365 Daily Devotions Day by Daay by Grace by Bob Hoekstra speak of grace, of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Romans 6:14 tells us how God has arranged for people to get out from under the domination of sin to establish a relationship with Him and to develop a life of fellowship and service with Him. “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
It is the grace of God at work on our behalf that sets us free from both the condemnation and the bondage of sin. Many of us have often behaved as if the law of God were designed to do such. This can easily happen if we do not heed what the scriptures have to say about the fundamental aspects of law and grace.
The law of God can be summarized in two words, “be holy” (Leviticus 19:2 and 1 Peter 1:16). The standard of this holiness is the holy character of God. As Jesus clarified and intensified the message of the law in the Sermon on the Mount, He also summarized the law in two words, “be perfect” (Matthew 5:48). The standard of this perfection is the perfect character of God (“as your Father in heaven is perfect”).
The law of God demands godly perfection. However, it is unable to provide what it demands, “for the law made nothing perfect” (Hebrews 7:19). God’s law cannot bring us a perfect standing before God.
Now the question is, how are the demands of the law fulfilled in us, both initially and continually? They are ultimately met in our lives by faith in Jesus Christ, who came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17).
How do we live by God’s grace? Does it mean that we do nothing but “float along in a spiritual hammock of passivity”? Not at all! We become fully involved in living by grace. However, our involvement develops through ways and means that God has ordained, ways that man would never have imagined. Two matters in particular are strategic in living by grace: humility and faith.
The other key factor is faith. Romans 5:2 speaks of Jesus Christ, “through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” The spiritual ground upon which we stand in Christ is a realm of grace, abundant grace. “And of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace” (John 1:16).
365 Daily Devotions Day by Daay by Grace
The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
Grace upon grace in our lives
The magnitude of God´s grace
Under grace, not law
One summary message of the law: Be Holy
Another Summary message of the law: Be loving
One more summary message of the law: Be perfect
Not hearing the law
The inability of the law
The inability of the law to Justify
The inability of the law to sanctify
The general ability of the law
The law producing accountability for sin
The law tutoring people to Christ
Jesus fulfilling the law
Righteousness through Christ in justification
Righteousness through Christ in sanctification
Law and grace, old covenant and new covenant
The promise of a new covenant
The New Covenant inaugurated for the church
The new and living way
Living as servants of the new covenant
Other ways to describe new covenant living
New Covenant provided by the blood of Christ
