a while, and while it would take too long to share all of what was discussed in those discussions, I'll highlight one of the main questions I used to ask people who worried or feared about the "loss" of salvation: "What exactly is it that saves a person in the first place?"

Paul put it quite simply:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast (Eph 2:8-9)

How much of that is your work? How much of it is "of yourselves?" None of it! It's "the gift of God, not by works..."

So then, once we're saved, does it suddenly become "of ourselves" to keep ourselves saved? For the many people who are so worried about Christians losing their salvation, it would seem that there's more than just an ounce of that type of thinking going around in their heads.

To lead up to where I'm going with this, let me relate that type of thinking to receiving some sort of gift that doesn't come with the batteries. Sure, the gift is free, but it's up to you to continuously provide the batteries to make sure the gift remains in working order.

But that's not the type of gift God has given us! God has not simply given us the gift of salvation, and then left us alone to try to maintain it our own. He has included Himself - His very Life - in the package!

It was His life that saved us, and it's His life that keeps us!

Unfortunately a very deficient "gospel" has been spread, and keeps on being spread, in which grace and salvation are depicted merely as a matter of our sins being forgiven. It's great that our sins have been forgiven, but if you are forgiven and yet remain in the same condition, what good is that? What's missing from the gospel message that's commonly taught is the issue of LIFE! We've not only been forgiven of all sin, but our sin has been taken away and we died to our old life in Adam, and we were raised up and made alive together with Christ Himself! Not only have we been forgiven, but our condition has changed! In Adam we were dead to God, but in Christ we are now fully alive to God.

Paul's words that follow the words quoted above say that we are God's workmanship. It's all of Him. Getting saved is of Him and not of us. Remaining saved is also of Him and not of us. If you couldn't get yourself saved, what can you do to keep yourself saved??? Trust Him to keep you.

"God... even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ..." (Eph 2:4-5). If He made you alive even when you were dead in your trespasses, do you think for a moment that He's going to not keep you alive when you sin now? While you can do nothing to keep yourself, He can and does continuously supply you with His very life, because as a branch is continuously sustained, not in and of itself but by the life of the vine, you are also continuously sustained by the very life of the One who calls Himself the Vine, Jesus.

Be strong in the Lord

Eph 6:10-18

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

How do we take our stand against the devil's schemes (or "wiles of the devil" - KJV)?

13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

All of this is worth spending some time with and meditating upon. Not religiously, of course, but as part of our full-on relationship with the one who supplies us with the power in all this! Some people call this "spiritual warfare," I think mostly because of the imagery of armor and battle gear that Paul uses. But when it's all boiled down, it's simply a matter of a few basic truths that will help us overcome the evil one - who, as Peter says, is an adversary "who walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). Peter goes on to say "resist him, steadfast in the faith..." And the "armor" Paul talks about in verses 14-17 of the above passage includes:

• Truth
• Righteousness
• The Gospel of Peace
• Faith
• Salvation
• The Word of God

Earlier this year, I broke some of this down in three separate posts, if you're interested in checking any of it out.

The Full Armor of God
God's armor 1-3
God's armor 4-6

And don't forget that in our relationship with God we have the wonderful privilege to "pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests" and we can "be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints." :)

The answer is always B - 7/8/08 - "He saved us"

Haven't done this for a while!

Which is the correct wording of Titus 3:4-7?

A. But when we'd done enough good works to satisfy God, he saved us, because of all the righteous things we had done, not so much because of his mercy. He saved us, through our careful washing of our souls everyday, and through proving ourselves to be good and faithful servants. He made sure that we had poured our lives out in generous giving (especially to our local churches), so that having been justified by our generosity and good works, he might grudgingly accept us into his kingdom.

B. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

C. His hard drive crashed and he had forgotten to save his work. Ooops!

Saved by His life

This morning I've been traveling around the blogosphere and I've been reading some very wonderful posts from various people all about Easter and the resurrection of Christ. The birth of Jesus as a human being and His death on the cross are very important parts of God's plan so I'm thankful for the entire ordeal of Christ becoming a man.

