The Experience of Grace

Meditations for Ragamuffins

October 10, 2023

The Experience of Grace

“Everyone who believes in (Jesus) is declared right with God—something the law of Moses could never do.”

Acts 13:39

There has always been a bit of a conundrum for the Christian in achieving a Godly balance between law and grace. For some, the appeal of grace made the law irrelevant. Saint Paul addressed this issue in his letter to the Romans: “What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?” (Romans 6:1-2 NRSV). Yet in the account of his preaching in Antioch, Paul said that through this man Jesus, there is forgiveness for your sins . . . something the law of Moses could never do. If the law cannot make us right with God, if the law cannot provide for the forgiveness of our sins, where does it fit into our life in Christ?

The story of the healing of General Naaman in 2 Kings 5 provides us some insight to this question. Naaman was the commander of the armies of the king of Aram. “But though Naaman was a mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy” (2 Kings 5:1b). Naaman went to Israel and asked the prophet Elisha to heal him. Elisha instructed Naaman to wash himself in the Jordan River seven times, and when he washed “his skin became as healthy as the skin of a young child, and he was healed!” (2 Kings 5:14b). In response to his healing, Naaman pledged, “From now on I will never again offer burnt offerings or sacrifices to any other god except the Lord” Naaman then made this request to Elisha, “However, may the Lord pardon me in this one thing: When my master the king goes into the temple of the god Rimmon to worship there and leans on my arm, may the Lord pardon me when I bow, too” (2 Kings 5:17b-18).

My Takeaway: Naaman’s experience of God’s grace created a desire to worship only the Lord. At the time, he may not have been aware of Exodus 20:3, “You must not have any other god but me”, but his experience of grace intuitively gave him that knowledge. Thus, Naaman had an awareness of sin. His desire to be close to God led him to seek forgiveness when he sinned. I believe it is God’s hope that our experience of grace, our realization we are His pearl of great value, will create in us a desire for Him, and Him alone. And because we are prone to wander and leave the God we love, an awareness of our need to confess our sin.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2023 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.