Grace! Grace!
Where does God’s work end and our work begin?
Where does God’s work end and our work begin? How far does His effort extend before it extends no further, and now it’s up to us?
We could boil such a thought down to a single question. Which do we give more preference to — God’s ability to call and complete or man’s ability to hear and respond?
The longer I walk with the Lord, the more I can testify to the certainty of His call. And I can confidently say, were it not for His iron grip around me, I would by no means be able to hold myself fast.
“He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.” (Ps. 121:3-5)
We find this principle laid out in Zechariah. The famous line in the fourth chapter, “not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,” is followed in the next verse by an account of workers who work with shouts of, “Grace! Grace!” — knowing it is not by their effort but according to His greatness and favor. No human might starts nor finishes the work.
Or what of the prophetic message in Haggai delivered to the people charged with rebuilding the temple, “My temple remains in ruins, thanks to each of you favoring his own house!” To which the response came, “the whole remnant of the people obeyed the Lord their God…they came and worked on the temple.” Yet, the verse begins with this statement, “So the Lord energized and encouraged Zerubbabel…Joshua…and the whole remnant of the people.” (Haggai 1:9, 12, 14) As the NET translators note, “It was God who initiated the rebuilding by providing the people with motivation and ability.”
1 Corinthians 3 makes it clear, “the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.” Those whose work endures, will receive a reward. Those whose work is burned up, will suffer loss. So what type of work will survive the testing? Only one type — the work initiated, empowered, and energized by God. The Grace! Grace! work.
For in this very same Corinthians passage, Paul begins, “According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation.” And later in Philippians, “It is God who works in you both to will and to do according to His good pleasure.”
And this is why we have this treasure in earthen vessels — so that it will be clear to all — the extraordinary power comes from and belongs to God, not us. We work, He compels and resources so that we desire to work and find growth coming from the work. We press on, He strengthens the weak legs and picks up the dangling arms to be able to press on. We respond in obedience with the meager offering we have, and He multiplies it.
Oh how small our efforts may seem at times — unimpressive, easily despised, outnumbered. Yet as one evangelist counseled to an anxious inquirer who had been hearing the devil’s taunts about being too insignificant to be worth anything to God, “You don’t have much, but bring what you have. Lay it all on the altar. Let Him make much of it.”
Do not make light of these paltry beginnings. Any work of Grace! Grace! must begin with a day of small things. Remember, God will not share His glory with another, and His grace lavishly poured out upon His people accomplishes just such an end.
Let us then ask sincerely, “What is grace?”
For this is one of those words which can mean everything and nothing at the same time, especially for those grown up around religious language.
In simple terms, grace means undeserved favor. For a fuller explanation, I turn to Roy Hession, from the intro to his book, “We Would See Jesus.”
In the New Testament grace is not a blessing or an influence from God which we receive, but rather an attribute of God which governs His attitude to man, and can be defined as the undeserved love and favour of God. The whole essence of grace is that it is undeserved. The moment we have to do something to make ourselves more acceptable to God, or the moment we have to have a certain feeling or attribute of character in order to be blessed of God, then grace is no more grace.
Grace permits us to come (nay, demands that we come) as empty sinners to be blessed, empty of right feelings, good character, and satisfactory record, with nothing to commend ourselves but our deep need, fully and frankly acknowledged. Then grace, being what it is, is drawn by that need to satisfy it, just as water is drawn to depth that it might fill it.
This means that when at last we are content to find no merit nor procuring cause in ourselves, and are willing to admit the full extent of our sinfulness, then there is no limit to what God will do for the poor who look to Him in their nothingness.
If what we receive from God is dependent, even to a small extent, on what we are or do, then the most we can expect is but an intermittent trickle of blessing. But if what we are to receive is to be measured by the grace of God quite apart from works, then there is only one word that adequately describes what He pours upon us, the word which so often is linked with grace in the New Testament, ‘abundance’!
The struggle, of course, is to believe it and to be willing to be but empty sinners to the end of our days, that grace may continue to match our needs.
When we come to the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father’s full giving has only begun.
His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.This, then, is grace and this is God! What a melting vision this gives us of Him!
In practice
How do we begin to walk out this Grace! Grace! lifestyle? We must start by coming to terms with four conclusions:
It is all by grace and I rejoice in it
It is all by grace and I give this as my answer to a watching, wondering world
It is all by grace and I confess my need of it, asking and waiting for His supply
When I am tempted to despair at delay or defeat, in the face of my weakness, I remember the foundation upon which this work was built and upon which it stands, and by which it will prevail — it is all by Grace! Grace!
Today, let us embrace Grace! Grace! and go out into the fields, highways, and country roads with shouts of Grace! Grace! and come home after our day’s labor with momentarily tired yet eternally hopeful cries of Grace! Grace! until the day our ultimate satisfaction comes, when we see Him face to face, and confess with joyful weeping Grace! Grace! All glory to Your Grace! Grace!
In love,
Derek