But if not for the resurrection, there would be no life for us! There would be no eternal life. We would not have been able to die with Him and to also be raised again with Him, as so many of you have pointed out. We were reconciled by His death, but we were saved by His life.

Rom 5:10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

The cross is wonderful and it a vital part of the entire plan, but Christ's death was not enough. His resurrection made it possible for anyone who believes to be made alive with Him! We can sit around all day, knowing that we're forgiven, but unless we have LIFE, so what if we've been forgiven!

I thank God today, not only for the coming of Jesus as a man, and for His death on the cross, but for His life with which I've been made alive together with Him!

God's armor 4-6

This is a follow up to my two recent posts, The Full Armor of God and God's armor 1-3. I'm essentially attempting to demystify spiritual warfare and the armor of God. It's not that spiritual warfare can't sometimes involve deep emotions or various types of miraculous outward manifestations. It's not that at all! But I do believe that in our day to day lives in Christ, we have an enemy who often fights in more subtle and quiet ways. 2 Cor 10:4 says that "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God..." The weapons of our warfare are supernatural, but that doesn't mean they have to be spooky! Isn't our entire life in Christ a supernatural life? And as our life in Christ is a gift, and a matter of God working in and through us by His power and might (not our own efforts), so are these weapons. Continuing on with the final three weapons mentioned in Ephesians 6 by Paul: 

• Faith - Paul talked about faith earlier on in his epistle to the Ephesians. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." Even our faith is a gift of God. I remember times in my life in which I would try to muster up as much faith as I could in order to get God to work in and through me. I would strive and struggle to try to work up enough faith (which basically was a matter of me crying out for greater faith), and feeling so bad when I thought I just didn't have enough faith to get God to do anything. MY how I had it so wrong! I can rest in the faith I have, rather than struggling to try to gain more. What's more, my faith is not to be in how much faith I can work up! Rather, the life I live in this body, I live by faith in Jesus. Faith in Jesus is not a matter of striving to have more of something. It's really a matter of letting go of any amount of trust I have that I can accomplish anything and instead trusting solely in Jesus. There's so much more that could be said here, but I'm wanting to be brief. Any and all comments are welcome, of course. 

• Salvation - Paul says earlier, in Eph 1:13-14, "In Him (Christ) you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory." I love that phrase. "The gospel of your salvation." The good news of our salvation. Our salvation is a weapon in God's arsenal. Sorry, devil, but I'm saved. I'm one of God's children. You cannot lay a charge on me and you cannot lay a charge on my loved ones who are saved! 

• The Word of God - Again, being brief, Jesus Himself is the Word of God! As Colossians 2:9 says, in Him (Jesus, the Word of God) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and we are complete in Him. Not only that, but Jesus, the Word of God, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells, dwells in us! (See Rom 8:10-11, 1 Cor 6:19, Col 1:27). "The word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Heb 4:12). In a way, we could also refer to the scriptures as the Word of God. And more than that, God speaks directly to us in various ways. It's His personal Word to us, sometimes individually and sometimes corporately. Either way, His Word is a mighty weapon in our spiritual arsenal. 

Not that I want to dismiss all of the outward, over-emotional times that I've witnessed in my pentecostal experience, such as people shouting at the devil or somehow acting in some holier than thou way as they declare God's Word, but sometimes it seems as if emotion trumps Jesus and the scriptures, and people come to rely more upon having the right emotions rather than simply trusting in the truth of God. I believe that sometimes, perhaps even many times, the emotions are truly genuine, and they reflect a natural response to a true understanding of God. Other times, however, I become concerned when it appears as if people have become emotional out of desperation rather than out of truth. 

Again, there's much more to be said on all six of the weapons mentioned in Ephesians 6. I'm sure I'll touch on them more in the future and I always welcome your input as well.