We need to Receive and Enjoy Grace Daily through the Blood of Christ, the Word of Grace, the Spirit of Grace, and the Church so that we may Grow in Grace
As believers in Christ, we were born again by the grace of God, and now we need to grow in grace by enjoying all that Christ is to us as our spiritual food and living water. We are like Isaac: he was born through grace and he was also grown up in grace (Gen. 21:8).
If you read the story of Isaac in Genesis you will see that he didn’t do much outwardly – he simply grew up in grace and he enjoyed everything that his father prepared for him. As New Testament believers we have received Christ as life, and we need to let Christ grow in us so that He may make His home in our heart, live in us, and be formed in us (Gal. 4:19).
The Triune God is a God of grace, and He as the Spirit of grace is with our spirit – so available, so ready to impart God’s riches into us. All we need to do is turn to the Lord and apply the blood of Christ, enjoy the word of grace, be filled with the Spirit of grace, and be in the church of God to experience fresh grace!
As Isaac did, We also need to Grow in Grace
The pattern of Isaac shows us how we as believers in Christ should live and be: we need to grow in grace and enjoy the Lord (2 Pet. 3:18)! Our need today is to grow in grace, which means that we need to grow in the enjoyment of Christ with all that He is to us.
Christ is our spiritual food and our living water, and as we enjoy His riches (Eph. 3:8), we grow in life (Eph. 4:15). Our God is a God of grace; Christ is grace (John 1:17), and the Spirit is the Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:29).
This grace that we enjoy today is the grace of life (1 Pet. 3:7), the varied grace of God (1 Pet. 4:10), the all grace (1 Pet. 5:10), and the sufficient grace in all our weaknesses (2 Cor. 12:9). The Triune God the Spirit of grace is sufficient for all our needs, and the Triune God as grace is now with our spirit (Gal. 6:18).
Grace is not something that God gives us; what God gives us can be a blessing, but what God works of Himself into us through our enjoyment of Him is grace. This is why Paul ends all of his epistles with “Grace be with you”. The grace of God is with our spirit as a living person, the Spirit, and He fills us with the enjoyment of all that the Triune God is.
When we enjoy the Lord, we can love others with His love, care of others with His tender care, and live out Christ by letting Christ live in us. God wants us to enjoy Him as grace and grow in grace.
But for grace to grow in us, our natural man and our self need to decrease. Christ must increase and the self must decrease (John 3:30), and for this many dealings will come so that the natural man may be broken, our confidence in the flesh would be smashed, and our self would be denied – so that we may enjoy God as grace MUCH MORE!
The more God deals with us and we cooperate with Him (as little or as much as we can), the more He can grow in us as grace and He can make His home in our heart, be formed in us, and live in us (Gal. 2:20; 4:19; Eph. 3:17).
God doesn’t want to merely “bless us” with outward things which we may enjoy for a little while but have no eternal value; God wants to work Himself into us and live in us as the Spirit to be our enjoyment. We don’t have to “ask for dealings”; we need to ask for more grace, open to the Lord to enjoy Him more, and realize that Christ as the Spirit is in us to be grace to us all the time!
Lord Jesus, cause us to grow in grace today. Thank You for being the Spirit of grace with our spirit. May we care only for the enjoyment of Christ that we may live a grace-receiving and grace-enjoying life. Your grace is sufficient for us. Your grace is the grace of life, the varied grace, even the all grace with our spirit! Hallelujah, grace is with our spirit!
Receiving and Enjoying Grace Daily through the Blood, the Word, the Spirit, and the Church
1 Pet. 2:2 As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation
The Bible reveals four practical ways we can receive grace and enjoy grace in a daily way – through the blood, the word, the Spirit, and the church.
1. We can receive and enjoy grace daily through the precious blood of Christ. God has bought us with His own blood (Acts 20:28), the blood of the covenant, to bring us – sinful and corrupted people – into the eternal enjoyment of God.
We have been saved by grace and cleansed by the blood of Christ; now whenever we sin, we can apply the blood of Christ and confess our sins, and He will cleanse us from all our sins (1 John 1:7, 9). We have been purchased with God’s own blood and now we are His!
