Transforming Grace

I love the title of Jerry Bridges book, Transforming Grace. He has captured the biblical reality of Titus 2:11-12, which says, "For the grace of God... teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age." That is another way of saying what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:14, "For Christ's love compels us..." In other words, when it comes to ungodliness, grace is not the problem, it is the answer. It is only when I understand the grace and love of God deeply and personally that I will be changed from within at the heart and motive level. The bible does not commend mere external moral reformation. Rather, through the gospel, it provides an experience of interal spiritual transformation—a transformation that takes place the deeper and more personal the grace of God in Jesus through the cross becomes in my life. Tim Keller, in The Prodigal God, says that the German martyr-pastor Bonhoeffer insisted that "people whose lives remained unchanged by God's  grace didn't really understand its costliness, and therefore didn't really understand the gospel." So when my life is stained with sin (whether irreligious immorality or religious hypocrisy), the solution is not to grab the law by the horns and try harder to obey. The solution is to bring my sin afresh to Jesus, and grab hold of the cross, asking for faith to believe that I really am forgiven and accepted through his blood on my behalf. When that kind of faith becomes real, I am filled with the Spirit, and I experience "transforming grace" from the inside out.