Spiritual Strength For Each Day
“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:11-12).
The Lord Jesus cannot grow in us and His glory is not increased through us, if we are not willing to decrease in our person. What does this mean? John the Baptist recognized this and said concerning the Lord Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). How can we decrease? Here we automatically come to speak of the goodness of the Lord and His grace. What does grace do? It disciplines us. Does this sound contradictory? How can grace discipline us if grace is in itself something lovely and pleasant? This is a great mystery. We can only receive grace if we recognize and admit: it is undeserved favor. By accepting this undeserved favor out of the hand of the Lord, I am already under His discipline, so that I deny my ungodly nature and worldly lusts. Live today out of this grace. The time will come when we who are born again out of sheer grace and goodness, will be transformed and raptured to meet the Lord. If our life’s end should come before, we can look to the open gate of heaven and say, “It was grace alone, saved by grace!”
