Certainly all alert theological students realize that living under grace doesn’t mean an absence of God’s moral demands. It also doesn’t mean a life free of spiritual responsibilities. On the contrary, it involves the incredible demand and responsibility to love as Christ has loved us (Jn. 13:34).
God’s Character and Heart
In every age, the most important thing to know about is the character and heart of God. A simple verse of Scripture has been used of God to color my understanding of the Bible. This verse is Deuteronomy 10:13. It states that all of God’s commandments are ultimately designed for the good of His people. His demands and commandments are a reflection of His goodness.
One does not have to be afraid of what God asks them to do. Every negative command is for our protection. Every positive command is His finger pointing out the safest and best path for us to walk.
God’s Goodness and Grace
God’s goodness is behind all of His commands and so is His enablement. God can be trusted to provide the motivation and enablement for all that He calls and requires one to be and to do. If God were only a God who gave commands and not the encouragement and power to do them, one could never love that God from their heart. He could only be viewed as One who delights in programming failure in their life.
What is the scriptural basis for the truth that God can be trusted to provide the motivation and enablement for all that He requires of one? One of the provisions of the new covenant is the gracious enablement of the Spirit who prompts and enables the believer to obey God’s statutes (Ezek. 36:27). The New Testament makes it clear that the church shares in this provision of the New Covenant.
One of the privileges of being a son or daughter of God is the leading of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:14). What is the leading of the Spirit? It is the continual motivating and enabling influence of the Spirit that Paul speaks of in Philippians 2:13. The demand of Philippians 2:12 is followed by the provisions of God’s continual work in the believer to motivate and to enable. This truth is presented in many ways in Scripture, and one way was Jesus’ teaching about the branch abiding in the Vine (Jn. 15:5).
God’s goodness and God’s grace are behind all of His demands on the believer. The motivation and enablement of God presented in Philippians 2:13 is referred to as God’s grace. This is clearly the meaning of grace in 1 Corinthians 15:10. It was the secret and dynamic behind all of Paul’s labor.
If you were to have asked the apostle Paul if he felt like being good or godly, I believe that he would have told you that many if not most days he did not. If you were to have asked him if he even felt like getting up every day, he probably would tell you that many days he did not. However, as he took steps of obedient faith, God continually provided the necessary motivation and enablement for him.
Paul openly shared his “secret” with others. He told Timothy that he too could be strengthened by God’s grace for all the demands upon him (2 Tim. 2:1). This truth is in no way limited to Paul, for John testified that this grace which finds its source in Christ could never be exhausted (Jn. 1:16). You will never have any God-given responsibility that His grace is not sufficient to motivate and enable you to fulfill.
Striving According to His Power
It is fairly easy to grasp intellectually what has been written in this article. It is quite another matter to experience actually what Paul referred to as “striving” according to His power (Col. 1:29). One naturally has the mindset of self effort and the making of resolutions which will result in failure in God’s eyes (Jn. 15:5). This eventually results in a frustration that leads to an honest questioning of whether the Christian life is really possible to live. This frustration and utter sense of need is totally necessary in order to accept that what you must do is impossible without God’s enablement. The admission of need is prerequisite for the appropriation of God’s motivating and enabling grace. This is part of what James means when he says that God gives grace to the humble (Jas. 4:6).
Pride
Pride is an attitude of independence from God’s authority. A point of pride may be any point of resistance to God. Such an attitude hinders the experience of God’s enablement. God can allow providential help that aids one to experience more of God’s power or enabling grace. Such is Paul’s testimony in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. Only this perspective can give one a contentment with the five realities mentioned in 2 Corinthians 12:10.
These scriptural truths are not learned only once, but they seem to have to be continually rediscovered in deeper ways. Whatever you current state, it is comforting to know that you can look to God today to encourage you and give you the grace to persevere and not give up. Let the truth of Romans 15:5 be a daily reality.
God’s commandments are not burdensome. They are not burdensome because God’s goodness is behind them. The practical experience of the light load that Jesus promised in Matthew 11:28-30 demands an experiential understanding of God’s grace.