by Kelly Ann Griffin

Created on: January 13, 2009

In Galatians 2:20, Paul exclaims, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." I remember the first time that verse profoundly struck me, I thought, "Is Paul serious? Christ lives in me?" At that moment, God began to show me the core of the Christian life, namely Christ's life in me.

The doctrine of grace is often defined along the lines of unmerited pardon, or undeserved favor. Though true in part, grace is not merely undeserved favor; it is an enabling favor. There is great action behind the word! Grace is an electrifying, mobile doctrine, empowering a human to live none other than Christ. This remarkable doctrine, when grasped by the believer, creates a pivotal paradigm shift; he/she begins to live the one life starkly contrasted from the rest of the world.

Grace is oftentimes mistaken as a dangerous concept leading toward lawlessness. The thought pattern becomes "grace in moderation." The Christian stumbles over a rift between grace and holy living, deciphering the two as extremes. This supposition results in a grave misunderstanding of grace, Christ, and ourselves. We cannot live holy lives alone, before or after salvation. Humanity is born as lawlessness already; how then can we regress? The greater a person understands human nature, the greater God's grace is magnified. Grace is not against holy living, but it is the essential tool for holy living. Grace says, "You cannot do anything good, right, or pleasing to God because your very nature is not good, right, or pleasing, but my Son has already finished the holy life, and you now have it." We as humans cannot gain salvation apart from this undeserved favor from Jesus Christ. Likewise, we cannot sanctify our salvation apart from his enabling favor. By faith, my very life is not mine anymore; Jesus is the one walking, talking, and moving through me to reach a lost world.

Watchman Nee, a twentieth century Chinese Christian, poignantly explains in his classic, The Normal Christian Life, "If an earthly surgeon can take a piece of skin from one human body and graft it on another, cannot the divine Surgeon implant the life of his Son into me?... We cannot tell how God has done his work in us, but it is done. We can do nothing and need do nothing to bring it about, for by the resurrection God has already done it.

God has done everything. There is only one fruitful life in the world and that has been grafted into millions of other lives. It is not that my natural life has been changed at all; it is that another life, a life altogether new, altogether divine, has become my life."

By God's grace, we have exchanged lawlessness for righteousness, flesh for Christ. By belief in the finished life of the Son of God, we begin to walk in the Spirit, producing true life, love, and fruit. The Spirit of God now fulfills the Law in redeemed humanity and thankfully, we cannot do anything to bring that perfection about. This is the marvelous doctrine of God's abundant grace.

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