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Monday, March 20, 2023

The Abundant Grace of Jesus


 

 

But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 

—James 4:6-7

 

True humility is putting God first in your life. It is submitting your life to Him. Exalting yourself or even degrading yourself, is prideful. Pride focuses on you—your desires—your concerns—your problems—your worries—your work. Pride is self-centered. Humility is your life centered around God instead of your life centered around you.

 

God gives grace generously to those who recognize the righteousness He has credited to them. They know the undeserving value He has placed on their lives. When they know their worth in Jesus, they have no need to exalt themselves or make themselves look less. They have no need to prove themselves to God or to others. They are at peace in their relationship with God. 

 

When the Scripture says that God resists the proud, it doesn’t mean God doesn’t love His child who deals with pride. He wants to generously give you His grace, but God knows that pride frustrates and hinders His work of grace in our life. It is frustrating trying to earn something that is already ours. It is not our work. It was His work, and it is finished. You don’t have to prove your right standing to God. Jesus proved it for you. When you believe that Jesus who had no sin became your sin so you might receive His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21), you are free of your need to either exalt or degrade (humiliate) yourself. You are at peace with your Father, and you are free in your relationship with Him.

 

Whatever you submit to is what is going to have control in your life. If you submit to striving to prove yourself to God—if you submit to striving to convince yourself that you are at peace with God, you have not submitted to who God says you are. You have not believed you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. You have submitted yourself to the lies and to the control of the enemy. BUT when you believe and submit yourself to God’s truth of your right standing because of Christ, you submit yourself to the power of God and the authority Christ has given you. And the enemy has no choice but to flee.

 

We make living our lives for Christ difficult. Christ lives in us. When we submit to the truth of His righteousness in us, our salvation and our lives rest on our faith in Him—and not on ourselves. When we believe it is His work and not ours, we humble ourselves because we know we are nothing without Him. We realize that exalting or degrading ourselves often ends in humiliating ourselves. We know that without humbling ourselves, we don’t give God a chance to exalt us (1 Peter 5:6).

 

There is no condemnation or humiliation in Jesus Christ. We have EVERYTHING JESUS earned for us. Jesus lives in us, and we choose to exercise by faith the righteousness He has given us. We live in peace with God when we believe nothing separates us from the love of God Jesus Christ has lavished on us. 

 

“Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt, but to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness” (Romans 4:4-5).

 

You can’t make yourself holy and righteous. Christ in you is holy. Christ in you is righteous. You never earn your right standing with God. If you try, you always fail. You burn out because your works only cause you debt. And Jesus died to pay your debt. He justified you to God. Jesus paid your whole debt with His finished work of grace. And your faith in Him credits you with His righteousness. 

 

Submit to God’s truth of who you are in Christ. Keep submitting to the truth of who you are in Christ, and you will eventually live out of His faith and not your works. Then your works will be born of faith in His righteousness and will not be your works. They shall be full of His life and power and His finished work of grace. You will exercise the authority He has given you. The devil will flee.

 

My friend, put your faith in Jesus who saved you. What you received as a gift, don’t now try to earn. Believe when Jesus took your sin, you became His righteousness. You are a new creation. The old in you is gone. BEHOLD. All is made new (2 Corinthians 5:17).

 

You can come boldly to His throne of grace in your time of need (Hebrews 4:16). You have received the abundant and generous grace of Jesus (John 10:10).

 

 

© 2023 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2023/03/the-abundant-grace-of-jesus.html

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