Grace

 Does keeping yourself from sin give you power over sin? It would depend upon how you keep yourself from sin, wouldn't it? All our power lies in FAITH in God, in our ability to BELIEVE. Even our ability to believe lies in the comprehension of our existence as creatures of God. If we for one moment do not believe that we are created we have no ability to have faith in God and the power that comes with that faith.

We exist with the ability to reason. With this reason we make choices of belief. You can reason in many ways, but our Creator would have us reason in His truth. Our Creator will not force you to reason towards belief in Him because that would negate the love He is. We cannot reason that we don't exist, not in any form of logic whatsoever. You can argue you exist in different ways, but the fact you exist remains. With that fact you reason how you exist and from there you make your choices. When you make the choice to BELIEVE in the Creator, you've taken a first step towards FAITH in God.

From our FAITH in God we recognize that He took great pains to offer us the ability to keep from sinning. That ability lies at the very heart of faith. Believing that Christ alone can keep us from sinning, that it is the POWER of God that can keep us from sinning. We have NO power of our own. So the question at the beginning, does keeping yourself from sin give you power of sin? Yes, it does, if you keep yourself from sinning by your FAITH in Christ's power to do so in you. 

Should you recognize a temptation blatantly staring you in your face, give that temptation to Christ, give it to His power to overcome.  If you give into that temptation should you despair? No, you still need to TRUST that Christ is working towards your being able to overcome. Satan would have us give up in despair of EVER ceasing from our cherished, hated, habitual, evil sins- once we yield to despair we are dead in those sins. We must earnestly seek forgiveness and cry out to the only ONE who can keep us from sinning, trusting that HE WILL. We may not even recognize when the overcoming occurs, we aren't to take ANY credit for ceasing from our sins. We are to give ALL GLORY to GOD for any overcoming. We are to constantly realize Christ is the power, the glory, the honor forever! We are never to embrace sin, we are to ever abhor our weakness towards it in whatever form it takes. 

Grace comes from our LORD, Grace comes from our GOD. It is by grace we are saved through faith, and NOT of ourselves…

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 

Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast

All glory to God!

(Excerpt) Advent Review and Sabbath Herald  A.T. Jones

April 17, 1894

"Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." Eph. 4:7. The measure of the gift of Christ is "all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." This is true whether viewed as the measure of the gift which God made in giving Christ or as the measure of the gift which Christ Himself gave. For the gift that God gave is His only begotten Son, and in "him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Therefore, from this standpoint the measure of the gift of Christ being only the measure of the fulness of the Godhead bodily and this being only the measure of the grace that is given to every one of us, it follows that unto every one of us is given grace without measure, simply boundless grace.

Viewed from the measure of the gift in which Christ Himself gives to us, it is the same, because "he gave himself for us." He gave Himself for our sins, and in this He gave Himself to us. And as in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and as He gave Himself, then the measure of the gift of Christ on His own part is also only the measure of the fullness of the Godhead bodily. It therefore follows that from this standpoint also the measure of grace that is given to every one of us is only the measure of the fullness of the Godhead; that is, simply immeasurable.

Thus in whatever way it is viewed, the plain word of the Lord is that unto every one of us He has given grace to the measure of the fullness of the Godhead bodily; that is, boundless, immeasurable grace--all the grace He has.  This is good. But it is just the Lord; it is just like the Lord to do that, for He is good.

And this boundless grace is all given, given freely, to "every one of us." To us it is. To you and me, just as we are. And that is good. We need just that much grace to make us what the Lord wants us to be. And He is just so kind as to give it all to us freely that we may be indeed just what He wants us to be.

The Lord wants every one of us to be saved, and that with the very fullness of salvation. And therefore He has given to every one of us the very fullness of grace, because it is grace that brings the salvation. For it is written,  "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." Titus 2:11. 

Thus the Lord wants all to be saved and therefore He gave all of His grace, bringing salvation to all. The marginal reading of this text tells it that way, and it is just as true as the reading in the verse itself. Here it is: "The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men, hath appeared." 

All the grace of God is given freely to every one, bringing salvation to all.  Whether all or any one will receive it, that is another question. What we are studying now is the truth and the fact that God has given it. Having given it all, He is clear, even though men may reject it.

The Lord wants us to be perfect, and so it is written: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Desiring that we shall be perfect, He has given us, every one , all the grace that He has,  bringing the fullness of His salvation, that every man may be presented perfect in Christ Jesus. The very purpose of this gift of His boundless grace is that we may be made like Jesus, Who is the image of God. Even so it is written: "Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. . . . for the perfecting of the saints. . . . till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." 

Eph 4:7  But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 

Eph 4:12  For the perfecting of the saints

Eph 4:13  Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ

Do you want to be like Jesus? Then receive the grace that He has so fully and so freely given. Receive it in the measure in which He has given it, not in the measure in which you think you deserve it. Yield yourself to it, that it may work in you and for you the wondrous purpose for which it is given, and it will do it. It will make you like Jesus. It will accomplish the purpose and the wish of Him who has given it. "Yield yourselves unto God." "I beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain."

 Rom_6:13  ..yield yourselves unto God

2Co_6:1  … beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.