You Stand in Grace

Take a deep breath and thank God for His amazing grace. You have been rescued from sin and death, and you stand in grace. God wants you to grow in that grace, so it permeates your life.

God is both an exterior and interior decorator. On the outside, He paid sin’s penalty and removed our guilt—that’s public. But He’s also an interior decorator, making us look like Him by the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s private. Once He saves us from sin, He doesn’t leave us there. This is a lifetime process.

Behind us in our study, we’ve talked about how a sinner gets saved. We’ll look at how God makes us sinners, His children, and how we grow up looking like Him.

In our old nature, we were slaves to sin, but our new nature wants to obey God as believers. Imagine what an insult it is to hear Paul ask in Romans 6:1, So if grace is so great, maybe we should sin more to experience more grace?

What? Are you crazy? We remember all too well what a life controlled by sin feels like. How could we ever go back?

Yet sin’s power is still strong in our lives. We need God’s power to live out the reality that we’re dead to it. Living by faith means we remind ourselves of several truths.

1. We know something. You have to know that the judgment on our sin was fully made, the penalty fully paid. Our debt was swallowed up in His death (v.3).

2. Then, we identify with something. When Christ died, you died. When He was raised from the dead, you were raised from the dead. You are no longer sin’s slave (vv. 4-8).

3. Then count on that you are dead to sin and alive unto God. The sin factory that once bossed you around has been put out of business. There are only two places for your sin. Either Christ paid for them when He died for you, or you still carry them today, and judgment is ahead. You don’t share the burden of your sin. If you are in Christ, then He took care of it. You can count on it (v. 11).

Finally, Yield Yourself to God

We get into trouble when we listen to our old selves talking. Instead of giving back the ground Jesus already won for you, present yourself to God and say, I’ll do whatever you want, Lord.

This is all God’s method of changing you. You step into this process by faith that God can do it. You can’t do it (He never said you could). When you finally learn you can’t live the Christian life, you’ve started on your way. You cannot live for God by yourself any more than you can save yourself.

Depend on Him as your next breath. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit. He will help you if you ask.

Next: Help for the many times you’ve asked, “Why do I keep doing that?”