Believers have the unequalled privilege of living in the presence of God every day. This is something the world doesn’t have. However, learning about how much we’ve received because Christ went to the cross for us is a lifelong process. Grace isn’t just some churchy concept we recite out of habit, but the very thing that lets us breathe again.
Trudging through life is burdensome and exhausting if we try it live it without God. Most churches don’t help because they’re still teaching the law instead of grace. Traditional religion harps on self-effort. Thankfully, Jesus offers us a refreshing alternative. “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly” (Matthew 11:28-30, MSG).
Faith in Jesus’ finished works shifts our mindset. Religion says to perform, but grace teaches us to think differently. “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2). God’s will is for us to know Him, not religion and endless rituals. Transformation happens by changing our thinking, not by grinding through spiritual to do lists.
What matters most to God isn’t how hard we work, but how deeply we believe what He already did. Surrendering our thinking to Him lets Him begin to shape our desires, our decisions, and even our conduct. This happens from the inside out as we spend time with Him.
One of the most life altering truths we learn is that we don’t live by our own faith, but by God’s faith. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). We’re not here trying to muster up our own belief; Jesus’ faith is already perfect, complete, and finished, and He put that faith in us. When we face needs, storms, or battles, we remind ourselves, “It’s already done.” Living in the realm of the finished lets us call our healing, our provision, and our victory “finished” because Jesus already completed the work.
Here’s where grace really confronts us: we weren’t always this way. Before the cross, humanity was incapable of pleasing God on its own. “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Romans 3:10-12). Man was expected to live by the law, which exposed guilt but offered no power to change. After the cross, God now no longer looks at us through the lens of our failures; when He looks at us, He sees Jesus.
Grace anchors our transformation. Religion pressures us to change through fear and condemnation, but grace tells us otherwise. “Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” (Romans 2:4). Because of Jesus, we’ve moved from struggling along in survival mode to walking in victory.
