But by the grace of God

Were it not for God’s grace, we’d all be condemned to a life of sin.

In the 1950s a psychologist, Stanton Samenow, and a psychiatrist, Samuel Yochelson, sharing the conventional wisdom that crime is caused by environment, set out to prove their point. They began a 17-year study involving thousands of hours of clinical testing of 250 inmates here in the District of Columbia. To their astonishment, they discovered that the cause of crime cannot be traced to environment, poverty, or oppression. Instead, crime is the result of individuals making, as they put it, wrong moral choices.

In their 1977 work The Criminal Personality, they concluded that the answer to crime is a "conversion of the wrong-doer to a more responsible lifestyle." In 1987, Harvard professors James Q. Wilson and Richard J. Herrnstein came to similar conclusions in their book Crime and Human Nature. They determined that the cause of crime is a lack of proper moral training among young people during the morally formative years, particularly ages one to six. 

Without knowing it, these men stumbled upon the very essence of the human life—without right moral living, man is destined for a life of heartache. As Christians, we know that moral living is to be found in Christ. His law shows us how to live an upright life and warns us of the consequences of wrongful living.

But as hard as some people have tried, no one can live morally on their own. Our sin nature contradicts the very law of God! Paul realized this fact when he wrote, “But by the grace of God I am what I am” (I Corinthians 15:10). His living for the Lord was nothing he had done, but it was only by the grace of God.

If you are saved, it was only because of God’s grace. The very fact that you now live by a higher standard and follow Christ is a miracle in itself! Never get over the fact that Christ extended His grace to save you. He didn’t have to. He doesn’t owe us anything. His grace was free, unmerited favor on our behalf. Nothing we could have done could earn his grace. He willingly gave it to us and gave us a home in Heaven and a new way of living.

Thank God for His grace each day. Don’t become complacent in your eternal security and take it for granted. Were it not for God’s grace, you would be destined to a life of sin! Thank God for His salvation from sin. For as the Apostle Paul said, it is only by God’s grace that you are what you are today.

Source: DITW, January 10, 2009