It is all too easy to lose the sense of grace in our hearts. Peter begins his second epistle with: “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord” (2 Pet. 1:2). We stand before God in perfect peace in His present acceptance and favor. Peter desires that our apprehension of this might be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Grace will not occupy us so much with the blessings it bestows, but, rather, with the loving God who has bestowed them, and with the Lord Jesus through whom we first tasted those sweet waters of grace (Exod. 15:25). At the close of the same epistle, Peter instructs us to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18). Peter links growing in grace with the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We grow spiritually when we allow God’s grace and a deeper knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into our lives. We grow in that warm light of His favor (it is the only environment where such growth is possible), and we grow in the practical knowledge of what His favor is.
When decline begins to set in, and the sense of grace is lost, then the zeal of the religious flesh takes its place. Works triumph over communion and our walk begins to stray. The remedy we invariably impose is based on the principle of law. It is not a return to grace, and yet, legality will only further stunt spiritual growth. When the sense of grace is diminished, we decline in practice. Our motives must be in God. Sometimes, effort is made to press conduct, works, and practice; because (it is said) full grace was preached before; now, that there is decline in practice, you must preach practice. That which is the rather to be pressed, is grace—the first grace. It is grace, not legalism, that will restore the soul. Where the sense of grace is diminished, the conscience may be, at the same time, uncommonly active, and then it condemns the pressing of grace, and legalism is the result. When conscience has been put in action through the claims of grace, that is not legalism; and there will be holy practice in detail. There should be weeping as to the decline within Christendom. Paul was mindful of Timothy’s tears. Grace is not letting go—we are to “earnestly contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). Nevertheless, contending in fleshly energy is not the work of grace and will invariably produce a form of legalism and drive away the lambs. On the other hand, to allow looseness, and to adopt worldly principles, is not grace either.
One who has a narrow interpretation of the truth is often said to be legal, whereas one who generously interprets the truth is called liberal. While these may be partial truths, they are bad definitions. Truth is exclusive and, by its very nature, divides right from wrong. At the core of Christianity there are many immutable truths. Simply because one takes exclusive ground as to these, this does not make them legal. Submission and obedience to the Word of God is not legality. Contrariwise, one who rejects a rigid view of certain scriptures isn’t automatically liberal. At the root of both legality and liberalism is the flesh. Whenever we take up the things of God in the flesh, it must result in either legality or liberalism. Self and not God is the center of both views. Moreover, it is important to recognize that the right path is not some happy medium between the two. Such a path is as much guided by self-will as the two extremes. What then motivates the believer? “The love of Christ constraineth us” (2 Cor. 5:14). This is the source of our motivation.
Legality and liberalism will always assert their supremacy. Speak to a liberal, and they will assure you that their view is right. Likewise, the legal conservative. With both, however, man seeks to establish his own superior worthiness apart from God. Grace can never be appreciated until we recognize our utter unworthiness and our inability to attain any degree of worthiness before God. To be truly happy, we must know ourselves for what we are, and we are to be done with all questions as to self; conversely, we must know who God is in the fulness of His grace. My worthiness rests upon God’s view of my position in Christ. God gives grace to the lowly, but He must resist the proud. Does the Spirit which has taken His abode in us desire enviously? But He gives more grace. Wherefore He says, God sets Himself against the proud, but gives grace to the lowly (James 4:5-6 JND). When the heart knows the grace of God, it rests in that superabounding goodness. Self, along with all its jealous strivings, must necessarily vanish from view.