One of the challenges of living by grace is learning the difference between freedom and responsibility. For a long time, I clearly understood that because of grace, no matter what kind of sin I was confronting, God’s grace was more than sufficient to forgive. On the other hand, I learned after several years of following Jesus, grace was also the dynamic that gave me the motivation and power to obey the commands to which Jesus expects me to obey. I was frustrated for many years when I couldn’t do the things that God required of me. Now I thank Him for the understanding that the only way I can walk with Jesus is through the cross. My ego has to continually die so that Christ, who lives in me, will be able to carry out His own commands. Obedience is not difficult when I abide in Christ and He and His words abide in me because through Him I have the strength I need to live victoriously over sin.
“But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!”
Romans 5:15
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”
1 Corinthians 15:10