Nothing can be added to the deed
of obedience of the Son of God, nearly 2,000 years ago. Nothing we do makes us
better or more acceptable in God’s view. God has taken a fallen, broken
humanity and restored the human being—by their faith in Christ alone—to right
relationship, despite works—irrefutably.
But there is more; God wants more
for us. He gets us to a vital first base on an assured home run by our
salvation, but he wants us to experience second, third and home base—the fullest experience of life.
Life with God is a dance of our
brokenness with his grace.
God’s grace ever-sufficient and
only fairly magnified stoops to pick us up in our brokenness, and in our
brokenness we accord ourselves to the truth—we need grace.
The Overwhelming Need of Grace
We all have this insurgent need at
the core of our souls. Without grace we cannot approach the truth about
ourselves—that not only are we saved and re-made as new creations, but we have
actual brokenness that God desires to heal within us.
God gives us everything to ensure
our eternal safety and then proffers us toward opportunities of discipleship in
following Jesus for the transforming of our hearts and the renewing of our
minds.
We need grace at the beginning of
our faith journey and we need it every moment as we continue—right to the very
end we need grace.
Grace is sufficient to emend our
brokenness before any journey to healing is even embarked upon. It’s sufficient
to emend our brokenness as we are sanctified by faith in Christ, once for all
time, and through and through as we are sanctified by our repentance from dead
deeds. Wherever we are on the spiritual continuum, grace is all we need. It is
power for everything else.
When Ready: Emend the Brokenness
So many in this life seek
wholeness; grace is sufficient for this, too, but grace is the only thing that can deliver to us to any
proportion of wholeness in this life. This is because the power in grace aligns
with the truth.
We approach wholeness when we can
readily accept the raw truth about ourselves.
When we accept this truth we are
no longer afraid of our brokenness, denying it, and we know with boldness God’s
blessing via grace even in the midst of that selfsame brokenness.
Our brokenness actually defines us
and is cause for celebration—we are weak, but God is great!
Our brokenness—our damage from,
and our propensity to, sin—propounds grace all the more. Our brokenness in true
light magnifies the grace
of God that has rescued us and continues to.
Grace dances with our brokenness,
bringing us to wholeness at least by our attitudes about ourselves. Grace
dances with our brokenness, gifting us to more wholeness. Grace even excuses
our brokenness, making us whole in Christ without even an iota of effort on our
behalf.
© 2013 S. J. Wickham.
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