When Being Good Isn't Good Enough: 21 Days of GraceSample

Grace Is Enough 

Finally, we give people permission to be free by understanding that if grace is good enough for God, it ought to be good enough for us. “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” (Eph. 2:8-9). 

One time a teacher promised my daughter a high grade on a course she was taking in high school. She made the promise because the teacher wanted to help my daughter understand that the purpose of the course was not to get a good grade, but to learn something important. As we have mentioned before, the grade has already been given to you. It happened on the cross and you received an “A.” When we give permission to others to be free, we have properly transferred the same process to them. If you got an unearned “A” you ought to be willing to give your brothers and sisters an unearned “A” too. 

Grace is not just something God has shown us, it is something that we must show others. 

And so we come to the end of our study in freedom. Please don’t write me letters telling me that Christian freedom is not only “freedom from” but “freedom to.” I know that and I meant to say something about it. There just wasn’t room. We’ll have to save it for another plan. The problem I see is that so many Christians are caught in a trap of Christian bondage that “freedom to” is not even an issue. If you are trapped in seaweed fifteen feet under the water and drowning, you can’t swim until you get free from the seaweed. 

But if you are free, you will find that you have another kind of freedom, and that is the freedom to be obedient to the One who gave you your freedom. If you haven’t discovered that, you simply haven’t gone far enough for the fun. 

Remember the first miracle Jesus ever performed? You’ll find the story in the second chapter of John. It was a party and the host ran out of wine. Jesus turned the water into wine and thereby saved the day. If you’re a Christian, Jesus has given you the wonderful, heady, exciting wine of freedom. 

Be sure you do not turn it back into water. 

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This reading plan was adapted from When Being Good Isn't Good Enough by Steve Brown of Key Life Network. Find more resources and discover why 'God Isn't Mad At You' by visiting us at KeyLife.org.