Category Archives: General

We’re in the midst of a weeklong series based on Mark 10:17-22, the account of The Rich Young Ruler.  On Monday we were confronted by the sobering truth that Christ did not die to make us happy; He died to make us His, and in making us His He is making us holy.  Today we will look upon the holiness of God.  Here is the passage:

And as [Jesus] was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.'” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

 Sacred Scripture records that the young man “ran up and knelt” before Jesus.  These actions represent both hunger and hope—even before he asked his question.  Jesus responded to the young man’s appellation of “Good Teacher” with the first and most important truth about God: ONLY GOD IS GOOD!  There are no “good guys” in the story of mankind.  There is a chasm of infinite proportions between His perfection and our performance that we simply cannot traverse.  We are in desperate need of rescue from the thrice holy God!

Here are two passages of Scripture that give us great insight into just how holy our God is. The first is Isaiah’s account of his call to prophetic ministry:

And the foundations of the thresholds shook as the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.  And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:4-5.)

 Isaiah was granted a vision of the court of heaven and was instantly overwhelmed with the holiness of God.  Isaiah realized that God is holy and he, Isaiah, was not!  In that moment of stark clarity, Isaiah pronounced an oracle of “woe,” or doom, upon himself.  His despairing cry, “I am lost” does not carry the appropriate force in English as the word in the original Hebrew.  The King James Version renders it “undone,” which means, literally, that Isaiah was coming apart at the seams.

Here is another biblical account describing an occasion when one of God’s people recognized the difference between holy God and sinful man:

And when [Jesus] had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” (Luke 5:4-8.)

 The disciples had been fishing all night and caught nothing.  Now Jesus instructs them to let down the nets for a catch.  Exhausted from toiling all night, Peter reluctantly lets down the nets.  Immediately, every fish for miles around swims into the nets, and the stunned disciples frantically call for help from their partners in the other boat!  Instead of leaping and dancing for joy at this miraculous windfall (to be quickly followed by a serious discussion with Jesus about a full partnership in the family fishing business), Peter fell down before the Son of Man and confessed his utter unworthiness to stand in the presence of a holy God. 

Standing in the presences of pure holiness, Isaiah and Peter both realized that their sin was “sinful beyond measure” (Romans 7:13).  The impact on their lives was immediate and immense.  This is the foundational understanding that we, too, must have if we are to pursue holiness and grow in grace.

 Our call to pursue holiness is based on the simple fact that God is holy.  The more we think and meditate on the perfect holiness of God, the more we will hate the sin.  My beloved pastor, Tullian Tchividjian, likes to repeat this statement from John Piper: “I know no other way to triumph over sin long term than to find a distaste for it because of a superior satisfaction with God.” This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN! 

Americans celebrated Independence Day yesterday, commemorating the adoption of America’s Declaration of Independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776.  People all over our great nation gather for a variety of activities, including parades, barbecues, and fireworks.  Prior to these celebrations of our nation’s rich history and traditions, God’s people gathered for corporate worship, praising God for the freedom we have in Christ.  My beloved friend and pastor, Tullian Tchividjian, is vacationing this week, so I had the privilege of preaching to the congregation at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. My sermon was drawn from Mark 10:17-22, the account of The Rich Young Ruler. I’d like to review the main points from that message this week.    

One of the inherent and unalienable rights set forth in the Declaration of Independence is the pursuit of happiness.  As good and as pleasing to the ears as this phrase may be, let me say that if all we pursue is our own happiness—a fulfilling marriage, well-educated children, a successful career, etc.—then we shrink the size of our life down to the size of our life!  Tullian often says, “This is living for something smaller than God.” 

The world would have us believe that the greatest goal in life is personal happiness.  But Jesus did not die to make us happy, He died to make us His; and in making us His He is making us holy; and it is only by growing in holiness that we will be truly happy.  The author of Psalm 119:1-3 exulted, “Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord!  Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways!”  The Scriptures make it clear that happiness is rooted in and a result of the pursuit of holiness.  “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” Jesus said, “for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6).

Holiness is one of those already and not yet aspects of the Kingdom of God.  We are already holy.  The grace of God, through faith in Christ, has set us apart for His purposes and granted us positional holiness (justification).  God sees us clothed in the righteousness of Christ, just as if we had never sinned.  However, we are not yet perfectly holy in our daily lives—far from it!  So, the same grace that has given us positional holiness also provides for our progressive holiness (sanctification).  The grace that saved us is the grace that is sanctifying us, day by day. “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

And yet, this gracious gift of God is not something we sit passively back and receive; we are commanded to pursue holiness! Jesus instructed His disciples to “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33); Paul urged all who are mature in their faith to “Press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14-15). If we are to make progress in these areas, we must develop a heart like David’s, who prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart!  Try me and know my thoughts and see if there is any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).

