He Says You Are Blessed

Many Christians won’t admit it, but deep down they believe God’s grace is too good to be true. They think it buys them too much freedom, so they hold on to their sense of works because they are convinced it is the only thing that will keep them on a righteous path.

Paul anticipated this thinking, which ends in dead works: “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed” (Romans 6:15-17, ESV).

What is the teaching Paul refers to here? It is that we are now owned by the grace of Jesus Christ! Thus, we no longer continue sinning as we did before because that is no longer our identity. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Finally, Paul says, “Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4).

The new life we have been given, the life of Christ himself, resurrects us to serve him in freedom, peace and joy. Unshackled from exhausting works of obligation, we now can shout with David, “Lord, I delight to do your will!” We can’t help but witness about Jesus to a world that is hungry, desperate, starved for his grace. In a word, grace produces results.

Friend, you can’t wring life out of something that’s dead. Only Jesus has the power to resurrect our old, dead man into new life. That kind of grace is incomprehensible, so far beyond our understanding that we will never fully grasp it in this life. Likewise, we’ll never be able to attain it on our own. Will you lay down your scales and walk in the new life Jesus has graced you with? He has already spoken his blessing over you, so receive it!