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Growing in Grace & Responsibility


The Cross is all about payment in full for sins. So, having been redeemed, what does God want us to do? Live as we please? Of course not. We are now to live as He pleases and we’re able to because of grace.

I found it interesting in my study that the Puritans refer to this changed life as “the power of new affections.” Interestingly, they built that thought around a species of the live oak tree that does something very interesting with its leaves. It clings to them even after they die. The leaves are dead, the twig is brittle, there’s nothing green in there, just dead, no sap.

Well, how come they come off? Well, it’s when new life surges up through this branch that they fall off, they’re forced off. Up comes this new life and ultimately that leaf will just drop off because there’s a new affection that comes and removes the old.

That’s part of the Christian life as grace overwhelms us with respect for God. And overwhelmed by His love and grace, we don’t want to do the old affections, the bad deeds. We want to do good deeds. We begin to do them and the old drops off and the new begins to emerge with life, colour, and beauty. You live your life so grateful and so thrilled with the new life that’s come, that a lot of the old stuff that enraptured us at one time doesn’t interest us nearly as much.

People are told in churches all around the world, “Here’s the list, here’s what you live by. This is what I consider godly and you go with it.” And the only reason they do is out of fear that the leader is going to find out they’re not going with it. That’s legalism.

But when grace comes and we speak it and exhort others and reprove them with authority, you know what happens? Growth occurs, a maturity develops, and the sheer love you have for your Saviour pushes out the stuff that has no business being there and makes room for the growth that could never have been there without Christ.

 

 


Charles R. Swindoll, adapted from “Tough Grace” in the Tough Grace in Difficult Places message series.

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By Chuck Swindoll