“Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God”. (2 Corinthians 7:1)
How does the Bible define grace? It can be summed up as an unmerited gift of divine favour, first, concerning the salvation of a sinner.
Secondly it is the influence of the divine power in the lives of men resulting in a radical change of character and producing the fruits of total freedom from his sinful nature.
Man’s sinful nature is commonly expressed in the following ways: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions. (Galatians 5:19-20).
Now the influence of the divine power of Grace is so potent that it can radically transform any man and make him for for purpose for divine use.
Therefore, no one is so bad to be beyond the school of grace unto salvation and no one should be so saved to begin to imagine that any man is beyond salvation.
Why should these point be made clear at the beginning of our discourse? It is to give us an understanding that grace is the sole work of God, and that the things that are impossible with men is possible with God. (Luke 18:27).
Grace is the evidence of a genuine freedom from sin and the manifestation of a desire in a man to lay hold of the holiness of God.
Therefore grace is much more than the deliberate actions of a man to continue in sin because he has been assured that he will constantly be forgiven or to continue in sin because he believes that it is impossible for him to overcome his besetting sins.
Apostle Paul touched on this controversial topic, asking, “So, shall we then continue in sin that grace may abound? He gave a definite answer saying “God forbid” (Romans 6:2).
To desire to continue in sin shows a misunderstanding and a deliberate violation of the norms of the school of grace.
Simply, the genuine work of grace in a man produces the power to be totally free from besetting sins and to continue in that freedom with grace.
How do we enable the abiding power of Grace? First we must understand that divine Grace is incremental but it is the responsibility of the individual to continue to yield to grow in grace.
How? After experiencing God, he must decide not to settle for less but to lay hold of God, for all of God. This is how to grow in the school of grace.
As he gives himself to God, the believer begins to enter into a setting apart by the Holy Spirit from the frivolities of life, for a walk with divine purpose.
In the Bible, probably no one student fully manifests the process of regeneration to a life long sanctification more than the Apostle Paul.
While recognizing the depth of grace that Holy the Spirit had bestowed on him, Paul was not unmindful of his radical transformation from a “ chief of sinners” to become an Apostle of God. (1 (Timothy 1:15).
The power of grace that was made available to Paul is also available to each and everyone of us only if we choose to enroll in the school of grace and continue therein without being satisfied with a particular class or without dropping out.
The enabling power of the Holy Spirit is available to us for the working of regeneration, justification and sanctification if we allow Him.
This school of grace enables a sinner to live before God with a full assurance that what Jesus did on the cross was sufficient to make him legally innocent, regardless of his past life.
Reading
Hebrews 10:1-10
