A Full Life in Grace
I will pour on the house of David, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn. — Zechariah 12:10
But these things don't count; nor do I hold my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to fully testify to the Gospel of the grace of God. — Acts 20:24
Author
Faustino de Jesús Zamora Vargas
Summary: God reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and gave us life with him even when we walked in disobedience. We have received grace that sustains us and is sufficient, yet we still struggle to understand and share it. A full life in Christ cannot be indifferent to hunger and suffering: our witness must make the gospel visible through compassion and concrete help. We are instruments through whom others can find that same grace. We need conviction and perseverance to remain in Christ, the source of all grace, and to extend a hand to others with what we have received.
A Spirit of grace has been poured out upon the people of God. The gospel of grace is God’s plan to reconcile us to Himself through His Son Jesus Christ. God has given us life together with Christ despite the fact that we walked in disobedience, confused and wounded, even to the point of death, by our many sins.
We have found favor in God’s eyes, and yet we still struggle to look ahead and bear solemn witness to the new life received through God’s promised offering.
The theme of the Savior of the world appears from the beginning of the Old Testament as the perfect sacrifice for human sin, fulfilled on the cross. We have found grace, and still we do not understand it! A Spirit of grace sustains us, lifts us up, and ought to move us to share that grace with others. We have found grace before God, but it is as though a temporary blindness keeps us from seeing that we are the Lord’s instruments through whom others may find the same grace.
We share in the same grace in which the heroes of faith found favor before God (Heb 11), the very same grace in which Christ found favor before the Father, yet we do not know how to restrain our impulses, and we struggle to understand that it is sufficient. How many children die each day from the bomb of hunger? How many fathers and mothers manage to take scraps from the leftovers of opulence to put a crust of bread in their stomachs and feed their children? Such is the way of the world: some have God but remain selfish and indifferent to human suffering, while others are without God because, for some reason, they cannot find the solemn witness of the gospel of grace in the “dolce vita” of many Christians today. We have received grace freely; does it not make sense to give of that grace so that the world may believe?
A life of fullness in Christ is lived to give of the grace we have received. Many would come to the feet of Jesus if we cultivated grace in the ever-green garden of the gospel and offered a simple flower of compassion to everyone who passes us in search of something better. Look around you and you will see souls thirsting for a better life. We have all received a ministry from the Lord so that we may bear good witness, and yet we do not give it. Or could it be that we do not have it? Does no one see even a little bit of Christ in our lives? I do not believe that. We simply lack conviction, boldness, and even a little nobility in the way we live as Christians; we need to persevere and remain in Him, who is the source of all grace.
Today can be a great day; all it takes is reaching out to others with a handful of the grace we have received, and Jesus will smile at you once more.
God bless you!