I have to admit that I sometimes find myself reverting back to former ways. Although I have been studying and preaching on grace for months, I am still learning how to live in the realm of unmerited and undeserved favor. Under the Old Covenant, God’s people were required to live in strict obedience to the law of Moses. Full compliance with those laws released blessings but the slightest disobedience brought curses. If you did good, you got good. If you did bad, you got bad.
We’re all pretty much familiar with how that works. Jesus’ death on the cross changed all that. In fact, it changed everything. “The law was given by Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Moses gave us the law, but Jesus brought us grace and truth. He hand delivered it. The Bible is abundantly clear that we are no longer under law but under grace. I’ll take unearned favor over enforced laws and ordinances any day.
I am very grateful to be a New Covenant believer where the emphasis is not on achieving but receiving; learning to walk by faith and simply accepting all the benefits Jesus won for us on Calvary. He paid the price. He won the victory. And as He so aptly stated with His final breath, “It is finished,” we now have full access to all the benefits of the cross through no work or effort of our own. That, my dear friend, is called grace. And that is exactly where I plan to live all the remaining days of my life. I’m still experiencing occasional relapses where I fall victim to relying on my “good works” instead of His finished work, but for the most part, I am enjoying the glorious liberty that grace so freely provides. On this Independence Day, I am declaring my independence from the bondage of the law and exercising my faith to walk each day in the life-changing grace of God. Hope you’ll join me on the walk.