So how are you doing in your own pursuit of holiness? Are you feeling a bit overwhelmed?  Is it as much of a struggle for you as it is for me? 

Even a cursory glance at our lives reveals our rank hypocrisy.  We profess more than we put into practice.  We may not be committing scandalous sins, but how quickly we point to the speck in our brother’s eye while all the while neglecting the plank in our own eye!  We are impatient, insensitive, and insincere.  We are selfish and self-absorbed.  We love God and our neighbor . . . as long as we believe it will lead to blessings.  We are more concerned about “doing our own thing” than about pleasing our Lord and King!  Scripture plainly states that even the good things we do are no more than “filthy rags” in the eyes of a perfectly holy and righteous Lord (Isaiah 64:6). 

And yet for every messed up and messy child of God like you and me, those same Scriptures provide an astonishing message of hope!  Because of Christ’s atoning death on our behalf, God chooses to see the image of Christ in us, rather than the absence of Christ-likeness in our lives.  “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:11-12). That truth provides our motivation to keep getting up every time we stumble and fall down.  “For the righteous falls seven times and rises again,” the God-breathed Scripture assures us (Proverbs 24:16).

All those who are united to Christ can live a life pleasing to God because of His grace—not our goodness; His mercy—not our merit.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

This week we’ve been looking at Christ’s words to Saul of Tarsus in Acts 26:14―“It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” We discussed the meaning of the oxgoad and met the Master of the oxgoad.  Today we’ll look at the third and final part of this package: the message of the oxgoad. 

When Jesus rebuked Saul (who would soon become the Apostle Paul) for kicking against the goads, He was telling the proud Pharisee that he was only hurting himself in resisting the truth & teaching of Christ.  The more he resisted . . . the more he suffered.  The harder he kicked . . . the deeper the goad drove into his flesh.  A modern equivalent to this timeless message is, “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you!”

How about it? Is there an area in your life where you’ve been biting the nail-scarred hand that feeds you? 

How foolish and prideful for us to rebel against Omnipotence!  But look with me at the great tenderness in Jesus’ words; He does not say, “It is hard for my people” or “It is hard for Me,” but rather Jesus says, “It is hard for you, Saul!”  It is startling when we realize that our Savior is always thinking about the sinner, even when we are busily sowing seeds of our own sorrow!  I’m sure we would all agree from personal experience that it is, indeed, hard for us when we kick against the goads.  It was almost as if Jesus was saying sorrowfully to Saul what we parents say to our children when applying some stern discipline: “This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.”

Who but the Savior could think such compassionate thoughts of a man who was intent on persecuting His church?  When we see cruel men persecuting Christians, what do we think―compassionate thoughts or condemning thoughts?  How quickly we would write off a man like Saul . . . but not our Savior.  No one is beyond the redemptive reach of our Lord!  No one has wandered too far, failed too often, or sinned too deeply to place himself or herself beyond the reach of Jesus’ promise: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).  Jesus provides great comfort for us because He has great compassion for us.   

So . . . where has God been applying His oxgoad to your life?  Where have you increased your suffering because you continue to kick against the goads?  And when will you yield to the truth and teaching of Christ? When Saul finally reached that point, nothing could stop him.  The Apostle poured out his life to bring the Gospel to the nations, and no earthly obstacle would deter him―not the whip; not false witness; no trial, tribulation, or even an excruciating thorn.  Paul, by God’s grace, ran his course and was able to say: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). Would that we all will be able to say that at the end!  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!

We’re in the midst of a weeklong series based on Acts 26:14—“It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” On Monday we discovered the meaning of the oxgoad.  Today we will meet the Master of the oxgoad, the Lord Jesus Himself, and discover three important truths.

1.  YOU WERE PLANNED FOR – Ephesians 1:3-4

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”

There are countless children who have been born to parents who did not plan for them.  This is never true of the children of our heavenly Father; every child has been planned for by God.  There are neither surprises nor accidents in God’s economy.  Even the sinful acts of man are used by God for His glory.  “You meant evil against me,” Joseph told his brothers, “but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive” (Genesis 50:20). Knowing that both your salvation and the sin that made salvation necessary were planned for by Almighty God makes the goad glorious. 

2. YOU ARE PAID FOR – 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?  You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.  So glorify God in your body.” 

