An essential principle to understand when it comes to following Christ is that of grace. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ provides us with the right motivation, hope, and joy. We are very quick to say that we are saved by grace, but we are quicker to say that we grow through sheer effort. We will have more to say about this in a future blog post. However, let us consider how we should faithfully live out of the grace given to us.

When I was a kid one of my favorite times of the year was spring. This did not really have much to do with the wonderful weather and beautiful flowers blooming. No, I loved spring because it meant digging up a large plot of grass in preparation for planting a garden in our large backyard. Now, I did not love the prospect of a garden because of all the wonderful vegetables that it would produce. No, I loved having dirt clod fights with my brother. These clods of dirt became marvelous bombs to hurl at the imaginary enemy. So, my brother and I would stand on opposite sides of the plowed dirt and throw these dirt bombs at each other. We would even dig some small foxholes and throw our dirt grenades at one another. Well, at the end of the day we were virtually unrecognizable because we were so dirty.

After one such day of glorious fun my mother called us in for dinner. When we came to the back door she immediately looked us over and said that before we set foot in the house we had to get clean. Now, believe it or not, getting clean was both an active and passive activity. It was active in that I had to put myself into the shower. It was passive in the sense that I could not get clean through this means only. I had to also actively put myself in the way of the water to get clean.

Can we apply this analogy to the process of sanctification, the power of the gospel in action? It has certainly been helpful to me over the years. My job in sanctification is to actively and intentionally put myself in the way of the means that God uses to change and transform me. This gives me great hope as I partake of these means that God is going to effectively use them in my life over time. So, as I partake of God’s Word, prayer, fellowship with fellow believers, worship, and communicating the gospel with the lost. God produces fruit in my life. I should expect to see both ministry fruit and the fruit of the Spirit borne in my heart and life. So, faith looks to and participates in God’s ordained means of grace and transformation.