Growing in Grace

Grace is defined as a gift or blessing brought to man by Jesus Christ.  Grace has been extended to man because as God's prized creation, He is favorable toward man.  It is not something we earn, but something God in His sovereignty chooses to bestow upon us when we choose to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior.  The grace of God represents His kindness toward us.  I have often heard grace described with the following acronym:

God's 
Riches
At
Christ's 
Expense

I feel Paul sums it up nicely in his letter to the church in Ephesus when he declares:

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. Ephesians 2:8-9

What an honor it is to be saved from our sin, our selves and from the system of this world based solely upon God's willingness to offer grace to us.  We cannot do anything that would ever make us worthy of this type of love and devotion given to us by God.  Yet, He doesn't ask us to do anything to earn his grace.

But, what about growing in grace?  Do we have a role to play in that?  Does the grace of God that we receive at the time of salvation cover all things at all times with no requirements from us?  To answer that let us read the next verse in Ephesians 2.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.  Ephesians 2:10

We are God's workmanship - His creation.  He fashioned us and formed us by His hand.  He knows us intimately.  He knows how He has made us to tick and to operate.  We are each fearfully and wonderfully made.  We are each unique.  

And, we have been created by God FOR GOOD WORKS.  This means we have been made by Him to be active, to accomplish great things and to live our lives with purpose.  This can literally be understood as doing that which harmonizes with the order of society.  I am not looking to get kooky or weird, but there is nothing as powerful and liberating as doing that for which you have been created to do.  

Furthermore, it says that God prepared in advance or beforehand for you and I to walk in the good works for which He has created us.  God has placed destiny in your heart and in your life and finding and realizing that destiny is one of the most valuable things any of us can do.  The most fulfilled people are those who are fulfilling their God-given destiny.  

So, what does this all mean together about growing in grace?  Accepting Jesus as your personal Savior is a complete and total act of God's grace.  We cannot do enough to earn, work up or purchase the grace of God.  Yet, even in that, going forward we have a role to play in partnering with God to grow in the grace He has bestowed upon us.  

I see, find and talk with so many who just want to sit on their stool of do-nothing (as my father-in-law would often say) and soak up God's grace.  But, what is that actually doing?  That is abusing God's grace and misrepresenting its purpose.  Grace is God saving you from something and bringing you into something better.  Even James says faith without works is dead.  God's design for the church - the bride purchased by His grace through the blood of Christ - is that we be an agent for the "equipping of the saints for the work of ministry" (Ephesians 4:11).  

Grace is not an escape from something.  On the contrary, grace is an enabling and an empowering to fulfill God's purpose and accomplish much for Him.  We grow in grace as we put God's grace to work in our lives.  This means obedience.  This means sacrifice.  This means service to God and His people.  This means commitment to God.  Not growing in God's grace is no different than a 40-year old having his mother change his diapers and asking for permission to nurse.  Please pardon the warped image, but you get the point.  

I don't want to be one that abuses or takes for granted God's grace.  I know I cannot earn His grace.  However, I also don't want to be one that nullifies or misrepresents His grace.  I want to be one that grows in grace - attaining to the "measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:11).