Every child of God has been purchased by the blood of the King of kings and Lord of lords.  The kingdom of the Savior is a kingdom of sacrifice, and this unthinkable sacrifice is as history-altering as it is life-changing.  “You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers,” Peter explained, “not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19).  When you truly understand the price that was paid for you and your sin, by the One who knew no sin, the goad does not sting so badly.  In fact, the further His goad prods you toward dying to your own selfish desires, the more you come alive to Christ and your calling.

3. YOU WILL BE PROVIDED FOR – Philippians 4:19

“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

Note well that God did not promise that your every “want” will be supplied.  Much of what we “want,” we certainly do not need.  In fact, it would be detrimental to our walk with Christ and our witness in this world if we were to get everything we think we want.  God knows the story of our lives from beginning to end; indeed, all the days ordained for us were written in God’s book before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:16).  God is writing our stories and making them fit into His bigger story; He knows what is best for us!

How perfect is the leading of the Prince of Peace, who planned for us, paid for us, and provides for our every need in both life and death!  He inflicts just the right amount of pain to keep us moving in the direction He has called us to go.  Knowing that gentle, loving, nail-scarred hands hold our oxgoad makes all the difference in the world in how we receive its proddings and respond to them.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!

“It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”

What exactly does that phrase mean?  “Kicking against the goads” is not something we hear often in our day-to-day conversation!  And yet, in Acts 26:14 the master Teacher delivers a powerful life-lesson in His exquisite, parabolic style that is simple, straight-forward, self-explanatory, and designed to sanctify every blood-bought saint.  Throughout this week we will examine this verse, with the goal of gleaning three powerful truths:

• Part I – The Meaning of the Oxgoad
• Part II – The Master of the Oxgoad
• Part III – The Message of the Oxgoad

It is my prayer that every proud sinner who reads these messages will it be brought to his or her knees in thanksgiving for the One who did for us what we could never do for ourselves.  Nowhere is that work more necessary than in the life of the chief sinner—me!

Part I – The Meaning of the Oxgoad

1^st – The oxgoad is a long pole or stick with a pointed piece of iron fastened to one end.  In the strong hands of a loving master, the ox is gently prodded, guided, steered, and driven in the desired direction when plowing the fields.  When a stubborn ox attempts to kick back against the goad that is causing it discomfort, the ox will actually inflict more pain, driving the pointed end deeper into its flesh.       

2^nd – The oxgoad is designed for an ox and for no other beast.  When Jesus likened the proud Pharisee Saul (and every child of God) with a brute beast, Saul’s heart likely pounded with incredible indignation.  By birth a Jew, by citizenship a Roman, by education a Greek, “as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless” (Philippians 3:6 NASB), Saul was a Pharisee of Pharisees.  He sat at the top of the spiritual “food chain” in Jerusalem, and now Jesus of Nazareth is comparing him to a bovine!

However, when you consider this for a moment, you realize that the comparison to an ox was actually a greater insult to the beast!  Oxen did exactly what God created them to do—serve and glorify the One who created them.  Oxen bend their necks to the yoke and to the one true God, who has placed man over them as ruler and lord.  Man is the only creature who refuses to submit to the revealed will of his Creator.

King David, possessing much greater self-awareness than Saul of Tarsus, freely confessed, “When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you” (Psalm 73:21-22).

As we close out Part I, here are just a few examples of oxgoads God uses in the lives of His people:

Sermons; suffering; doctrine; difficulty; adversity; affliction; godly counsel; holy confrontation; conviction of the Holy Spirit; financial reversal; business failure; academic probation

You might like to take some time to identify other oxgoads you have kicked against in the past.  What was the result of your rebellion?  Did you find that your pain actually increased as you resisted?  What would you do differently today?  Remember, all Scripture, rightly understood, is an oxgoad—both to the sinner and the saint.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!

Paul wrote to Timothy: “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1).  It is instructive to note what Paul did NOT say here; he did not urge Timothy to be strengthened by what I call the 5 P’s . . .

• Power
• Position
• Prosperity
• Prestige
• Pleasure

Paul’s instruction was clear.  Timothy was to be strengthened by the grace of God.  This grace, which all Christians have been given, is as undeserved and unmerited as it is unlimited.  Flowing directly from the Fountainhead Himself, the grace of Christ is without measure and readily available to all who trust in Him.

