6-10-13. How Do We Respond To Grace According To Joshua 24:14-15? – Kevin’s Quick Blog
6-10-13. How Do We Respond To Grace According To Joshua 24:14-15? – Kevin’s Quick Blog
There is the healthy, natural response to God’s grace. What is it? Look at verses Joshua 24:14-15, “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” These verses follow Joshua spelling it out, very clearly in verses 1-13 about the grace of God poured out on the people of Israel. He then talks about their response to God’s grace. This brings to mind a quest.
What should we do when we are touched by the grace of God? It is grace. It is a free gift. Simply repent of unbelief, believe and accept it. Then God will do the rest by his Spirit. This is kind of hard to accept. We want to say, “God forgave you now you must do this to remain in that state of grace. Change your life according to my standard.” Whole books are written on the subject and I don’t want to get into it. But on a rudimentary level, a response should be to thank God. We should place of hope, faith and love in Jesus Christ. But it is the free gift, just accept it. But if we must seek after some healthy responses that we might see in people who receive the grace of God with a pure and tender heart then I can see five responses in this passage to the grace of God in our lives.
First, those touched by the grace of God need to fear the Lord. This does not mean to be afraid of the Lord. It is not walking around thinking that God is going to lower the boom on you any minute for sins you have committed. It means to have a respect for God and have a deep desire to do what is right in his eyes. It involves wanting to please the Lord out of gratitude and knowledge of his greatness.
Second, those who have been touched by the grace of God should serve Jesus with all faithfulness. We should have this goal. Can we serve with all faithfulness? Not really. We can pray to God to help us be a little more faithful today than yesterday. But we are basically unfaithful creatures. We are faithful to feed ourselves and take care of basic needs. But we tend to give up serving the Lord. That is why we need God’s help to be faithful. We can depend his faithfulness and power.
Third, those touched by the grace of God should throw away the gods their ancestors worshiped. When Jesus comes into your life, it is a time to get rid of idols that guided your life in the past. I needed to get rid of my gods of hedonism, of loving money, of self love etc and make Jesus my all in all.
Forth, those touched by the grace of God, must choose for themselves, without tarrying, whom they will serve. God calls us to make a choice. We need to choose to serve Jesus according to our calling in life. A child of God must make that choice, “Today” and not wait forever to make a choice to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
Fifth, those touched by the grace of God must dedicate their families to serving the Lord. Joshua who declared, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” I want to dedicate my life and my family to serve the Lord. We used to serve the Lord together, in a very unified and structured way. But as the kids got older it was not easy to dedicate our family to serve the Lord. It does not mean that I, as a Christian father am helpless to dedicate my family. No I am not. I can make my home a Christian home. I can pray for my kids. I can exude a Christian influence towards my family. And in this way, I can dedicate my family to serving the Lord, even if all are not in agreement.
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