This little nook of the web is called “practical grace.” That’s because true grace, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ, is the most practical, life-impacting thing I have ever encountered.  My personal outlook on life, my day-by-day living, has been radically altered by this true grace found in Christ. 

It seems that our initial confession of Christ almost always is accompanied by a deep appreciation of what Jesus did for us. A sinless life lived on our behalf, an unjust death on the cross, blood shed for our sins. What grace, that God has saved a wretch like me!

What has taken time and effort in my Christian life is the appropriating of the continuing grace of the gospel in my daily life. My life continues to be about Jesus Christ and His righteousness; He is as central today as the day He saved my soul, or even the day before the foundation of the Earth that He chose me in Him (Ephesians 1:3). My salvation includes my sanctification.

I think this is why the New Testament so emphatically affirms that godliness is not primarily a set of actions but a person (1 Timothy 3:16). Our life is hid in Christ; our whole existence is in union with Him. Including the existence I have after conversion.

From the Gospels to Romans to Ephesians to Galatians to Hebrews… in the Old Testament and in the New… God reveals that it is only through and in His Son, the Messiah, that we will ever stand before Him. Our relationship with Him is the center of life, really the only life we now have. Colossians 3 summarizes this well: “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:3-4).

Ok… so I hear internet-minds thinking… this sounds like great, deep theology. It sounds heady and ethereal, but not really practical.

But the gospel (grace, our union with Christ) is fantastically practical. It is so intensely practical that it is hard to know where to begin.

For one, the centrality of grace is radically different than any other religious belief system known to man. What it practically produces is humility mixed with grateful service, rather than judgmental self-effort.

One Christian author puts it this way: “Grace understood and embraced will always lead to commitment. But commitment required will always lead to legalism.” (Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace, p. 128)

But that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The gospel of grace has ongoing specific answers to the realities of our life – often typified in questions like:

• Do I have enough? Many people (Christians included) spend their whole lives striving toward some summit (money, approval of men or God, self-security).

• Am I good enough? Many people (Christians especially) live lives trying to “measure up” to a moral standard, and evaluate their lives based on their own righteousness.

• Am I valuable? Many people (again, Christians included) think they’re only valuable based on how ‘good’ they’ve been lately. We condition our feelings so that we feel good when we do certain actions (or avoid others).

The gospel of grace has important answers for daily living because it strongly answers these questions. It proclaims that our union with Christ is the center of our lives right now – we have such riches! It shouts that our worth is found only in Him. It thunders with the fact that the only righteousness we will ever have is someone else’s given to us.

One of the central struggles of the Christian life is that we are constantly pushed by the world away from persevering in the truth of the gospel. We are constantly pushed away from faith in the only righteousness or godliness we will ever have – away from faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Here is the gospel:
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin, so that you might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Here’s how I’m tempted to alter this good news:
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin, so that you might with great effort on your behalf become eventually the righteousness of God” (Not in the Bible).

Do you see the difference? Inasmuch as I am “in Christ” I am the righteousness of God. Even though I can’t write that sentence without trembling, my union with Christ means I have imputed (given, really counted, actually obtained) to me His righteousness. I can’t be putting my righteousness in His place. Not even the righteousness which I do after conversion.

(By the way, that righteousness produced in me by God is called fruit in the Bible [Galatians], it gives assurance [1 John], it is the mark of the believer [James]. I’m not in any way demeaning our fruit, it is wonderful. But may we not equate it with the righteousness of Christ which is ours forever in our union with Him.)

The shift we often subtly as we live as Christians is from our having Christ’s holiness and Christ’s righteousness by faith to us having our own (though verbally Spirit-enabled) righteousness and holiness. We must not equate these. They are not the same at all. The former is the very essence of our salvation every day, every hour, every moment of the Christian life. The latter is the evidence of a Christian life, not the center of it. To make such a shift can both confuse us and rob us of the wonder of what has been done for us, even after conversion.

Now what? Well, my life appears primarily to be about growing in understanding the gospel. My life is now about constantly holding onto faith, faith which includes the belief that I have that righteousness of Christ. Day by day, moment by moment, I desperately need continued, deepening understanding of the gospel of grace.

God’s righteousness is what I get through faith in Christ (Romans 3:21, Phil 3:9).

As I know the depths of Christ, as I grow in the gospel of grace, I am struck with wonder anew. I desire to walk in every way that reflects that I am sold out, absolutely engaged with, this amazing truth. My faith leads me to act and do because I trust God; when He says a way is best, it is! I become more and more thankful for the imperatives of Scripture, to which I am pulled because of the depth of my excitement in the gospel of Christ.

May the intensely practical, life-changing grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you in your Christian walk today and every day.