So let's not even call it "grace". Even though the word "grace" is used more than one hundred twenty times in the New Testament, if it seems like overkill to hear me refer to the term "grace" so often, let's just lay that word aside. Let's call it "the gospel". Let's say that this "gospel" is meant for daily living, from the time I am saved until the day I die, this gospel is the power of God unto salvation...I am saved, I am being saved, and I will be saved, and "so great a salvation" it is!
This power is only as real to you as it is effective in you. Power is not a concept, it is active and living. "Energy" is the ability to do work, and Paul said that God's work was at work in him mightily. This work is that finished work of Christ. You'll have something to show for this work that God does!
We are so complete, in Him! More than a theoretical completeness, it is a completeness that makes you so rich in God, so fulfilled, you become an easy person to live with or be with.
We'll never outgrow our need to study this gospel, apply it, savor it, allowing it to come alive in us. This gospel is only as powerful in you, as it systematically touches your every insecurity, meets you at your most gaping inadequacy, and informs your daily decisions. It is active in you, to the direct proportion that you find yourself enabled to love the brethren, and I do not mean the ability to be patronizing - I mean actually seeing others, in some real way, as being better than yourself.
If you find yourself stuck in the same old insecurities, still struggling with an overwhelming sense of being inadequate as a wife, mother, daughter, or friend; if you find that God can change your eternal destiny, but He can rarely change your DAY, if you find yourself passionless in your marriage - or if you are someone who kicks people to the curb who disagree with you on incidentals...your heart becoming guarded and cold and distant....ah. That is not the gospel. The gospel is better than that, happier than that, fuller than that. Others can have their issues, but you don't have to have them. There is no need for such angst. You need a good gospel foundation, still.
I need it. I want it, I need it, and since I hunger and thirst for it, I am, over time, being filled.
Our good friend and mentor Neil Silverberg (http://www.ezraproject.org/ wrote a beautiful song, long ago, that encapsules this whole thing:
In the gospel
I have found all that I need!
Oh, in the gospel
If I only would believe,
Mercy flowing down from heaven
Oceans of His love!
I can't believe that the gospel's for free!
I can't believe what He started in me!
If I had ten thousand years to proclaim the gospel
Praise His name!
Regardless of how many years I have walked with the Lord, I stand in need of a Savior. I have areas of my life that deeply need to be touched by the power of the gospel.
Now. Let's go back to the word, first used in the New Testament by John, the disciple whom Jesus loved....the disciple closest to His heart (this is no coincidence!). Let's return to the word used by the great Apostle Paul:
Grace.
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