God’s Grace Sets You Free

By Jon Walker

“Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.” (2 Corinthians 3:4-5)

In the recent devotional on “practical love,” I described how 25 years ago my sister offered to adopt a baby who was the product of sinful behavior on my part. A few readers thought I was describing a current event, and the responsibility for that confusion is mine. I should have told the story with greater clarity.

The woman who carried that baby is now my wife. On December 18 we will have been married 24 years. The crisis pregnancy is not one of my prouder moments, but as I’ve often taught, God used the circumstances to bring me back to him, and to bring my wife to Christ.

It was then that God began teaching me about his grace – a mind-transforming, behavior-altering understanding of God’s infinite, indestructible, and immovable grace. And after all these years, I’m still in the school of Christ, trying to learn the depth of God’s love, often measured against the shallowness of my faith. Perhaps you can relate?

As I wrote recently, my hope is these devotionals will press us both toward an honest assessment of our faith, a deeper commitment to our beliefs, and most importantly, a sacrificial, wholly abandoned love for our Lord.

It’s a high standard – impossibly high – unless we’re immersed in God’s grace, understanding, “I can’t, but God can.”

Whether we succeed or fail, we’re to fall upon the grace of God. We’re to remain immersed in his grace, knowing we are incapable of achieving holiness – but the spirit of God working within and the blood of Jesus Christ allows us to connect with a holy God.

So what?

Grace requires faith — Martin Luther taught that embracing God’s grace requires us to walk in constant faith. He said, “Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world.” His point is not that it’s okay to sin, rather that all sins are covered by the grace of God – so we can stop living timidly, afraid to make mistakes. We can live boldly, confident in God’s grace and love.

God forbid we abuse his grace – God doesn’t give us grace so we continue to sin; rather, he gives us grace so we’re free, here and now. He gives us grace so we can live in relationship with him, no longer fearing separation because of our sin. “So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there?” (Romans 6:1-7)

Grace makes way for good works – “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:6-10 ).