Christians who embrace God’s grace not only sin less, but because they live under grace, they love more. Their freedom from sin’s power and the law’s obligation enables them to love in a way they never have been able to do before.
Did you know a genuine holy lifestyle is a life of love? A life of love is simply our Holy God, who is love, expressing himself through us. When this is occurring, guess what is happening. Christians are fulfilling the law without even thinking about the law. They are thinking about loving people. Romans 13:10 says it this way: “Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
That’s why true grace will never lead you into the errors of disobedience and taking sin lightly. Once you fall into any of these deceptions from Satan, you are not living by grace. You are living according to the flesh.
Three responses to God’s grace are always possible for Christians:
- Refuse God’s grace—rejecting the teaching they need to live by grace and making the law and trying harder the focal point of their Christian lives.
- Abuse God’s grace—taking God’s grace and perverting it, diminishing sin and disobedience to the point that they think God is okay with it.
- Use God’s grace—understanding the truth, that the only way to live the Christian life victoriously is to live it by grace.
One of my favorite passages on this subject is Titus 2:11–12, which says, “The grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.”
God’s grace teaches some to “unlearn” legalism. God’s grace teaches others to “unlearn” worldliness.
(c) Mark Maulding, God’s Best-Kept Secret: Christianity Is Easier Than You Think, Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing, 2017
