Standing By God’s Grace Alone

Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness.
Romans 11:22

Longevity is no guarantee of legitimacy. Tradition alone is no safeguard of the truth. Over a period of time, what is right and true can easily become perverted and powerless.

It happens in the Christian life with surprising regularity. The revolutionary claims of the gospel become routine; holiness becomes humdrum. And when that happens, it’s time for God to snap his children out of their spiritual stupor, as Matthew Henry explains.

WALK WITH MATTHEW HENRY
“God is most severe toward those who, in their profession, have been nearest to him, if they rebel against him. Patience and abused privilege turn to the greatest wrath.

“It is possible for churches that have long stood by faith to fall into such a state of infidelity as to be their ruin. Their unbelief not only provoked God to cut them off, but by this they cut themselves off.

“You do not stand in any strength of your own. You are no more than the grace of God makes you.

“Continue in his goodness, in a dependence upon and compliance with the free grace of God. Be careful to keep up your interest in God’s favor by being continually careful to please him and equally fearful of offending him. The sum of your duty, the condition of your happiness, is to keep yourself in the love of God. ‘Come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings’ (Hosea 3:5).”

WALK CLOSER TO GOD
Serving God should be the pattern of your existence. But in the process, never let it become routine—ordinary, stale, monotonous. Greet each new day as a fresh challenge to display the goodness of God to a waiting world.

Just as there was no stale manna for Israel in the wilderness, so keep your faith fresh through daily feeding on the bread of life. Then you, as Mr. Henry suggests, will be “continually careful to please [God] and equally fearful of offending him.”