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Cynicism is the enemy of accepting the grace of God through Christ. It seems just too good to be true. Many who hear the Gospel in a way that implies that just making a statement of belief in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior is all that is required to make them true Christians will not respond. "you can't get something for nothing", they believe. They are not living in that kind of world. That kind of gospel turns them off. Why can't they believe? Belief cannot come until there is acceptance of the cost. Before acceptance of the cost, one must know what the cost is.

Their cynicism remains.

Others are more than willing to affirm a belief that requires nothing of them but saying a few words. While Jesus was on the cross, I am quiet sure He was not thinking that grace is unconditional! But did not the fact of His dying on the cross make grace unconditional TO US? Not only did grace cost Jesus, there is a cost to every true Christian to become a Christian and to remain one.

Grace is not unconditional. Otherwise, Christ would never have had to die. It is amazing that the most familiar verse in the Bible states that grace is not unconditional. Lets read it again:

"And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert [on a pole], so must [so it is necessary that] the Son of Man be lifted up [on the cross], In order that everyone who believes in Him [who cleaves to Him, trusts Him, and relies on Him] may not perish, but have eternal life and [actually] live forever! For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten ([d]unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life."

Notice verse 16 again, "so that". So that what? "so that whoever believes in...Him" The Greek word for believe carries a requirement of belief coupled with action. Belief requires a subsequent action. This was vividly portrayed by the ministry of John the Baptist, who prepared the way not only for the Messiah, but he was preparing those he baptized to begin the process of repentance for accepting and believing in Jesus. Without repentance of all that one is, with the willingness to obey, belief is an empty vessel and grace is not yet an issue. Disobedience and grace are poles apart.

Years later some still believe that grace to them is free. They are found having struggled to a standstill - and they are still standing still! They never seem to chnage.They may not be worse, but they are not better spiritually. Without spiritual growth, there can be no maturing; without maturity, there can be no fruit; if there is no fruit, the tree is barren. They are stagnant, still presuming that the grace of God is free.

Those who once were close to them, and meet them years later often remark that they are the same as they remember them. It is often taken as a compliment, but in reality for a Christian, perhaps not. There is still hope, but they will require much effort by those who lead them (Luke 13:5-9).

Presenting the Gospel as being only an affirmation of "belief", or volition, without explaining the cost, and that repentance is required is misleading. This in turn creates nominal Christians who never seem to grow or change from who they were, and now are, and have always been.

I pray that all who present the Gospel may keep in their minds the two possible mind sets of those to whom they present it. May no one be found at His coming "still standing still".

"Therefore let us go on and get past the elementary stage in the teachings and doctrine of Christ (the Messiah), advancing steadily toward the completeness and perfection that belong to spiritual maturity. Let us not again be laying the foundation of repentance and abandonment of dead works (dead formalism) and of the faith [by which you turned] to God," - Hebrews 6:1 (AMP)

"God's Words For US" from Cecelia Lester

Renew a Right Spirit