Apart from Divine Grace...

I have been reading through the book of 1 John and the other night, I was just overwhelmed at what God has done in saving His children...

The whole book is about seeing whether or not you are a child of God. It's like a test. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says "Examine yourselves to see if you're in the faith." 1 John is the test...along with other scripture but it just hit me what divine grace from God has done...

1 John says we are to love others and not hate
1 John says we know that we love God if we keep His commandments
1 John shows that those who deny Christ's Deity are not of God and are an antichrist
1 John shows if you sin habitually or it is your lifestyle, you're a child of the devil, no matter how much you profess to be a Christian.
1 John says we are to give to those in need
1 John says not to love the world or the things of the world..

I got to thinking about all of this and realized that apart from Divine Grace given by God, I could never love others, I could never keep God's commands, I could never know that Christ is God, I would be a child of the devil and sin habitually, I would hate my brother, I would not love God, I would not give to those in need, I would be an antichrist, apart from divine grace, I would love the world more than Christ...

All of this in 1 John is totally against our nature. We are by nature God haters, we are by nature unloving and by nature selfish, by nature rebels, by nature children of the devil and children of wrath. By nature we have no good within us and the only reason any of God's Children can produce this is because of His Grace...It's because of His life lived inside of us. The Spirit produces all the good, not us. We can't!

Anything praiseworthy in me is because of Him and His grace alone! So, who gets the glory? God!! Becuase apart from Him, I could never do any of these things. Also, in Galatians 5, the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self control, all of these are totally un natural to the human! Because as Paul says in Romans 7:18 There is nothing good that dwells within me. I cant produce any of these fruit! The Spirit is the one producing the goodness so that He may get the glory because Salvation is all of Him from start to finish!

People who are not saved may do good things for others, but only for self glory or self promotion, or to leave a good names for themselves, but the true Christian wants nothing of that, the true Christian wants to make much of God, wants Him to get ALL the glory due to His gracious name and even that desire to make much of God is a gift of grace for apart from grace, I would not have that desire for God to get glory...

Apart from divine grace, I could not even have faith in Christ to be saved. That is a gift given from God (Eph 2:8-9)
Apart from divine grace, I could not do anything! John 15:5 says "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing!" Who is the one that bears much fruit? The one that abides in Him. And how could I ever abide in Him to begin with? Divine grace! For without grace, I would not want to abide in Christ!! It's all of Him!

That's why we could never pray "I know you're proud of me God for choosing you. Maybe some day these other people will get it."

The only reason we can make a human choice for God is because there has been an eternal choice for us..all of His grace! NOT of Ourselves...Nothing!

John 15:16 "You did not choose Me, but I chose you" Jesus made this very clear, the only reason you chose me is because I chose you first. Same thing in 1 John the only reason we love God is because He loved us first.

We can't even come to God unless we are drawn by Him first. It's all a gift of Grace...John 6:44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him." John 6:65 "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father." That's why we could never boast! It's all a work of grace...


To God be the Glory!