Waking and Living With Peace and Power

I have been poor in body and spirit. I have been desperate in circumstances and heart. I have been condemned by the law, the world, and my own conscience to the point of paralysis and terror. Yet I have not been condemned in Christ. Rather, I have found the Lord Jesus able to raise the lowest condition to a place beside him in heaven, by uniting himself to the weakest sinner through faith in Him alone. My whole existence thrives on grace.

Grace is the unmerited favor of the Father, promised to those who rest in Jesus for all their needs. Grace is the power of the Spirit which enables me to do the slightest thing with gratitude. By grace I wake up, because God grants me life and a will to live for His sake. By grace I rest sweetly, because He promises I am forgiven for a day of faults, accepted in Him, and protected by His providence for the life to come. So whether I eat, drink, or sleep, I do it all by faith that His grace overshadows every thought and action of my will. If I do anything at all acceptable to God, I do it by grace alone.

Overcoming Despair About Personal Change

If our only hope of personal change was to let time and nature do their work, we might lose hope that ourselves and others would ever be brought to faith or holiness. Yet one of the deepest works of personal transformation to ever occur was that which happened within Saul on the road to Damascus, and this was accomplished in an instant by the Spirit. [Acts 9, 22] One moment Saul viewed Jesus as his enemy. Then a light appeared from heaven and a voice spoke, “Saul, why are you persecuting me?” As the bitter Pharisee beheld the fearful glory of the Son, a more mysterious light suddenly appeared within his heart—faith, the gift of God. Now in a moment he believed Jesus was his greatest benefactor, for having died to reconcile him, an enemy of God, to the Father at the cross. The greatest change imaginable happened in the twinkling of an eye, when a spiritually dead man was resurrected by God through new birth into spiritual life.

Read more »

The Principle of True Christian Obedience

If there is one principle I wish all Christians knew in their struggle for holy living, it would be this distinction. Fleshliness under the Law consists in the natural self working through its sense of duty alone. Christian obedience under grace, on the other hand, exists when faith works through love. Before I understood this, I often tried to summon my will to obey God merely by pondering the rightness of moral commands and was unsuccessful. I thought that by dwelling on the duty which I owed God under the Law, I would fill myself with sufficient motivation. But instead of pulling myself up to a resolved will, I received again and again a battered conscience, obedience coming in fits and spurts, if at all.

Then I learned the power of the Spirit for godliness is bestowed through faith in Christ “who works in you”, not works of the natural self. The true principle of Christian obedience is received first of all through faith in the humbling revelation that I have no power in myself to will as God desires. Secondly, and just as importantly, it comes through faith that Christ, dwelling in believers by His Spirit, is both willing and able to exert His own power, and does this as I seek to love Him gratefully for His grace. So then, this principle does not deny our natural duty toward God, but neither does it seek strength to obey from meditating on Law as Law. 

Keeping Your Eyes on Jesus

There are many phrases in popular Christianity which can be difficult to decipher for any practical meaning, an example of which is “keep your eyes on Jesus.” Whatever it means, certainly the idea is not to peer into the sky. The words come from Hebrews 12:1-2, which say, “let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” So then, keeping one’s eyes on Jesus means knowing his teachings and promises in scripture, and believing they represent truth and life, not just for others, but for oneself. And by faith in his Word, deriving energy from the Spirit to persevere in the upward calling. For instance,

“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” [Heb. 13:5] To every believer, this promise is as true as Christ’s own existence.

“Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” [Matthew 25:23]

Remember the thief on the cross, the one who mocked Christ but afterward repented of his unbelief. He was a saint in this world for mere for hours. During his brief Christian life, the little with which he was faithful was only to believe Christ’s promises of forgiveness, and once or twice compel his fellow robber to repent. Yet this converted thief was greeted that same day in the Kingdom, a victor with Christ over sin and death. He looked to Christ and was saved.

“Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” [Isa. 45:22]

“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” [1 John 5:4]

If not to indulge our lustful appetites openly, the world tempts us in every way to look to our own efforts to be right and approved in God’s sight. Yet faith overcomes this temptation by looking beyond oneself, one’s own circumstances and history, to the finished work of Christ on behalf of believers, finding satisfaction and confidence in all Jesus has promised Himself to be.

For more on what it means to “look unto Jesus”, I recommend this excellent article by J. C. Ryle.