Day 2: Grace That Transforms, Not Excuses

Reading: Ephesians 2:4-9

4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

Reading: Romans 6:1-4

Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

6 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

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Devotional: 
Paul's declaration that we are saved by grace through faith and not by works is one of the most beloved truths in all of Scripture. But it has also been one of the most mishandled. Grace was never meant to lower the standard of what a redeemed life looks like. It was meant to make that transformation possible in the first place. In Romans 6, Paul asks plainly whether we should keep sinning so grace can abound, and his answer is an unambiguous no. Grace is not a permission slip. It is the very power of God that raises the spiritually dead to walk in a completely different direction.

Are there areas of your life where you have quietly used grace as a reason not to change? What would it look like to receive grace as the power to change rather than a covering for staying the same?

Identify one area where you have been coasting spiritually. Ask God today not just for forgiveness in that area, but for the transforming power of his grace to make you genuinely new there.