Grace that only forgives is not as great as grace that also transforms. When you draw near to the throne of God with your sin, expect grace to be bigger than all our cheap expectations. Expect grace to not only cancel the wrath of God against you but to create the holiness of God within you. Expect Christ to live, really live, in you (Galatians 2:20).

The normal, run-of-the-mill Christian life is a spectacular miracle, something literally impossible without real and daily divine intervention. That miracle is a genuine, lived-out, heart-level, life-in-life union with Jesus Christ himself.

Those who attempt to follow Christ without experiencing union with him inevitably run off the road in one of two ways. We either embrace a cheap-grace, obedience-optional faith that feels distant and lukewarm over time, or we enslave ourselves to external commands, leaving us exhausted, ashamed, and even further from God. Rankin Wilbourne writes,

Union with Christ is the song we need to recover and hear today as the heart of the gospel. The song of grace without union with Christ becomes impersonal, a cold calculus that can leave you cynical. The song of discipleship without union with Christ becomes joyless duty, a never-ending hill that can leave you exhausted. (Union with Christ, 78)

Union with Christ is the warm melody between detached cynicism and crushing legalism. We will not survive, much less enjoy, what God calls us to do unless we learn what it means to live in Christ — and to have him live in us.

Perils of ‘Grace’

Where grace truly rules — in a human heart, in a family, in a church — sin flees and righteousness blossoms. Unfortunately, some of us try to make grace king but without giving it any real authority in our lives. We want the forgiveness, the freedom, the approval, the clean conscience, but we fear any strings that might be attached — any conditions or commands that don’t smell or feel effortless.

The apostle Paul, however, says that grace came not just to forgive, but to reign (Romans 5:21). He then asks, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1). If grace reigns in my life, I’m already forgiven, right? Why stress and sweat over what the Bible says to be and do? Why let guilt have any quarter in our hearts?

Paul answers his own question with a severe warning: “Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey?” (Romans 6:15–16). The moment we think that “grace” means we need not worry about sin anymore, we have made ourselves twice the slave of sin.

Read More