There is one essential requirement for receiving God’s grace. That is, humbling ourselves.
God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
The obligation is placed upon us to humble ourselves. We have no right to ask God to make us humble, for God says, Humble yourself.
And then He says, as soon as we humble ourselves, His grace is made available to us.
In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee was full of his own righteousness, his own good works. He didn’t see his need of God’s grace.
On the other hand, the tax collector made no claims of righteousness. He just cried out for mercy, and he opened himself up to God’s grace.
What follows after we have humbled ourselves, and God opens up the fullness of His grace to us?
There are two aspects to this interaction of our spirit with His, where our spirit connects with His and grace is imparted to us?
What’s the first thing you must do to receive God’s grace? It is to stop working, stop trying to earn His favor. If you are trying to earn the grace of God, you cannot receive it. God cannot give you His grace on that basis.
We must understand that repentance is a gift from God. The root of the word repent in the Greek consists of two words. The first one means change of condition-transition. And the second means to perceive with thought coming into the consciousness. God’s thoughts flow through our spirit into our mind and we become willing to obey him, we humble ourselves.
If we are trying to gain favor with God, we can never receive it. Because we are acting according to our own human ability.
So, this is very difficult for religious people because they are proud.
Romans chapter 4 verses 4 and 5 says- Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work, but trusts God who justifies the wicked, His faith is credited as righteousness. Those are vitally important words.
You simply humble yourself and trust God who justifies the wicked. And of course, that’s very humbling, because it means you’re putting yourself in the category of those who need to be justified because they are wicked.
Then from this very moment you’re living on credit. You’re not living on the result of your own labor, but you’re living on God’s credit. That’s the first part of God’s grace. The second part is the enabling presence of God to do what you couldn’t do before.
Your faith is credited to you as righteousness. You are not reckoned righteous because of what you’ve done, but because you believe in God, who justifies the unrighteous.
Once you’ve stopped trying then what do you have to do? The answer is very simply you must receive grace as a gift and thank him for it and then yield yourself without reservation to Jesus.
John 1:17, The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
All God’s grace is in Jesus Christ. There is no other channel of God’s grace but Jesus. So, if you want God’s grace, you must receive it from Him. And then all the grace of God is made available to you.
John 1:16 says- for out of His fulness as a source we all received, and grace in exchange for grace-young’s literal translation.
It means grace upon grace. In our walk with God, we go from grace to grace, faith to faith, strength to strength and glory to glory. Everything we receive from God is ever expanding.
The Word says for of his fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. In other words, when we receive Jesus, then all God’s fullness in Him is made available to us.
And for every grace there is in Jesus, a corresponding grace is made available to us.
For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth were realized or made available through Jesus Christ.
It is all about receiving grace from God. It’s not being religious, it is not about saying prayers, it is not about going to church, and all of that can be very good in its place.
But the key decisive transaction is yielding yourself to Jesus, handing yourself over without reservation, opening yourself up to Him and all that He has to give you and all that He has to do in your life.
First of all, there’s a new birth, a completely new kind of life starts within us. It’s not physical life, it’s spiritual life, although ultimately it even affects our physical life.
And then out of Jesus in us, we receive of His fullness, grace for grace. For every grace in Christ, the new birth opens the way for the corresponding grace to be manifested in us. Because we are in the process of transformation which means living from a different kind of life source. It’s all contained in Jesus.
So, when we receive Jesus, then every grace that’s in Jesus becomes available to us. Jesus is like a beautiful diamond with innumerable facets, all of which glitter and sparkle with beauty and with grace.
Every facet of that diamond is a particular grace. And when we take that diamond inside of us, then the way is opened for that grace in all its facets to shine out of our lives.
Let me give you some… practical examples of how this works. I’ve proved this in my own experience time and time again. You have a problem with timidity, all right? You yield to Jesus and the grace of his courage is made available to you. So, your weakness of timidity is replaced by his grace of courage.
Or you have a problem with anger. That was a personal problem I had many years ago when I first got saved, I was verry religious and very critical, always criticizing and arguing and judging people. But my problem of anger was replaced by His grace of gentleness and long-suffering with people, seeing them through the eyes of God, perfect in Christ and having compassion on them.
People that have only known me in the several last years of my life would never have believe that I had this problem with anger, because it’s been replaced by the grace of God. I take no credit for it. It’s grace. I didn’t earn it. I didn’t work for it. I just believed God for it.
You have may have a problem with lust. I was full of lust and cannot even mention the things I have done because it is shameful to speak of those things.
What’s the solution? Let the grace of the purity of Jesus be manifested in you. And don’t spend all your time worrying about your problem, because that doesn’t accomplish anything except make it worse. Just turn away from the problem and make a covenant with your eyes not to look upon a woman in lust but see them as a person with the love of God for them and then yield to the corresponding grace of Jesus. If your problem is lust, accept His purity. Or if you have a problem with foolishness. What’s the solution?
Accept the grace of wisdom that is in Jesus. Let His wisdom begin to operate through you. You’ll be amazed at the results. You’ll be able to answer somebody you could never answer in the natural and you’ll think, where did I get that answer from? The answer is from the grace of God.
Let me give one more example, which is so common. You have the problem of worrying. I’m sure there are many of you that have that problem. What are you going to do about it? Don’t worry about worrying. Just yield to Jesus and let the grace of His peace replace the problem of your worrying.
May the Lord seal this word to your heart.