Sneak attack!

So you’re just sitting there, minding your own business, reading that passage you’ve read more times than you can count.  Suddenly, BAM!! A verse pops out and smacks you upside the head, demanding your undivided attention.  You stop.  You read the verse again.  It’s like you’ve never seen it before.  You read it again and begin to mull it over.  You think about the verse as a whole.  You think about each word.  You go back and read the verses before it.  You read ahead to the verses after it.  And then you sit quietly, thinking it over and marveling at how a verse you’ve surely read many times before suddenly becomes so significant.

Yes, that’s exactly what happened to me yesterday.  I started a new reading plan the other day and I’m in Genesis – a book I’ve read through at least a dozen times.  So why did a verse that’s just been sitting there all this time, there in chapter 4, suddenly jump out at me?  I have no idea, but because I’m sure you’re curious now, this is the verse that grabbed my attention:

If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.  ~Genesis 4:7

It was that last part, I think, that got me…

Sin wants us.  It wants us to slip up and do exactly what we know we shouldn’t do.  Sin wants us to do whatever it is that will ensure that our actions do not bring glory to God.  Sin wants to trap us, wrap us up and not let us go.  Sin wants to make us miserable.

And we must master it.

How do we master sin?  We don’t give it a chance to get even a toe in the door of our hearts.  The Bible tells us to not give devil a foothold (Ephesians 5:25-27).  Selfish anger is a foothold.  It tells us to resist (James 4:7-10).  Submission to God is resistance to sin.  It tells us to throw it off and run (Hebrews 12:1-3).  Focusing on Christ gives us something to run toward as we run away from sin.

God’s grace gives us everything we need to master sin.  And His mercy is there for the times we let sin master us.

God wants us.  He wants us to stay strong and do exactly what we know we should do.  God wants our actions to point others to Him and bring Him glory.  God wants to free us, release us from sin’s bondage and let us go out into the world as a shining light and a sprinkle of salt.  God wants to make us holy. 

Someday, we will be holy.  We will be as God intended us to be all along.  Because of Christ, we will live forever in the glorified, sanctified bodies that we long for with every breath.  Until then, we must cling to the One who holds our hope.  Because when we’re clinging to our Savior, sin has no power over us.  Thanks be to God!

What verse has jumped out at you recently?  What did it teach you about God or yourself?

 

The full result of grace

A friend of mine is spending the summer exploring, taking apart and mulling over the idea of grace.  I’m not sure what started her down that path, but it’s got me thinking about it too.  There’s a verse that always jumps out at me when I pass it.  Sometimes it makes me smile.  Sometimes it makes me sad.

The law was added so that the trespass might increase.  But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.  ~Romans 5:20

Why it makes me smile: Often, I read this verse and am relieved that no matter what I’ve done, God’s grace covers it.  The verses before this one are talking about how Adam sinned and as a result, the entire human race is sinful but because Jesus was righteous, we too can be made righteous in God’s eyes.  God’s grace given to us through Christ is stronger than the power of sin.  Sin is our legacy.  Grace is our inheritance.

Why it makes me sad:  This verse reminds me of all the times I’ve deliberately sinned.  I have looked at a temptation and said, “Sure, why not?  I can do that and still be forgiven.”  I have taken advantage of grace.  I have trampled grace.  But even in those moments, “grace increased all the more”.  We can not out-sin grace.  But I admit that there have been times in my life when I’ve tried. 

The beauty of grace is that it is always there, ready to envelop our sin.  When we’re willing to fall on our faces before our righteous God and confess that we have failed once again, He stands there, holding the blanket of grace, waiting to pick us up and wrap it around us. 

The full result of grace is that we are no longer subject to the full result of sin.  Sin brings guilt, shame, death and separation from God.  Grace, on the other hand, brings relief, freedom, and a life lived in relationship with God.  The full result of grace will always be stronger than the full result of sin.  Praise be to God!

What have you learned recently about grace?  How would you describe grace to someone who’s never heard of it?