Now we have boldness to enter into the Holy of Holies through a new and living way, the blood of Jesus (Heb. 10:19-20). We have the right to eat of the tree of life because we wash our robes in the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 22:14). Even more, we overcome the enemy by the blood of the Lamb and by testifying of the divine facts (Rev. 12:11). Hallelujah for the blood of Christ!
2. We can receive and enjoy grace daily through the word of grace. We have the word of grace which can be eaten by us to become the gladness and joy of our heart. Jeremiah found God’s word and didn’t “study them” or “memorize them” – he ate them, and these words became not “a book of theology” or “sound doctrines” in him, but the joy and rejoicing of his heart (Jer. 15:16).
We need to daily find the word of God’s grace and enjoy Christ in His word – His words are spirit and life (Acts 20:32; John 6:63). Find God’s word; open to the Lord’s speaking; enjoy the words of His grace; get into the word of God in a living way, and you will be built up by the words of grace.
3. We can receive and enjoy grace daily by the Spirit of grace, who is the bountiful supply of the Spirit to be the oil of exultant joy anointing us as partners of Christ in His divine enterprise (Heb. 1:9; 10:29b; Zech. 12:10).
The Triune God has been processed and consummated to become the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19-21) to anoint us with the oil of exultant joy and make us partners with Him in His divine interest.
Paul and Silas experienced this oil of exultant joy when they were in prison: they were praying and singing songs of praise (Acts 15:35). To experience the anointing of the bountiful Spirit we need to rejoice in the Lord, love Him, exercise our spirit to enjoy Him, and learn to maintain our joy!
4. We can receive and enjoy grace daily in the church of God, in the meetings of the local church. In the church of God we can experience the fresh and refreshing grace of God as the descending dew upon the oneness of the saints (Psa. 133:3).
The grace of God descends from the heavens through God’s compassions to water us and transform us (Lam. 3:22-23; 2 Cor. 13:14; Acts 11:23). When we meet with the saints and enjoy the Lord together, caring only for the grace of God, the grace of God can even be seen in the church.
God’s good pleasure is related to the church, and when you care for what God cares for, you will be a receiver and enjoyer of grace, living a grace-enjoying life. Aren’t you so happy in this lovely place?
Lord, thank You for Your precious blood. Your blood redeems us, cleanses us, responds to the enemy’s accusations, opens a new and living way into the Holy of Holies, gives us the ground to stand before God, qualifies us to eat of the tree of life, and makes us Your overcomers! Your blood brings us into the eternal enjoyment of God! Thank You for Your word of grace which can be found by us, eaten and enjoyed by us, and can become the joy and rejoicing of our heart! Keep us eating Your word! Thank You for the Spirit of grace with our spirit as the bountiful supply of the processed and consummated Triune God to anoint us with the oil of exultant joy as partners of Christ! Hallelujah for the church, where we can experience the fresh and refreshing grace of God as the descending dew! Lord, keep us growing in grace every day!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Dick Taylor’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis (pp. 831-832), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (2), week 9 / msg 9, Living a Grace-enjoying Life for God’s Good Pleasure.
- Further reading: recommending ch. 7 in Watchman Nee’s, The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
- Hymns on this topic:
# And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, / And by the word of their testimony / And they loved not their soul lives unto death. / Therefore rejoice, rejoice, rejoice! (Hymns #1347)
# We have the Word! The written Word’s our daily food; / We mix this Word with faith and say “Amen!“ / Then thro’ the day, the spoken Word will speak to us / And regulate our living from within. (Hymns #1287)
# Then rejoice evermore, rejoice evermore, / It is better to sing than be sighing: / It is better to live than be dying; / So let us rejoice evermore. (Hymns #717)
# O Jesus Christ, grow Thou in me, / And all things else recede; / My heart be daily nearer Thee, / From sin be daily freed. / Each day let Thy supporting might / My weakness still embrace; / My darkness vanish in Thy light, / Thy life my death efface. (Hymns #395)
