Grace and Godliness
It can be difficult to navigate the tension between what God gives and what God commands. We know our salvation depends on the free gift of God’s grace alone, but we’ve also been told how to live. But is one more important than the other? In other words, is God’s grace in conflict with our personal godliness? Not at all.
First, let’s look at the ditches we can fall into when we forget about either grace or godliness.
Ditch #1: Legalism — Focusing on personal godliness but forgetting God’s grace
In 2 Timothy 3:5, Paul tells Timothy to avoid people who have “the appearance of godliness, but [deny] its power.” Godliness certainly has power, but not by itself. It’s only powerful when it’s enabled by the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 23:23-24, Jesus condemns the Pharisees for focusing on the precise amounts of spices a godly person should donate to the temple, but not actually living out God’s grace through justice, mercy, and faithfulness. It’s easy for us to look down on the Pharisees, but we do it too. And the reason is understandable: It’s much easier to see someone’s exterior actions than their internal heart posture. It’s much faster to see if someone is going through the motions than if they’re bearing fruit over the long haul.
Ditch #2: Licentiousness — Focusing on God’s grace but forgetting personal godliness
The other ditch we often fall into is the attitude of, “It doesn’t matter what I do, God will forgive me!” Paul addresses exactly this attitude in Romans 6:1-4:
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
It’s true that we have been forgiven by Christ’s atoning work on the cross in the past, and because of his intercessory work before the Father’s throne, we will continue to be forgiven in the future. That’s gloriously true. But we have to remember that we’ve not only been saved from something—sin, death, and judgment—but we’ve also been saved for something: newness of life. Or as author Brad Wetherell puts it, we are “Saved to Sin No More.”
In the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), the younger brother leaves home to live a life of rampant licentiousness, while the older brother stays home and lives a life of slave-like legalism. The younger brother thinks freedom is found “out there,” thinking the world will save him. The older brother thinks freedom is found “in me,” thinking the rules will save him. Both are wrong, but both are welcomed home by the father anyway.
The Middle Road
The balancing point of the tension between God’s grace and our godliness, the safe road between the ditches of legalism and licentiousness, the way to avoid becoming a prodigal or a Pharisee, is union with Christ. True freedom is only found in him. By our union with Christ, we experience both God’s redeeming grace and his sanctifying power for godly living. By our union with Christ, both prodigals and Pharisees are welcomed home. Or to use the language of the EFCA doctrinal statement: “For the Christian, grace and godliness coexist, for both are found in our union with Christ… We are first declared righteous as, in union with Christ, we are clothed with his righteousness. Then we progressively become righteous in ourselves as we live out our new life in Christ by God’s power.”[1]
God is both inviting and instructing, welcoming and commanding, he gives grace and he expects godliness. But thankfully he doesn’t leave us alone to figure it out on our own. He sent the Holy Spirit to enable and empower our godly living. If we forget his grace, we try to live godly lives by our own strength which is both exhausting and futile (Galatians 5). If we forget his call to godliness, we start to look more like citizens of the world than citizens of heaven, and our testimony is made ineffective. But God’s grace invites our godliness. We depend on God, and then show that we trust him by taking steps of obedience. In this way his grace is lived out in our godliness. It’s not one or the other, it’s both.
Lord, may your grace enable our godliness to bring glory to your name.
[1] EFCA. Evangelical Convictions, 2nd Edition (p. 232-233). (Function). Kindle Edition.