For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. (Rom 12:3)Now, I can hear it now. "So?" Well, I noticed a strange juxtaposition of ideas. Paul gives the Roman believers a command ... on the basis of grace.
Huh. That's a little strange, isn't it? I mean, I know lots of people who use the word "grace" to mean "We don't really have to be obedient anymore." You know ... "It's all about grace, not law." That kind of thinking. And, yet, here we have Paul making a command on the basis of grace.
As a matter of fact, he did it earlier in the letter. In the first chapter as he introduces himself to the "beloved of God in Rome", he talks about him being called as an apostle by Jesus Christ our Lord "through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake." (Rom 1:5) There it is again -- received grace to bring about obedience.
I think that we often abuse grace. We see it as "works don't matter." They do. Martin Luther said, "We are saved by faith alone, but not by faith that is alone." James said that faith without works is dead faith (James 2:17). Our justification is demonstrated by our works. Paul stuck all three concepts together in that verse above, where he speaks of being given grace to bring about obedience of faith. At the end of that epistle Paul says that the gospel reveals Christ, "leading to obedience of faith." (Rom 16:26)
"Saved by grace through faith apart from works" (Eph 2:8-9) is a marvelous concept. Just remember, we are not saved for sin. We are mostly clear on how we're saved, but a bit murky on why. We're saved, obviously, for the glory of God, first and foremost. We're saved to "become conformed to the image of His Son." (Rom 8:29) We're actually saved to become slaves -- slaves of righteousness (Rom 6:17-18). We're not saved to continue in sin. We're saved to make the most of God. Don't abuse His grace. He saved us to follow Him, not thumb our noses at Him.
2 comments:
i was wondering if it proper to tie both parable of the talents and the measure of grace together. Jesus talks about the talents how, to some much is given to some few are given.
in the end, the question becomes; what have you done with what was given to you?
then we have in roman's 12: the statement that we are allotted each a measure of faith.
so if we are to consider this measure in the same vain as the allotted talents, it becomes apparent that we are to use this faith to bring about a bounty that will be measured in the end. so yes we are saved by Grace, but thru faith we are to be at work for the kingdoms sake.
for those that feel that it is ok to be disobedient because of grace, are like the ones that received a measure of talents, then buried them.
i thought this was an interesting parallel, then i thought NAH.....
No, that's true. We seem to think, "God has given me so much (grace, salvation, gifts, etc.) FOR ME." Yes, we benefit, but it's not FOR ME. To whom much is given, much is required.
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