“...we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time, behold now is the day of salvation…Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” - 2Corinthians 6:1-2; 7:1
God’s grace is effectual and filling. It is so because of the one who originates and gives it and for the purpose of its course. Therefore to receive the grace of God in vain is to deny its giver, its power and mans own condition. In the case of the Corinthians their lives were immoral, their trust in God’s leadership suspect, and their zeal waning. The exhortation to not receive the grace of God in vain was a plea for them to turn into the face of God in Jesus Christ, the giver of grace, trusting the delivered Word that proclaimed the grace and become fallow ground for a harvest of holiness for the glory of God. This required their cleansing in repentance trusting that with God there is grace for sin, and their faithfulness in holiness believing that in Christ there is grace for faith.
Is God’s grace in Christ working that powerful progressive transformation in your life that it is purposed for? As one writer says, “For them to receive the grace of God in vain meant that their practice did not measure up to their profession as Christians, that their lives were so inconsistent as to constitute a denial of the logical implications of the gospel, namely, and in particular, that Christ died for them so that they might no longer live to themselves but to His glory" God’s grace in Christ is effectual and filling and to have it in Christ is to be effected and filled with him in all of life for his glory.
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