When I was meditating the Word of God, in Acts 13:42-43, where the new believers who had come into Christ, urged them to continue in the Grace of God. So that prompted me to meditate more on Continuing in Grace of God.
'As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath. When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. ' Acts 13:42-43
Before we understand “Continuing in Grace” let’s understand what Grace is
What is Grace?
We hear many Christians’ sayings, by Grace of God we did that. What do we really mean by grace?
In Christian terms, Grace can be generally defined as “God’s favour toward the unworthy” or “God’s benevolence on the undeserving.” In his Grace, God is willing to forgive us and bless us, even though we fall short of living righteously.
To make it easy to understand, we have laws given to us as 10 Commandments in Old Testament Exodus 20:1-17, all the laws were given to us to follow. it must be followed with no exception, but we fall short of these commandments everyday / every min and once we fall short this becomes a sin for which we need to pay a price for. Our Lord Jesus because of the love he had for us, that no one should perish in the world due to Sin, he took himself on the cross and by the power of his cross we are given grace freely. Whether we sin knowingly / Unknowingly, this is given to us a chance that we may repent and overcome Sin.
This is explained well in John 1:16-17
'Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ' John 1:16-17
The law emphasized God’s divine standards and our inability to meet his standards, while grace rescues fallen humanity from deserved punishment. The law pinpoints the problem, and grace fixes the problem. Paul Explains this well in Romans 5:20-21
'The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.' Romans 5:20-21
Grace has been given to us freely by God to defeat Sin and turn away from the sinful life, The wage of Sin is death. Romans 6:23 says “Gift of God” refers to the grace he has given to us thru which we are saved to have an Eternal life with Christ.
'For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.' Romans 6:23
Continuing in grace
While we have Grace to help overcome sin, what most of us do is we knowingly or unknowing do some actions that makes us continue in sin and we continue to seek God’s grace. Remember we have been given grace to help overcome sin, but we take advantage of this grace and take sin lightly. Can we say we do keep on sinning and will grace be given more to us? No, God’s grace does not work that way. Grace is given to us to repent and overcome Sin, Grace is not given to us to abuse God’s grace, if that’s the case Christ death and resurrection will become meaningless, Paul answers this question well in Romans 6:1-2,15
'What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! ' Romans 6:1-2,15
Grace is given only to those who accept Jesus as the Lord and Saviour, Grace is not given to those who are not in Christ.
We must understand this when it comes to calling yourself a believer or Christian, we have come out of Adam (full of Sinful nature) and now after we accept Jesus we are in Christ. Paul says (Romans 6:12) it is absurd to think you can go back and live like you used to live on your own Sinful ways
We receive grace and we continue to Sin again and again due to two reasons
What we do is we tend to use our human desires to go back to live a worldly life and there is a constant struggle of avoiding the sin as our body is designed in weakness to sin.
Even after we walk with Grace, many times we find hard to get away with Sins of Life, that’s because Satan, tricks us to believe now you can fight Sin. But the fact is we are weak to fight Sin on our Own, and we are trapped in the Sinful desires to do this Sin again. Say if you have Anger Issues, one day after you receive the Grace you can fight successfully, but he provokes more to fight against anger by throwing into a new situation where you fail because your ticked to assume you can fight the Anger like how it was earlier.
This is where continuing in Grace comes to play, it’s as important as beginning in grace. We must never leave it as the basic principle of our relationship with God. Many Christians think of grace as the introduction to the Christian life, but God wants grace to remain as the foundation for our life with Him.
Romans 6:13-14 explains on continuing in grace
'Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace. ' Romans 6:13-14
1st Lesson - The body is the vehicle through which sin is accomplished, and so therefore, it depends on who is running me on the inside. Behind every man is a spirit, and behind every spirit is either God (Holy Spirit) or the devil (Evil). So, don’t yield the members of your body anymore, that’s what Paul says “'Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness”
2nd Very Important Spiritual lesson - don’t focus on the sin! Focus on Jesus our Saviour who has conquered the sin! and learn to train your senses to line up under Him. Put yourself where you can be influenced by the Spirit of God and not influenced by the flesh. This is the answer to continuing in Grace
3rd Lesson - You must remember that having victory over the flesh cannot be done in your power; it must be done by God’s Holy spirit, because the victory comes only thru him to Conquer Sin. But the only way we access it is by faith. It’s in His power, not in ours.
So how do you focus on Him
Quite Time with Lord - Therefore, it’s so important to have a quiet time. It just helps you start your day by putting yourself in the right place. Then all day long you begin to fellowship with Him. That’s all it is, It’s just a discipline. Slowly the Spirit of God thru his wisdom, will show you the way you should avoid the traps of Sin and move away from it.
Daily Prayer - What prayer is and what scriptures are and what praise is all about is the atmosphere we put ourselves in so that we can be drawn closer and so that the Spirit now can be accommodated instead of accommodating the flesh. That is what Paul is saying in Romans 6.
When you pray first thing in morning, you are saying to God you are my 1st priority in life, and he will fight the battles that comes your way with the Continuing Grace of God.
Depend on Him, trust him with your heart and soul to find a solution to your issue, remember he is more powerful than anyone in the whole universe.
Don’t focus on defeating the sin, instead turn to God and thru his power you will defeat the sins of your flesh, with this you get to continuing in grace of God.
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