Accepting God’s Provision
Susan Barnes
“We, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.” Galatians 2:16 NIV
I find many Christians read the Bible with the intention of discovering the “right thing to do” in every situation as if they are justified by their own efforts.
As a young Christian, I certainly thought this.
I’m not sure if it was ever expressed in the churches I went to, or whether it came from my sense of justice, that is ingrained in human nature.
We rightly feel good behaviour should be rewarded and bad behaviour punished.
We are angry if criminals receive a light sentence.
We are distressed when good people become innocent victims.
Even with ourselves, we feel that our good works should nullify our bad behaviour.
When people are shown grace, it disrupts our sense of justice and while justice is a good thing, it can make accepting God’s provision of grace difficult.
We completely underestimate the seriousness of our misdeeds if we think we can balance them out with good deeds.
It leads us to believe we only require a little of God’s grace.
It’s only when we stop comparing ourselves with others, and compare ourselves with God’s holiness, that we have any idea of the enormous gap between our righteousness and his.
The problem isn’t that God won’t freely give us as much grace as necessary, but rather that so many believe their need isn’t that great.
Let’s acknowledge our great need of God’s grace and accept his abundant provision.
Susan Barnes - pursuing a life worth writing about. Contact
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