“God of Grace and God of Glory” — we need both! How do they work?

10 The name [His character] of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it [anytime] and are safe.

Axiom: God gives us grace when we give in to sin.

Axiom: God receives glory when we resist temptation in submission to Him.

Let’s backtrack a bit. We know that Christ died for our sins so that they cannot be held against us anymore. That’s what the cross was all about: Dismissing our sins. So, He offers us grace when we sin so that it no longer breaks our relationship with Him. It DOES hinder our fellowship, but not the relationship.

Paul says, “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase [in our lives]? By no means!” The whole idea of having Christ in us is to live like Him, which is us being godly. Jesus glorified God when He went to the cross (John 12:27-28 tells us that). We, too, glorify God when we are obedient. When temptation rears its ugly head, we are to “submit ourselves to God; resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). God receives glory when we submit to Him in obedience. It is then that we have His power available to us via the Holy Spirit to resist the devil.

For most of us, we usually fight a feeling. We have a desire for something we are not supposed to have or do. The temptation is to give in to our feelings and desires. What we NEED to do is turn to the Father and say, “Abba, I direct my attention to You. Fill me with a sense of Your presence.” I practice this “discipline” routinely, and I promise it works! He fills us with a sense of His presence, from which flow love, joy, peace, hope, thanksgiving, and life. We, then, no longer have the desire to please ourselves, but to please Him. I’m not gonna say it’s easy to resist the devil, but it’s no longer an intense struggle when I practice this discipline.

The glory that God receives is not something that we can produce on demand. It comes as a by-product of our obedience. We can say, “I give God the glory,” but it’s really our obedience and our attitude, even our intention, that produces glory for Him. The same goes for the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit we grow is deeper than our conscious minds can fathom. When we are patient, it is our desire to be patient that bears fruit. In fact, it is our desire to be like Christ that bears much fruit. The same goes for gentleness, forgiveness (faithfulness), kindness, goodness, and self-control. Christ uses this fruit to be appetizing to lost folks. It’s not a lure, but a prize. They really can have that same fruit in their lives if they will give their lives to Jesus and obey Him.

So, we get grace when we give in to sin, but we produce glory for God when we submit to God and are obedient. Sounds pretty straight-forward, doesn’t it?

Abba, I want to be like You. I strive to be obedient to Your Spirit. May You impress upon me first Your love, then Your will. Inspired and empowered by Your love, I will do Your will. May You receive all the glory, Lord. Amen.