Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria Grace for Living Devotional Saturday October 21, 2023 TOPIC: ABUSE OF GRACE

BIBLE READING:

ROMANS 6:1-6

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  

KEY VERSE:

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” Romans 6:1  

MEDITATION:

The subject of ‘Grace’ is one of the most abused in the church in our generation. The word Grace should not be some celestial ‘catch-all’ to allow us to mess up, and then say, “God’s grace covers me.” Personal responsibility and accountability has a place in Christianity. God’s grace makes our spiritual growth and “perfection” possible. We say that God buries the old man and gives us a new nature (and its true), but then, sadly, many engage in most of their old sins or creatively come up with new ones. For many of us in the church, our supposed “new man” looks and acts an awful lot like our old one. What a tragedy!  

When we are saved, Jesus’ holiness becomes ours, but that is not the end of the story; we have an obligation to actively pursue holy living. There are two parts to holiness: imputed (taking on Christ’s holiness) and imparted (growing in holiness). Both must be in operation in every true believer’s life.  

If we aren’t thus desiring to be made into the image of the Living Christ intentionally and deliberately daily, can we truly say that we are His? We must know His Word to obey it. Many in the church know more about the people in the entertainment world than we do about God’s Word. The grace of God that saves us also teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world (Titus 2:12).  

Are you a slave to sin or righteousness?  

PRAYER:

Lord, please help me not to abuse your grace over my life.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:

ISAIAH 58-60, 1 THESSAOLONIANS 2