Light Brings Salt
Volume 2, Issue 5 February 1 , 2004
Dedicated to the
Systematic Exposition of the Word of God
by
Miles J. Stanford
BORN BY GRACE - As a new Christian you are able to understand that you
were born again on the principle of grace--the unearned, free gift of God.
"The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord."
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God" (Romans
CONFORMED BY GRACE - As a new Christian it is important that you realize,
also, that God saved you in order to conform you to
the image of His Son. The Lord Jesus is the express image of God, and it is
through Him that God realizes His original purpose: "Let us make man in
our image."
LIVE BY GRACE - As a new Christian, moreover, you are to understand
that your new life is to be lived on the same principle as your new birth--that
of grace. "As ye have, therefore, received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk
ye in Him" (Colossians 2:6).
God created, God
gave, God works, "For it is God who worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians
As a babe in Christ
you are aware of new life and strength within, and your heart is filled with
love for the Lord Jesus. You will become active in church, Bible study,
Scripture memorization, and no doubt seek to win your unsaved relatives and
friends to the Savior. All good, and beneficial.
WORKS VS. GRACE - In time, however--it may be a few months or a number of
years--you may begin to falter in all of these areas. Your love for the Lord
Jesus cools, and elements of your old life begin to reassert themselves.
Struggle as you may
to regain your spiritual balance, you will only seem
to fail all the more. For you it becomes, "When I would do good, evil is
present with me.... Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death?" (Romans 7:21, 24).
By means of your
struggle and failure to live the Christian life, the Lord Jesus is teaching you
the indispensable grace principle of "not I, but Christ" (Galatians
THE GRACIOUS VINE - The Lord Jesus expressed this principle in John 15:5: "I
am the vine, ye are the branches, he that abideth in
me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit;
for without me
ye can do nothing."
Your part, as a
branch in the Vine, is to rest in Him, depend upon Him, and
fellowship with Him. You are joined to the
Vine by nature, and His life will flow in and through you, "that the life
also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Corinthians
You will find it a
great revelation--and relief--in the midst of your failure, to hear these
words, "Now thanks be unto God, who always causeth
us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the
savor of his knowledge by us in every place" (2 Corinthians 2:14). You do not triumph by
means of your own strength and strategy; it is your Father who gives you life
and growth in His Son.
Regeneration by
grace; growth by grace--that is the principle of the Christian life. Indeed,
the Lord Jesus is your Life Principle. "Now unto him who is able to do
exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power
that worketh in us" (Ephesians
WALK BY GRACE - Slowly and painfully you will learn to be dependent
upon your heavenly Father. He has ordained and laid out His plan for your life,
and as you grow spiritually you will be walking in the path He has chosen for
you. "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Ephesians
SERVE BY GRACE - You are going to learn that your service is also
according to the principle of grace: regeneration by grace, growth by grace,
service by grace.
Your Father has
promised to provide you with all that you will need for whatever He calls you
to do. There will be enough for you, and for others, also. "God is able to
make all grace abound toward
you, that ye, always having all
sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work" (2 Corinthians 9:8).
GRACE WORKS! - The fact that the Christian life and service are by
grace does not mean that you flop down and wait for Him to work apart from you.
The growing
Christian is a very active individual; he becomes the willing instrument of
God's blessed will. In his measure he can say, with Paul, "His grace,
which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly that
they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me"
(1 Corinthians
"God works,
not with what He finds, but with what He brings."
&
RELIANCE IN TOTO
by
Miles J. Stanford
"Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our
Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good
hope through grace" (2 Thessalonians
It has
been well said that "it takes a lifetime to learn real dependence upon
God, and to accept practically our own inadequacy." We are going to learn
this only through experience, and now is the time to settle down to this
schooling--a day at a time.
"We
are to understand that God loves us, and that He justifies us by the work of
His Son. We have no longer conscience of sins before God, because He Himself
has taken them away before His eyes; we know that being united to the Lord
Jesus Christ, who has fully glorified God in that which concerns our sins, we
have been made the righteousness of God in Him. So the heart is free to enjoy
His love in the presence of the Father." -J.N.D.
"I
no longer attempt to produce that which will satisfy God from myself as
originator. I know that even if I try I shall only fail. But I do
seek to please God by faith in the activity of Another.
The Son of God who indwells me by His Spirit is able and willing to carry out
in me 'those things that please Him'; and I count upon Him to do so.
Consciously, day by day, I take the attitude that I trust Him to work the will
of God in me, and in that attitude I go forward and serve Him. I do not trust
myself. 'I live by faith in the Son of God.'" -A.I.K.
"Comfort
your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work" (2 Thes.