Rejoicing in God's Grace

Philippians 4:4-7 ESV

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Have you ever tried looking up this word “rejoice” in a Greek interlinear? Literally it means to experience God’s grace (favor), to be glad for his grace, and to delight in God’s grace. And his grace is a gift and a blessing brought to man by Jesus Christ. It is his favor, his kindness towards us. It is Jesus disposed to show us favor and to share benefit. This is the Lord Jesus freely extending himself to give himself away to people in order to bless them.

So, why did Jesus give himself away for us? Why did he go to that cross? What is his grace to us? For if we are going to be glad for his grace, it is important that we understand what that grace is. For there are many distortions and perversions of God’s grace being spread throughout the body of Christ these days, at least here in America. And far too many people are believing these distortions instead of the truth of God’s grace.

So, again, why did Jesus go to that cross? The Bible teaches us that Jesus died that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, and that we might now live for him and no longer for ourselves. The Scriptures teach that Jesus shed his blood for us in order to buy us back for God (to redeem us) out of our slavery to sin so that we will now honor God with our bodies. And they teach us that, via his death, we can be delivered from slavery to sin so that we will now serve the Lord with our lives in walks of obedience to him.

[1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:15; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Romans 6:1-23]

And the Bible teaches us that God’s grace, which is bringing us salvation, trains us to renounce (to say “No!” to) ungodliness and fleshly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for our Lord’s return. For Jesus Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works (see Titus 2:11-14; cf. Ephesians 2:10).

So, does God’s grace give us permission to keep living in deliberate and habitual sin? No! Heaven forbid! For how can we who died to sin still live in it? For we who died with Christ to sin were buried with Christ by baptism (spiritually speaking) into death, and we were raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. So we are not to let sin still reign in our bodies to make us obey its passions. For if sin is what we obey, it will lead to death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it will end in eternal life (see Romans 6:1-23).

So, we are to be thankful for God’s grace to us, and to be glad for his grace. And then we are to let our reasonableness (or gentleness) be known to everyone. So this has to do with fairness, with justice, with gentleness (meekness), and with reasonableness, which has to do with what is sensible, rational, practical, realistic, wise, of sound judgment, appropriate, and of common sense, too, as long as all of that agrees with God and with his word. For all of this is to be measured by the word of God.

And then we are not to worry or to be fearful, but we are to take all of our requests to God. And then we must trust him with our lives and with our circumstances and with the other people in our lives. We must trust him even when things don’t go as we had planned or as we had hoped, and even when they go badly and may even turn against us. And then when our trust is in the Lord and not in other or people and not in ourselves and not in our circumstances, the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds in Christ.

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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