Only By The Grace of God

A lot of us are struggling with legalism in our lives and the lives of those around us, even though we know that it is the grace of God that saves us. We try hard to live by the rules, and we assume God will love us more, reward us more and overlook our mistakes. We make hundreds of rules up to live by, in reality Jesus said, Matthew 22:37  "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 "This is the first and great commandment. 39 "And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'40 "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

We make it so hard on ourselves and those around us, no wonder people are turned off by us, I've been a dedicated rule-keeper and I struggle with this, knowing God will never love me anymore than He does right now or when He sent Jesus to the cross for me. My parents taught me some basic rules, and most of them were excellent, but they're not really biblical, and have nothing to do with me standing before God.

Rules like we all need a solid eight hours of sleep each night (I have broken this rule every day of my life.) You brush your teeth in the morning, and before going to bed, wash your hands before every meal. Period. Close your eyes when you pray, I peeked during prayer time as a kid many times, and the Pastors and older people in the congregation didn’t always close their eyes, so I decided that either he was a phony, or that this  "eyes-closed" rule might not be iron-clad.

 We define Christianity by a list of arbitrary rules, therefore reducing our relationship with God through Jesus Christ to an exercise of futility of rules. God cannot and will not be put into a box. He's so much bigger than that. And His grace is greater than anything our finite minds can muster up .

Make no mistake. We will stand right before God, not on the basis of our ability to keep an exhaustive list of rules, the Pharisees and Sadducees did this but only the by the  shed blood of Jesus Christ. In Christ alone we are found Justified, and Righteous.

 When our faith is in Him, His grace "covers" us.

Romans 5: 1Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace

with God through our Lord Jesus Christ 2We have also obtained access through Him

by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3And not only that but we also rejoice in our afflictions,  because we know that affliction produces endurance, 4endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. 5This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.