Grace Abounding

Have you ever find a certain sin sticking to your life like old gum on your shoe sole? You wonder how God’s power at the cross can be unleashed in your life to free you from that sin and cause you to please God.

So often I get sidetracked into trying to please God with my own righteous deeds as a Christian. But I’ll never be able to please God. If I fight that besetting sin in my life by just trying harder to obey Him, I can’t succeed. Even diligently pursuing the means of grace (prayer, meditating on the Word, fellowship with the body) isn’t an avenue to pleasing God by my efforts. I’ll always fall short of God’s expectations.

Enter Christ. I remind my self daily of that little phrase, “in Christ.” This short phrase from Scripture reminds me that since I am united to Christ through faith, God sees Christ instead of me, so I appear before God with Christ’s righteousness, holiness, and faithfulness! When Christ hung on the cross, I was hanging there so God’s wrath against me for that sin was exhausted. When Christ died and rose from the dead, it was me that was dying so that sin could never touch me again; when he rose, I rose out of reach from that sin’s compelling authority. When Christ reached out his merciful hands to serve the needy and sick, they were my hands! So God is infinitely pleased with me already because I am “in Christ,” Christ’s infinite righteousness replaces my inconsistent record.

So instead of serving in my own strength to meet God’s standards, I free to serve out of sheer delight and amazement at God’s kindness through Christ. His immeasurable giving through Christ spurns me on to do whatever he calls. It’s not my duty to obey that I recall, it’s his incredible kindness that motivates me. Remembering you’re “in Christ” is what unleashes God’s sanctifying power in our lives.