1 John 4: 7 - 11 NKJV
I was thinking just the other day about something a friend related to me recently. The topic had come up of Gods grace,and how it is that he blesses His children with not only His grace, but His mercy and love as well. He gives to all who come to Him freely without question. So, if our Lord is indeed Love, would it be so hard for Him to bestow upon us something He already is? Could we call this our Godly heredity? I mean, we are assured that we are not only sons of God, but heirs as well {Romans 8:17}. I really don't see it as our Lord being able to give all that He has freely, but as His children inheriting all that He already is. I inherited certain characteristics from my own parents, and these are evident even today. We all take away things in our own dna that we can trace back to our own family roots, and our heavenly dna is no exception. Not only are we heirs in to the promise in Christ Jesus, but it is Jesus Himself who lives through us today {Galations 2:20}. Yes, I guess you could say that part of my own parents lives through me as well. They are a part of who I am. So it is that Jesus is...part of who I am. A part of who we all are in Christ. So, what does this all have to do with our Lords grace and how it is that He gives of it freely? Well, if God is Love, are we not the same if Gods Spirit is in us? If God is grace, are we not already washed in His grace as well? It may be a hard row to hoe, but the fact is that if God is in us, then He shares all we are...and vice versa. I know that there might be more than a few Pharisee school pulpit pounders out there who might shake their heads and declare me a outright heretic, and that's ok. I get it. Trust me, it was hard enough for me to come to grips with all I am in Christ. It's no wonder that the apostle Paul called this the "mystery among the gentiles" {Colossions 1:27}. That is, Christ in you, the Hope of glory. I am witness to it.
21“that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22“And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23“I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. 24“Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
John 17: 21 - 24 NKJV
I don't believe that our question should ever be just how much of His love and grace our heavenly Father has to give to us, that would be a no brainer. Instead, I think we should instead ask ourselves how much of Him do we see in ourselves? God is love, do I see this side of Him in myself? More often than not I don't. Yet that doesn't mean that this isn't a part of who I truly am in Him. All it tells me is that there are things about Him I have yet to see in my own life. It's not a God issue, it's a me issue. The mystery of the gentiles, remember? I'm pretty sure that Paul struggled with the very same things I find in myself at times. Yet, Paul realized that it was he himself who had been put to death, replaced by Jesus {Romans 6:8}. Is my heavenly Fathers love and grace given to me freely? Absolutely. Of course, it was already within me. For all that God is, is all that I am as well. As He lives, so I live. It's not possible for me to abandon the traits which I have been born with, I am who I am. I know Gods love simply because it is who I am in Him. I know His grace because I see it in He who lives in me. Yup, pretty simple really.
6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be adone away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.7For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6: 6 - 11 NKJV
~Scott~
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