BE STRONG IN THE GRACE THAT IS IN CHRIST JESUS
It was this grace or free love which first began with you, and with which you began. It was this which you at first ‘apprehended,’ or rather, which ‘apprehended’ you; and your special character is that of men who ‘know the grace of God’ (Col 1:6); who have ‘tasted that the Lord is gracious’ (1 Pet 2:3); men on whom God has had compassion (Rom 9:15); men to whom He has shown His forgiving love. Such is your name.
This grace of God is your strength, as it is your joy; and it is only by abiding in it that you can really live the life of the redeemed. Be strong, then, in this grace; draw your joy out of it; and beware how you turn to anything else for refreshment, or comfort, or holiness. Though a believing man, you are still a sinner; a sinner to the last; and, as such, nothing can suit you but the free love of God. Be strong in it. Remember that you are saved by believing, not by doubting. Be not then a doubter, but a believer. Draw continually on Christ and His fullness for this grace. If at any time you are beguiled away from it, return to it without delay; and betake yourself to it again just as you did at the first. To recover lost peace, go back to where you got it at first; begin your spiritual life all over again: get at once to the resting-place. Where sin has abounded, let grace much more abound. Do not go back to your feelings, or experiences, or evidences, in order to extract from them a renewal of your lost peace. Go straight back to the free love of God. You found peace in it at first; you will find peace in it to the last. This was the beginning of your confidence; let it be both last and first.
This abounding grace, rightly understood, will not make you sin; it will not relax morality or make inconsistency a trifle. It will magnify sin and enhance its evil in your eyes. Your footing or ‘standing’ in grace (Rom 5:2) will be the strongest, as well as most blessed, that you can ever occupy. If your feet be ‘shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace’ (Eph 6:15), you will be able to ‘stand’ and to ‘withstand’; not otherwise. Remember how Paul and Barnabas urged this upon the Jews of Antioch, ‘persuading them to continue in the grace of God’ (Acts 13:43; Gal 5:4; Titus 2:11; 1 Peter 5:12).
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