John tells us that when Jesus came into the world, He radiated the glory of God. Specifically, John says Jesus radiated grace and truth (Jn. 1:14). When John describes the glory that Jesus revealed, he draws special attention to grace and truth. So, before I leave this first statement of Isaiah 50:4, "The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary," I want to focus on these two important aspects of Jesus’ message. We begin with grace.
What does it look like to speak grace to others? Here’s what I come up with.
1. A grace speaker leads people to recognize that they can never earn God’s favor; that standing before God as forgiven, redeemed, and righteous is a gift from beginning to end (Rom. 3:23-34). If not, it’s not grace (Rom. 11:6).
2. A grace speaker leads people to understand and appreciate the beauty of grace to such a degree that they are PASSIONATE about honoring this gift by living in freedom from sin for the glory of God (Rom. 6).
3. A grace speaker helps people find freedom from guilt and condemnations in the gracious forgiveness of God and His enablement to live in victory (Rom. 6-8).
4. A grace speaker helps people recognize, "I am nothing, I have nothing, I can do nothing" except by the grace of God (1 Cor. 15:10). Grace is humbling. Pride is a sure sign someone does not understand grace.
5. A grace speaker cuts people some slack and doesn’t require them to be perfect to be loved, accepted, valued, and treated with respect and kindness (Rom. 14:1-4, 15:7). God doesn’t slam you for every weakness, fault, or flaw . . . shouldn’t you do the same for others???
6. A grace speaker treats people better than they deserve, with blessing even when the opposite may be "deserved". If God had waited until man deserved the gift of grace in Christ it NEVER would have happened.
7. Whenever possible and appropriate, a grace speaker will overlook the weaknesses, failures and offences of others because God has forgiven much more! A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense (Prov. 19:11).
8. When it can’t be overlooked, a grace speaker ALWAYS forgives the offence just as God does for us (Eph. 4:32, Col. 3:13). You have been forgiven for much more than you will ever forgive!!!
9. A grace speaker will not nit-pick and find fault in the small stuff because they don’t want everyone to scrutinize every act and decision they make (Phil. 2:14).
10. A grace speaker will not always - in fact, not often - "speak their mind" but will choose to say only what will bless others and build them up in Christ (Eph. 4:29).
Are you speaking grace into your world?
Tomorrow: Speaking Truth
Soli Deo Gloria
No comments:
Post a Comment