HUMAN EXERTION
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Christian Life Without Human Effort
The Christian life cannot be lived by any human exertion, but only and entirely by God’s grace. This forestalls any concept of an “infused grace” that acts as a divine assistance or a “power booster” to provide whatever the believer lacks to accomplish what God expects.
The activity of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, by the power of His Spirit, is the singular dynamic of Christianity. All manifestation of righteousness, holiness and godliness requires the presence and function of Jesus Christ, Whose very life and character supersedes, conquers and overcomes all unrighteousness.
This is how the prophet Ezekiel verbalized God’s intents: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh . . . I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (Ezek. 36:26,27).
Speaking through Zechariah, God promised, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 4:6). They foresaw the grace that was to be “realized in Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).
When the risen Lord Jesus Christ comes to live in us, we have the divine “treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God, and not of ourselves” (II Cor. 4:7) – there goes the humanistic thesis of self-potential! “God is at work in us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). We are “strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man” (Eph. 3:16). The words of Jesus are clear: “Apart from Me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Only the divine Savior can deal with the sinful and selfish patterns of our behavior. “By the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body” (Rom. 8:13), Paul advised the Romans. “The Spirit sets its desires against the flesh” (Gal. 5:17) are the words he used to encourage the Galatians. Years later the apostle John wrote, “Greater is He Who is in you, than he who is in the world” (I John 4:4).
As we explained previously, the divine positive swallows up the sinful negatives. Since the “God Who is love” (I John 4:8,16) has come to live in Christians, “the love that controls us” (II Cor. 5:14) counters and overcomes the selfishness that is the opposite of all love.
God does not ask anything of us that He is not willing and prepared to do through us. He is …the dynamic of His own demands, the content of His own commands,
the expedient of His own expectations, and the means of His own mandates.
“This is the grace in which we stand” (Rom. 5:2) in Christ. “God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed” (II Cor. 9:8). “He equips us in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ” (Heb. 13:21). We have “all power for the attaining of steadfastness and patience” (Col.
1:11), and “He will bring it to pass” (I Thess. 5:24).
That God does all that needs doing in our Christian lives is a truth that for some sounds “too good to be true.” Worldly wisdom has cautioned us to beware of anything that sounds “too good to be true.” Indeed, we should, but in this case the singularity of the good news of the gospel declaring that all the redemptive and restorative work of God is freely given by God’s grace in Jesus Christ is the ultimate truth.
At the same time, be advised, for to accept God’s grace will cost you everything. God’s grace is not the “cheap grace” of a “free ride,” but the “costly grace” that cost Jesus His life and will cost you yours as well.
Only those who are willing to “lose their lives for His sake, will find His saving life”
(Matt. 10:39; 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke. 9:24) as their eternal gain.
We often learn to appreciate the dynamic of God’s grace in the Christian life only when we are brought to the “end of ourselves.” When “our sin has found us out.” When we have failed and are defeated. When we are brought to our knees by our own inability and weakness.
Paul was in the midst of such a situation when God advised him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness,” and Paul responded, “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me” (II Cor. 12:9).
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Dark Night Of The Soul...
Dr. James Fowler | IOM Staff Writer
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