The problem for many Christians today is that they do not understand the role of grace after salvation (being raised from death to life) and prior to glorification (eternally received into the presence of the King).  This period of time in between is called sanctification; it is the time you are actually running your race.  Sanctification is the process of growing up into Christ, and this too is all of grace.  We don’t begin the race in grace, finish the race in grace, but run the race in our own strength.  We have not been called by God to run by the sweat of our own spiritual strength.  Galatians 3:3 makes this perfectly clear: “Are you so foolish?  Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

Everything about the Christian life is based on God’s grace.  The race begins in grace, is run in grace, and is finished in grace.  Along the way, every physical and spiritual blessing we receive flows from His inexhaustible reservoir of grace.  We strive in grace, we suffer in grace, and we succeed in grace.  It is all of grace!  Yet we are the ones called by God to run our own race.  We will give an account to Christ at the end of time regarding how well or how poorly we have run (2 Corinthians 5:10).  The only way we will succeed in this is by knowing it is all of grace.  You see, it is grace that motivates us to continue running when we would rather not. 

So regardless of where you are right now in the race that God has set before you, whether you feel like you are loping downhill or trudg0ing uphill, the final outcome of your race has already been settled by the cross work of Christ.  He who began your race has promised to complete it (Philippians 1:6) and His promise is not conditional.  It is not based on your performance along the way.  The “score” has been settled by your Lord, who hung on that cross for you.  When He said, “It is finished!” (John 19:30), He meant what He said!

 God neither grants nor withholds blessings based on your performance in the race.  It is always based on what Christ has already accomplished on your behalf.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!

We have a tendency to think when we are faced with suffering and sorrow we are undergoing an experience unknown to the truly committed child of God.  Not true, beloved, not true!  Suffering is a shared experience.  Even the heroes of the faith faced suffering and sorrow of every kind and needed comfort from the King.

In Acts 18:9 we read, And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent.”  Here we see that the greatest of all the apostles needed comfort in time of need.  Fear was not foreign to the faithful.  Comfort is needed by every child of God.  Moses needed the comfort of God time and time again.  Whether facing Pharaoh, the raging waters of the Red Sea, or on his 40 year death march, Moses continually needed the comfort of God.  Samson needed the comfort of God while the thousand he slew with the jawbone of an ass lay dead on the ground.  David the giant-slayer needed the comfort of God while on the run from King Saul.  After one of the greatest victories recorded in Scripture, Elijah needed the comfort of God as he cried out for his own death.  Peter who denied his Lord three times needed the comfort of God to get back up and feed His sheep. 

Comfort is necessary because the story of our King is a story of suffering.  And your story is part of His story.  From being thrown out of the Garden (Adam and Eve) to thrown in prison (Peter and Paul) suffering is woven into the fabric of the lives of God’s people.  Suffering is a result of sin and where there is suffering, there is comfort from the King with a promise of something even better.  RENEWAL!  In every moment of suffering and sorrow we have the promise of the King that the best is yet to come.  All things will be made new and there will one day be no move tears, sorrow, or suffering.  Receive His comfort today and know that He will not rest until you are brought safely home.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!

Never before in the history of the Christian faith have we seen so many churches working so hard to fit in with the surrounding culture, rather than stand out for Christ.  Not to be outdone by the culture, we’ve entered into competition with it, and by the looks of the scoreboard, we are losing.  The divorce rates are the same both in and out of the church.  Materialism has a choke hold on the Christian as much as it does on the culture. 

The culture is changing the church.  We have been entrusted with the eternal and we have turned it into entertainment.  Our seeker-sensitive services entertain the senses but do not satisfy the soul.  Preaching to the felt needs of the “customers” we have wooed into the pews, we have watered down the whole counsel of God to the exclusion of sin, judgment, holiness, and the wrath of Almighty God.  More than twenty-five years ago, Francis Schaeffer rightly warned, “The evangelical church has accommodated itself to the world around it.” In doing so, we have become more “market-driven” than Master-directed. 

The Christian community is being shaped more by Hollywood than by God’s Holy Word.  We hear more and more Christians saying, “God’s desire for me is to be happy,” rather than “God’s desire for me is to be holy.”  Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist minister, aptly observed, “He who marries today’s fashion is tomorrow’s widow.”   

Today’s church desperately needs countercultural Christians who refuse to be seduced, swerved, and shaped by Hollywood.  Pastor Tullian Tchividjian wrote in Unfashionable, “Faithfulness to Christ requires foreignness to the world’s trendy diversions.”  To be sure, there is a lot this world has to offer in the way of diversions―which are some of Satan’s sharpest darts. 

Let me ask you: Is the confession of your life being shaped more by Hollywood or God’s Holy Word? 

“Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God” (1 Corinthians 2:12).  We live in this world, but we are not to live like this world because we have received the Spirit of Christ.  We are to make an eternal difference in this world because we have been made eternally different.

