The Promises of Grace by Bryan Chapell

Author:Bryan Chapell
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781441231604
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group

When Down Is Up

Driving through the mountains of Colorado on a family vacation, we discovered how easy it is to mistake an up for a down. We drove through an extremely difficult mountain pass. Mountains on both sides arched away from the car at amazing angles and seemed by their very magnitude to force us down. Yet despite our visual sensation of traveling downward, the struggling noise of our car engine indicated we were climbing up. A look in the rearview mirror cleared our understanding. By focusing on where we had been rather than on the craggy heights, we realized that the mountains we were climbing created the optical illusion of going down while we were really climbing higher. In the same way, when we face difficulties and discipline we often feel we are being borne down, but over time a backward look will reveal that God lifts us only higher and higher. God leads his own closer to himself because they are precious to him.

God’s actions teach us we must be careful not to make believers fear the rejection of God. If anyone must climb to his favor, we shall all fall. If we have to win our way back into his affection, we are all lost. If his regard for us is not fixed, we will never win his affection. We still have only rags to woo him. To turn believers from sin on the basis of God’s rejection is to create bitter, hard, prideful people, but not more godly people. A biblical view of the unlimited, unchanging love of God is the only path to healthy holiness. Unless the love of Christ constrains us to do his will, our hearts will be no closer to God even if our behaviors change. There is no incentive to climb closer to God unless we are sure his love will not let us go. His Word assures us we will not fall, because his affection for us is fixed.

Much Scripture becomes clear and comforting when we recognize that God’s regard for believers is fixed. We begin to understand why there is so much emphasis on Christ’s work as our only hope of salvation or divine favor. Our value is based solely on the work of Christ that marks us as God’s children. Our own works, fraught with human weakness and sin, never could make us acceptable to God nor sure of his favor. But because our own works are not what make us acceptable to God, we do not fear that his love is as fragile, or as likely to fail, as our holiness. By grace we are freed of working to win God’s favor. Perhaps this is why the Bible says that when we become Christians we enter into a holy rest (Heb. 4:3). The struggle for God’s affection is over. We rest from our labors and now pursue God’s work. The church fathers said we believers “receive and rest upon Christ alone for our salvation.” The hymnist writes, “I rest me in the thought, I am his and he is mine forever and forever.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.