Living in Grace is Tough

While living under the Law is impossible, it taunts us as something that we could someday achieve, much like the carrot leading a donkey. We get the illusion that it’s something we could do if we just tried harder. And after all, didn’t Jesus tell us to just try really, really hard? (No, he didn’t…)

The reason that living in Grace is tough is because we must relinquish control. Most of us (especially Type A personalities like myself) have a hard time letting someone else be in charge of things, especially major decisions in our lives. God made us to have free will (which, incidentally, led us to original sin). We struggle in this fallen world, and particularly in the Western world, to be independent, self-sufficient, and successful. Living in Grace requires us to do the complete opposite…submit to God.

God also designed us to be dependent on him. We were not created with the knowledge of good and evil. Instead of relying on our own knowledge of such things, God created us to trust in him and allow him to carry the burden of the knowledge of good and evil. As we see in Genesis chapters 2 and 3, God shared the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, speaking with them and walking through the garden. These chapters also show us that everything was provided for mankind. All that was required was for them to obey a single commandment, not to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We all know what happened next.

After eating the fruit, God’s Holy Spirit left Adam and Eve and no longer dwelled within them. Walking and living in Grace means accepting the Holy Spirit back into our lives, not only to restore the spiritual life we lost in Adam, but also to guide us with God’s wisdom.

When I was younger, I didn’t want the Holy Spirit in my life. I knew that I was a sinner and I didn’t want God’s constant scrutiny of me. At that time, I didn’t understand the purpose of the law and the truth of Grace. In the church I attended growing up, they taught us that the best way to understand Grace was to treat it as an acronym, God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense (GRACE). But that doesn’t even scratch the surface. It’s not just God’s riches that we received through Christ’s sacrifice; it is life itself!

Living as God Intended Us To

As mentioned before, God intended us to live solely dependent on him to provide. In this, we live as children. We often hear that we are children of God, but in many important aspects, we are as children to our God.

As I recall back to my earliest memories as a child, I remember how big my parents were. Not just physically (though even my 5 foot tall mother towered over me as a small child), but emotionally and mentally as well. There was nothing that my parents could not do, nothing they did not know, and nothing they couldn’t handle. As far as I could tell, they were omnipotent and omniscient. Though I had an independent streak a mile wide, I knew that my parents would always provide me with shelter, food, clothing, education, and love. I never questioned where this came from, as it seemed to flow from an endless reservoir.

As I’ve grown older, and particularly as I have become a father, I understand both the limitations and the abundance of such love. On the one hand, I recognize how limited my own resources are when it comes to providing for my son. On the other hand, I have discovered a fount of love and generosity I never knew I possessed until the day my son came into this world.

And this is how it is with our Heavenly Father, only more so. When we compare ourselves to our Father in Heaven, we need to understand that he truly is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. He is as much greater than me today as my parents were when I was a small child…even more so. So as we approach our life in Grace, we need to remember that we are as children to our Father.

Our Father wants to provide for us. He wants to be the sole source for meeting all of our needs, physical, mental, emotional, and most importantly, spiritual. All things that we need and desire can be fulfilled by the one who created us in his image.

In Conclusion

Be as a child to your Father in Heaven. Trust him, as a small child trusts his dad to hold him close, to never drop him, to never leave him behind, and to always look out for his best interests. Submit yourself to him, not in a manner that robs you of your individual will, but in a manner that sets you free from worry so that you may live your life to the fullest. In everything, know that no matter what you do, God your Father loves you as only a parent can love his child.