God's Grace - Our Reasonable Response
1 Peter 1:13-25
…but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” [1 Peter 15-16]
The Apostle Paul also described the above in Romans 12:1. After his exposition on condemnation [Rom 1:8-3:20]; justification [Rom 3:21-5:21]; sanctification [Rom 6-8]; and sovereign choice [Rom 9-11]; key pillars in the doctrine of Grace, he went on to write, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”
Our response to grace is holy living! That is why we present our bodies “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” Peter expressed the same idea when he wrote: “but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,…”. These describe our response to the grace of God.
The technical definition of God’s grace is unmerited favor. Because we are sinners, unholy, marred with imperfection, there is no merit of our own that we can stand upon before a Holy God. We therefore can only come into His presence through unmerited favor, and that is God’s grace.
This is where the legalist fails. Obeying a list of do’s and don’ts can never reckon a person to a Holy God. That reckoning [i.e., declaring righteous] is only accomplished through the “righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ.” [Rom 3:22].
But Paul went on to explain that even sanctification [being set apart for the work of God, i.e., maturing and growing in righteousness] is a work of the Spirit by the grace of God [ref. Rom 6-8]. This, too, the legalist misses. Martin Luther is one of the great testimonies of this that ignited the Reformation. And there were many other church fathers that traveled this same road of correction. But this happens over and over even in our generation. Our founder of the Calvary Chapel Movement, the late Pastor Chuck Smith, had a similar awakening. “Why Grace Changes Everything,” is a wonderful read on that accord. Here was a man called into the ministry at a very young age but it was only when he was impacted by the grace of God that his ministry began to take form.
God’s grace, it is a Divine work through Jesus Christ that we respond to that brings us into holy living.
