What would you think if you went to buy a car and the salesman said you’d either have to push the car everywhere you went or pay extra for an engine? You’d know something was wrong, because cars come equipped with their own supply of power to get you where you’re going. The engine is part of the purchase price of the car.
You do have a responsibility to turn on the ignition and steer, but your effort does not supply the power for the trip. When I see so many Christians failing in their Christian life, living defeated lives day after day, month after month, and year after year, it soon becomes apparent they “push” their Christian lives. They don’t realize that the power for the Christian life is already under the hood.
That power is the grace of God, His inexhaustible supply of goodness, by which He does for us what we could never do for ourselves. Some of us live under the misconception that we have the power to pull off the Christian life on our own. For them, it is all about human effort.
But God has supplied every true believer with a magnificent provision: His inexhaustible supply of goodness, which is called grace. We can’t earn it, we don’t deserve it, and we can never repay it, but He has made it abundantly available for free. If Christians need to grasp any truth, it is grace.
