A Foundation of Grace: Reigning in Life

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive an abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!-Romans 5:17 (Berean Study Bible)

I gave up so many times when I first came back to Jesus. I knew that He was drawing me to himself, but when I went to church I never felt like I could behave well enough. I still had stuff (plural) in my life that I was struggling with. I was having a very hard time in my flesh letting go of some of the things, even though I would pray, Lord please take these desires away. I had little understanding of the grace or the free gift of righteousness. It was actually what drew me to Jesus, but I felt like once I was in, I couldn't keep it together, because I thought it was all up to me.

Did you know that it is an abundance of grace that sets people free in every situation? I see people talk about cheap grace, or greasy grace, but it wasn't cheap because Jesus paid for it already. For you.

Maybe we aren't seeing results in so many areas, areas where we are questioning, because we aren't receiving or sharing the abundant grace of Jesus. Because people keep saying things like cheap grace and greasy grace, so people back away.

That would be a good question to ask ourselves. The Bible, in Romans 5:17 says it is abundance of grace that causes people to reign.

You don't get to choose or modify what the Scripture says because you want somebody to act different.

When we read the Gospels, we can see what that would look like with Jesus. People living the worst lifestyles freely and fearlessly came to Him.

Lord, help us to preach this more. Less condemnation. More grace. And help us to receive more grace as well.

To read more in the series, please join me here, at A Foundation of Grace.

Five Minute Friday: Balance/Unbalanced

Photo by Andrew Itaga on Unsplash

Today I am participating in Five Minute Friday, where a group of writers get together and write about a one word prompt for 5 minutes.  Today's word is Balance.

Begin 5 minutes.

There's a lot of clamoring for balance these days, but in my own experience, I don't think balance is possible to even attain anymore. I feel like something always gets more attention that something or someone else. And that is not always a bad thing.

In the Kingdom of God, under the New Covenant, I feel like were are called to be "unbalanced." The Bible says in John 1:17 that the "law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." Many people want us to have balance these days, following all of God's commands. But under the New Covenant, the only work we are called to do is to "believe on the one He has sent."

Under the New Covenant, there is definitely an unbalance of GRACE. There is an abundance of GRACE. Balance suggests that things are even, on an even playing field, level. But not so with JESUS. Not so with GRACE.

Repeatedly, over and over, we see an abundance of Grace flowing into the lives of those He ministered to. Story after story tells us of this abundance. It made the religious leaders mad. They were balanced. Jesus was not.

We see Jesus opening people's eyes who had never seen, feeding thousands and thousands of people with 5 loaves and 2 fish, raising people from the dead, filling boats (which were created to float) with fish so much so that they began to sink.

Jesus was never balanced, but always unbalanced, providing an abundance of Grace.

End 5 minutes.