The need for grace...
We are unable to be good enough to have lives that produce all the good and righteous traits God wants to see in us. But grace makes available to us the privilege of having a relationship with the Father that will produce good works in our lives. It isn't "works produce relationship" but "relationship produces works"...or results in "fruits of righteousness" to be produced by our lives. Grace has reconciled us to God. We must accept reconciliation by grace to have the relationship, and it's the relationship that God desires. He knows that if we can walk with Him in relationship, the righteous traits of His life will be expressed by our lives. Being with Him and knowing Him will cause us to be like Him.
The difficulty on our part is being able to accept such an awesome gift simply by grace. Grace means that we don't deserve it and there is no way we can earn it or pay for it. That's hard for our human nature.
This means if my life is producing unrighteous fruit, my relationship with Him is faulty or non-existent. The only way I can change my life is by accepting His gift of grace and reconciliation.
By examining my life I can know if my relationship with God is good or bad. If it is bad, I will be self-centered, pleasure seeking, proud, materialistic, and worldly minded. So if I find "bad fruit" in my life, I must not try to "do better". But I must accept the relationship He offers and walk and talk with Him. This is so simple...too simple...and difficult for us to understand that He does all the work.
This is the good news. Read more about grace here.
We are unable to be good enough to have lives that produce all the good and righteous traits God wants to see in us. But grace makes available to us the privilege of having a relationship with the Father that will produce good works in our lives. It isn't "works produce relationship" but "relationship produces works"...or results in "fruits of righteousness" to be produced by our lives. Grace has reconciled us to God. We must accept reconciliation by grace to have the relationship, and it's the relationship that God desires. He knows that if we can walk with Him in relationship, the righteous traits of His life will be expressed by our lives. Being with Him and knowing Him will cause us to be like Him.
The difficulty on our part is being able to accept such an awesome gift simply by grace. Grace means that we don't deserve it and there is no way we can earn it or pay for it. That's hard for our human nature.
This means if my life is producing unrighteous fruit, my relationship with Him is faulty or non-existent. The only way I can change my life is by accepting His gift of grace and reconciliation.
By examining my life I can know if my relationship with God is good or bad. If it is bad, I will be self-centered, pleasure seeking, proud, materialistic, and worldly minded. So if I find "bad fruit" in my life, I must not try to "do better". But I must accept the relationship He offers and walk and talk with Him. This is so simple...too simple...and difficult for us to understand that He does all the work.
This is the good news. Read more about grace here.