"What Then!"

"For God is King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding." (Psalms 47:7) I see!, said the blind man. Spurgeon once said, "Grace that does not change my life will not save my soul." A very profound statement, but something the everyone of us that are counting on grace should understand; God's grace does not stop at salvation of the poor sinner, it continues in life for the believer; and not just eternal life, but abundant life! As I was thinking about John 1:16 and the "fullness" of God's grace, I couldn't help but wonder how few believers actually walk in the "fullness" of His abounding grace; "grace for grace" is how John puts it, and then he adds this comment in verse 17, saying, "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." We often let sin dictate who we are, instead letting the promise of new life demonstrate what we are in Christ; the new life being part of His abundant grace, and more than that, it is a very important part! If Jesus had not risen then all of this would be for nothing, but He did; and because He did, we will rise also; and not only that, but in the spiritual sense, our old sin nature died with Him on that cross, and our new man has already risen with Him and is alive unto God (Romans 6:11). Paul puts it another way in Galatians 2:19, saying, "For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God." Imagine how it might look for a dead man to try and keep any portion of God's law, let alone try to serve God in any capacity; it's just not going to happen, as long as that man remains dead. New life is so vitally important to what it means to be a Christian, so much so, that it is the proof of our abiding in Christ; if there is no new life, then we have not been completely grafted onto the vine..."I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing." (John 15:1-5)