Empowered by Grace

The purpose of this blog site is to provide help and encouragement in the journey toward godliness. It is intended for those who hold that goal before them and strive toward it. In the previous post I examined spiritual victory and maturity in light of two important responses to struggles - subordinating the emotions and taking captive the thoughts. These responses indicate a determined resolve and a focused effort on the part of the believer. Today I want to examine a critical reality: the believer cannot by his own efforts achieve godly maturity.

It is natural for someone seeking success in any area of life to set goals and work diligently toward them. In general, successful people are those who doggedly and persistently pursue their objectives in spite of the challenges that arise and regardless of the time needed to achieve success. In many areas of life, self-determination and persistence can make up for significant deficiencies in opportunity and natural ability. In the spiritual realm, however, there is no level of fortitude, self-motivation, or willpower that can bring about spiritual maturity.

When it comes to spiritual maturity, progress and success belong to God, not man. The apostle Paul wrote this of himself and other church leaders, "Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God" (II Corinthians 3:5 - all verses NASB). Paul recognized the critical work of God Himself to make any believer what he ought to be or to prepare that believer for God's work.

Why is God's work so necessary? In part, it is because man is so incapable of even knowing his own heart. "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). If man did fully know his own heart, he would shudder at the darkness found there. It is common to consider oneself to be better, nobler, and more respectable than reality. Even believers are often oblivious to the deficiencies of their own hearts. Without realizing the need, there is not even any motivation to pursue something more.

In addition to the difficulty of truly knowing one's heart, man is incapable of following through on what he has purposed. Even if he firmly maintains his desire and commitment, he simply cannot by his own strength achieve what he has determined. Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). It is Jesus' help and Jesus' intervention that enable a believer to do anything worthwhile.

A more sobering reality than needing God's help for the outworking of spiritual goals is that a believer needs God's help to even desire those goals. Even when a believer thinks himself to be fully committed and surrendered to God, how often does he find himself wandering and struggling? The firmest resolve and the most sincere decision can quickly fade into apathy and neglect. To the believer's shame, too often his spiritual ambition is anemic and his desire stifled. Much as one would like to think that he will grow spiritually because he has resolved to do so, in reality it is God who provides and maintains that resolve. "For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). Without God's fanning the flames of willingness, there would be no hope for the working out of those desires.

The key ingredient that God provides to spur spiritual maturity is His grace. Grace is quite simply God's help - divine enablement. That help takes many forms and can enable a believer mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically. Grace from God makes possible things that could never be achieved by human strength alone. Again Paul records this testimony: "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me" (I Corinthians 15:10). Paul acknowledges his diligent effort in pursuing godliness, but twice in the verse he makes it clear that his effort was helpless without the grace of God. It was God's grace that had made Paul who he was.

How does one procure this grace? Quite simply, he admits how much he needs it. Humility before God indicates a heart that realizes its own inadequacies. Humility reveals a believer who knows that he cannot prosper or even survive on his own. With this acknowledgement of need and helplessness, he comes to God for divine enablement, asking God to do for him and in him what he cannot do on his own. God loves such displays of humility, and He responds by pouring out his grace on the one in need. "But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, 'God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.' Draw near to God and He will draw near to you" (James 3:6&8a).

Yes, the believer is to draw near. He is to seek God. He should, as the apostle Paul mentioned, labor to become what God desires. All of those actions indicate a humble recognition of one's need for God and a submission to the work of God. The humble efforts, however, depend for their success on the grace that God gives to the humble heart. In response to heart humility, God flames the desire for maturity as well as working out that maturity in the life.