February 22, 2021: To Live A Life of Unearned Grace and Love Can Be Difficult...If Done on Our Own.

The Book of Second Peter, chapter 1, reminds us that God is the One who provides us the power we need to live our life in Christ. The way He does this is by giving us the Holy Spirit.

The Apostle Peter goes on to remind us that God has given us "exceedingly great and precious promised" that will help us live a life of "godliness", so that we may share in HIs divine nature. Read the following:

2 Peter 1: 2-4

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

But then the Apostle Peter goes on to remind us that through the Holy Spirit, we have diligence and through our faith in our Lord, Jesus, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, and godliness. And through our godliness, we have brotherly kindness, which in turn produces love. The very nature of God is "love", and if we are pursuing these virtues, then we are sharing in God's divine nature.

2 Peter 1: 5-8

But also, for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now you might be asking yourself if this is even possible? If done by our own self-power and self-will...the answer is No! As a matter of fact, we should have no part in trying to live a life as the Apostle Peter describes above.

PERSONNAL COMMENT:

The only way we can live a life that is pleasing to God, is by our "full and absolute surrender" to the Holy Spirit in our lives and allowing Him to live this life through us. As we "die-to-self" daily and get out of the way of letting the Holy Spirit have full control of our lives, may we honor our God and Savior of the "Unearned Grace and Love" He has given us.