The God Of Grace

I had a situation at my work that did not go well, to say the least, so much so that I became worried about the consequences. I expressed the regret of my actions to my boss, expecting him to be stern with me, but he wasn’t. He was very gracious about it, saying what I did can easily happen. His response inspired me to please him even more.

There are spiritual applications from this worldly situation. We, as Christians, can easily fall into sin through temptation, deception, and disobedience, but God “does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities”(Psalm 103:10).

I never wanted what happened to ever happen again, and I told my boss that it wouldn’t. That should be our attitude in response to God’s grace, as expressed in Romans 6:1-2. “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”

There is, however, a spiritual battle between the two natures of Christians, the flesh and the spirit, which is easier said than done when it comes to living apart from a pattern of sin. The Apostle Paul talks about this in Romans 7:15-19. “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. This passage seems to be saying that there is no guarantee that some sin won’t happen again, whatever it is.

One thing for sure, though, is that God is not waiting for us to fall into the same sin again so he can say, “See, you did it again.” Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far does God remove our transgressions from us.”

We, as Christians, will never become sinless, but we can get to the point where we sin less. As we grow in the grace of God, we want to please him more. However, it is a two-fold process. One, the indwelling Holy Spirit will, over time, develop Godly character qualities in our lives. On the other hand, it is our part to decide whether to feed the flesh or the Spirit. I have to admit that there are times when my ‘want to” is not what it should be. I make the decision to feed the flesh, so I fall into the same repeated sin.

I am sure that if what happened at work happened again, there could be dire consequences. This time the boss gave me grace. There comes a time, even with God’s grace, when He can bring down judgment. In other words, we should never get to the point where we think that our sin is no big deal, or get comfortable with it! It is one thing to struggle with it; it is quite another thing to allow it to become a habit or lifestyle.

God knows that there is a struggle between the flesh and the Spirit, so we can come to him asking forgiveness, and when we do, “he is faithful and just to forgive us, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”(I John 1:9).

If you struggle with repeated sin, know that God is gracious and forgiving. However, do whatever is necessary to stop it, and not letting it become part of you. Respond to God’s grace by wanting to please him more.