Grace and Strength

Talk to any professional or amateur fighter and they will agree that the most important aspect of their sport is training. Whether it is boxing, wrestling, or martial arts, proper training is the key to success. One vital element of any training regiment is strength conditioning. Athletes build their muscles and strength through weight lifting, plyometrics, cardio, nutrition and supplements.

Similarly, strength is essential in the believer’s fight of faith. As Christians we are to “act like men, firm in the faith, [and] be strong.” (1 Cor. 16:12-14). We are also exhorted to “be strong in the Lord and in all the strength of His might” (Eph. 6:10).

So how do we build our strength? Just as physical strength begins with proper nutrition, grace is the building block of spiritual strength.

“Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.” – Hebrews 13:9

Food strengthen the outer man, but God’s grace strengthens the inner man. Our spiritual nourishment comes from eating at the alter of grace, not from eating our Wheaties. John Piper puts it like this, “If you want to be strong in your heart, when your heart is groaning with a sense of sin and failure, before you go to the kitchen to eat food, go to the altar to eat the blood-bought grace of forgiveness and hope.”

Our strength is also received directly from the Holy Spirit (Eph. 3:16). Paul stated that when his physical (outer) self was weak, his spiritual self was strong with the power of Christ because “My [God’s] grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

Therefore, our spiritual weight lifting consists of being “content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties” (2 Cor. 12:9-10). We are to boast in our weakness and wholly depend on the strength of the Lord. Our spiritual body building is the continual realization (and subsequent action) that God’s wonderful, merciful grace is sufficient, and that we cannot add one jot or tittle to the redemptive work of Christ. As the psalmist said, “The Lord is my strength and my shield, I will trust Him…” (Psalm 28:7).

The fight of faith requires great strength. That strength is realized through our whole-hearted dependence and trust in the grace of out Lord Jesus Christ.

for His glory,

DJ