The world doesn’t need more of this world; it needs more of the next!  No one will understand the things freely given us through the “teaching” of Hollywood, but only through the Holy Word of God―both professed and practiced by the people of God. That is the teaching that will give this world get what it needs most: a Savior who is ready, willing, and able to save sinners.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Have you ever thought of self-denial as a grace from God?  To be sure, Adam and Eve did not see self-denial as grace; they proved that when they opted for self-satisfaction!  Yet Jesus makes it clear that self-denial is a great grace from God: “He said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’” (Luke 9:23).  Self-denial, not self-satisfaction, is both the way and the walk of our Savior.  Remember, Adam and Eve got what they “wanted” when they chose the way of self-satisfaction; in doing so, they missed the only thing they truly needed . . . God!

God’s grace of self-denial is the rescue our Redeemer provides from the bondage of self-satisfaction.  When the most important thing in life is satisfying the self, we live only a fraction of the life God intended us to live.  The grace of self-denial leads us to the abundant life because the “stuff” of this world can never really satisfy our deepest need.  Only an intimate personal relationship with Jesus can do that, and this relationship will only be realized through the grace of self-denial.  Self-denial loosens our hold on the things of this world, freeing us to tighten our grip on “all things above,” leading to a previously unimagined life of satisfaction! 

Self-satisfaction is not the key to satisfaction in marriage; self-denial is.  Self-satisfaction is not the key to satisfaction in your job; self-denial is.  Self-satisfaction is not the key to satisfaction in your singleness; self-denial is.  Self-satisfaction is not the key to satisfaction in your church; self-denial is.  So where in your life have you been finding it hard to deny yourself?  And what has seeking your own satisfaction brought you? 

Jesus denied Himself in every way for you.  He who was rich became poor.  He who was a King became a criminal.  He who knew no sin became sin.  He who knew no death became the death of death.  Is there anything you cannot deny yourself for the One who has and will continue to do everything for you?  The pathway of self-denial is the pathway of self-satisfaction.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Blood bought believers in the Lord Jesus Christ generally come first to understand the grace of God as the unmerited and undeserved favor God bestows through His beloved Son.  We recognize the truth of Ephesians 2:8-9―“By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  This grace is the power of God to raise dead sinners to life.

More difficult to comprehend is the grace described in various places in the Scriptures, including 2 Corinthians 12:9―“He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  The grace set forth in this context is not the unmerited and undeserved favor of God found in salvation; here Paul is describing the divine enabling “grace,” or power, given to the believer through the Holy Spirit.  In a word, it is grace for your race, the race you are to run by the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.

When God said His grace was sufficient for the race set before us, He was also saying we were insufficient to run His race by ourselves.  We were never designed to run alone.  Before the fall, Adam and Eve were created dependent upon God for everything.  We are mistaken if we believe our dependence upon God began when man fell in the garden.  We were made by God for God, and the only thing that changed after sin entered the world was our desperate need for rescue by our Redeemer.  The grace that puts us into His race at salvation is the same grace that keeps us in the race throughout our lives.  The Bible makes it clear that we cannot complete in the flesh what began in the Spirit.  Paul rebuked the Galatians for that very notion: “Are you so foolish?  Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3.) No, we are not sanctified by our own power, but by His: “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). 

It’s important to note that God’s grace is sufficient for the running of the race to completion―NOT the running of it without challenges!  To be sure, everyone would prefer to run when the sky is blue, the clouds are fleecy, and the temperature is a comfortable 75 degrees.  But we are called to run in all types of weather and over all kinds of terrain.  God gives us precisely the amount of grace we need to run our race, one day at a time.

The weaker we are, the more God’s grace works in our lives.  “When I am weak,” Paul said plainly, “then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).  The world glories in self-sufficiency; we are to glory in our Savior.  At this level of living, we receive all the grace we need to face the challenges and struggles of the day.  Trouble at the office . . . grace for the race.  Difficulty in marriage . . . grace for the race.  Rebellious children . . . grace for the race.  Struggles in your single life . . . grace for your race.  Challenges in your church . . . grace for your race. 

Paul understood that God’s grace was completely sufficient to carry him through to the end of his race.  You will remember that Paul was forced to live out his life with a “thorn,” after praying to God three times for its removal.  Whatever this thorn was, it was painful enough that Paul asked God to remove it three times.  Yet God chose instead to provide Paul with the grace he needed to carry this burden while ministering and writing nearly two-thirds of the entire New Testament.  Instead of focusing his painful problem, Paul held fast to God’s providential power, given through the Holy Spirit.

Whatever burden you are carrying today, God has given you all the grace you need―if you will but look to Him.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!