“But he gives more grace; therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” James 4:6-10
Yesterday I mentioned John Stott’s encouraging and insightful words on James 4:6:
John Stott writes:
“What comfort there is in this verse! It tells us that God is tirelessly on our side. He never falters in respect of our needs, he always has more grace at hand for us. He is never less than sufficient, he always has more and yet more to give. Whatever we may forfeit when we put self first, we cannot forfeit our salvation, for there is always more grace. No matter what we do to him, he is never beaten. We may play false to the grace of election, contradict the grace of reconciliation, overlook the grace of indwelling – but he gives more grace. Even we were to turn to him and say, ‘What I have received so far is much less than enough, ‘he would reply, ‘Well, you may have more.’ His resources are never at an end, his patience is never exhausted, his initiative never stops, his generosity knows no limit: he gives more grace.”
“But grace, in God, has a correlative in man. James, having pointed to God’s sufficiency, points on to our responsibility.”
I have to tell myself NOT to hear what Stott or James is NOT saying. The grace is there for us. But it is what it is, a gift based solely in God’s goodness and flowing in our obedience, directed toward a holy humility that makes us like Christ. In other words, we aren’t to boast that we have ‘MORE GRACE,’ nor are we to rest on the soft bed of grace. We are to learn, live, and love in it. LIVE STORY TODAY!:)
