How Do You Treat Grace?

by Pastor Ron Isam

Click Here for PDF copy of February 2010 Volume 12 Issue 2 Newsletter

I hope you are not getting tired of grace yet. It is a full subject and there are many aspects we need to discover. So, be patient with me in the journey.

In Galatians the Apostle Paul comes to this place where he just makes a powerful statement. Look at it with me from:Galatians 2:21

I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make

us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

Just before this passage Paul says that trying to keep the law condemned him. So, he said “I died to the law.” In the passage he tells us “if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there is no need for Christ to die.”

Wow! Is he saying then, that if we try to keep the law, on our own, we are making the death of Christ of no use or value?

Well—Yes— that is what he is saying. If we try to live out our life on our own and keep the righteous requirements of the law by our own strength. Why then do we need Jesus and His work on the cross? Just to say He did it? Of course not!

It is only through the power of the cross that we can become right with God. It is what Jesus did plus nothing. No works, no earning it, no trying to become righteous on our own. We just cannot get holy or more right with God by ourselves. It is only by His wonderful grace.

That is why Paul says at the first of this passage in Galatians “I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless.“

Some translations write it as “I do not frustrate the grace of God.” another translation says “I do not set aside the grace of God.”

The words here in the Greek means: To set aside, to disesteem, neutralize or violate. To despise or reject.

I am not sure I know many people who do this intentionally. However, when we resist the message of grace, or if we try to become righteous by our own actions in any way, we do exactly what this passage tells us Paul does not do.

Now if there was ever an expert on the law it was this Apostle. However, once he received the message of grace, not from man, but on the back side of “Arabia” by the revelation of Jesus Christ. He was convinced of our need for grace.

Please take a moment right now to read Galatians 1:11-17. May we become as convinced of the need for grace as the Apostle. This truth of grace must become more than a religious phrase we recite. It must become the way we live each day with one another.