God’s Grace – Page 3 – Being a Pilgrim

“But everyone knows that you are obedient to the Lord. This makes me very happy. I want you to be wise in doing right and to stay innocent of any wrong. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.”
Romans 16:19-20 NLT

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you”, Paul concludes. What a lovely thought to leave with the Roman believers. The word “grace” means favour, blessings and kindness. But the sobering thought is that because of our sin we deserve the opposite. That God chooses to bless us through His grace inevitably must bring us to our knees in grateful worship. We read Ephesians 2:8, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.” We don’t deserve fellowship and life with God, because He is a sinless and pure Being, whereas we are sinful and impure. But the fact is that Jesus took on Himself the punishment that we deserved for our sins and in return He gave us His righteousness, so that rather than see sinful humans, God sees Jesus. That’s divine grace!

Paul’s prayer about the grace of the Lord being with us means that we must be gracious in our relationships with others. Our selfish behaviour often upsets other people. Other people’s selfish behaviour often upsets us. But as we extend the grace of God to others, two things have an opportunity to happen. Firstly, God will be able to reveal Himself through our kindness. Secondly, as we share God’s grace, we too will experience His kindness within us. Paul wrote that we must even “clothe” ourselves in grace. Colossians 3:12, “Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience”.

Another area of grace comes in forgiveness. In Colossians 3:13, Paul wrote, “Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others”. That’s grace.

There is a lovely gracious blessing that the Lord instructed Moses to give to the priests. We read in Numbers 6:23-27, “Tell Aaron and his sons to bless the people of Israel with this special blessing: ‘May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you his favour and give you his peace.’ Whenever Aaron and his sons bless the people of Israel in my name, I myself will bless them.”

This is how God’s grace works – He has poured it out on us so that we can do the same to those around us. We can’t show God’s grace unless we have received it ourselves. So when Paul issued the greeting “May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you” he was praying that the grace we receive through Jesus would enhance and improve every day of our lives. Thank You Lord!

Dear Father God. Your grace is limitless and eternal. May it transform our lives and the communities where we live. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

“Yet I dare not boast about anything except what Christ has done through me, bringing the Gentiles to God by my message and by the way I worked among them. They were convinced by the power of miraculous signs and wonders and by the power of God’s Spirit. In this way, I have fully presented the Good News of Christ from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum.”
Romans 15:18-19 NLT

Boasting is usually an objectionable trait. I’m sure we have all met a person who doesn’t stop “blowing his own trumpet” about his achievements, his lovely garden, his latest car, his sporting prowess, his … All things that are materialistic or worldly, and relatively unimportant in the Kingdom of God. Boasting is a form of pride, which is a sin. Solomon, thought to be the person who wrote Proverbs, recorded the following, “Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). But Paul confessed to being a boaster, about something far more significant. His testimony was impressive. He could talk about the wonderful things that God had done, by “bringing the Gentiles to God”.

Paul had much to boast about. In 2 Corinthians 11, we read about Paul’s concern that the Corinthian church was being corrupted by false apostles. These were people who claimed to be just as good as Paul, but he accused them of delivering error, as we read in 2 Corinthians 11:4, “You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed”. Paul was quite scathing about these people. About his message he wrote, “But I will continue doing what I have always done. This will undercut those who are looking for an opportunity to boast that their work is just like ours. These people are false apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:12-14). He went on, “And since others boast about their human achievements, I will, too” (2 Corinthians 11:18). Referring to the false apostles, Paul went on, “ … But whatever they dare to boast about—I’m talking like a fool again—I dare to boast about it, too” (2 Corinthians 11:21b).

Paul then went on to list all the privations and danger that he had experienced while disseminating the message of God’s Good News. And then he finished this list with, “If I must boast, I would rather boast about the things that show how weak I am” (2 Corinthians 11:30). We turn the page to the next chapter and read about an experience he said he could boast about. 2 Corinthians 12:1, “This boasting will do no good, but I must go on. I will reluctantly tell about visions and revelations from the Lord”. His visit to the third Heaven (where God and His angels live) must have been so amazing that it would have done his street cred no harm at all. But he wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:5, “That experience is worth boasting about, but I’m not going to do it. I will boast only about my weaknesses”. We know of course what Paul’s weakness was – he wrote, ” … So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me” (2 Corinthians 12:7b-9).

Paul was kept from being conceited by having to dependent on Jesus. But in it all he directed the glory to God. His life was totally sold out for Jesus. He didn’t boast about his tent making skills, or the number of miles he walked every day. His boasting was a testimony of God’s grace and love and the power of the Holy Spirit. At every opportunity we too should “boast” about what God has done in our lives. Our testimonies of God’s saving grace surely count for much and will shine as bright as a beacon in this sad and dark generation.

Father God. You have done so much for us, but please forgive us for holding back on speaking out our testimonies of Your love and grace. Please lead us to the right person today, so that we can give them too the opportunity of sharing what You have done for them. In Jesus’ name. Amen.