Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Who is stronger?
Christ, or the angel who fell from heaven--Satan?
Which is stronger?
• Light or darkness?
• Love (agape), or hatred?
• That "much more abounding grace" of the Lord Jesus (Rom. 5:20, 21), or the power of our evil appetites and habits and obsessions and addictions?
• The power of death (that held Jesus Christ captive in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea), or the resurrection power of the Father that raised Him up after three days?
We can't say it often enough: that much more abounding grace is stronger than all the power of sin the devil can invent. In fact, there is in that grace "much more" power! "Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more."
Let's not try to serve God with anything less than the full power of that much more abounding grace that is revealed in Christ. That grace is the enemy of sin; it condemns it, defeats it, conquers it, annihilates it, so that we might be free indeed. Then the grace of God will be manifested in us in "newness of life" (Rom. 6:4). That grace "reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Then we discover something precious: it is easy to be saved and it is hard to be lost, when we begin to appreciate that much more abounding grace! We must not conclude that the upward path is the "hard path" and the downward path is the "easy one;" it's the opposite. All the way that leads to hell there are impediments and obstacles to hinder us; God is constantly trying to tell us this.
It's like we are driving on the freeway, you're at the wheel, but the Holy Spirit is sitting beside you in the front seat. He is saying, Don't stay on this freeway to hell; take this exit to the kingdom of God! That's what Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would do when He gave Him the name "Parakletos," the One called to sit down beside you and never leave you (John 16:7, 8; "para" = beside you; "kletos" = called).
Don't misunderstand. You do have something to do: it's to make the constant choice to let the Holy Spirit guide you. But please remember, you are not your own Savior: let the Lord save you. It is you who turns the wheel on to the blessed Exit coming up that leads to eternal life. But He guided you to do it; and you praise the Lord forever and ever.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 27, 2007.
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