Growing in Grace

Growing in grace is not what we do

If that’s your stance it’s a Pharisaical view,

Growing in grace is God’s work in us

As He conforms us to the image of Jesus.

We are saved by grace through faith

Then God places us on His conforming lathe

And with meticulous and patient care

He fashions us through His word and prayer.

Grace is God’s blessing that none deserved

In grace we grow by reading His word

And the willingness to be like His Holy Son

Propels us to walk as children of the kingdom.

As God’s holy word in us richly dwells

Jesus’ light in us the darkness dispels

And growing in grace we strive to excel

With fervency such a word to others tell.

 

Growing in grace is not about being proud

It’s not apparent in the bombastic and loud,

Often it stems the majority and the crowd

As one stands for truth as Christians avow.

 

In each believer’s life as he daily grows

Grace enacts in him the word that he knows

So that the sanctified life is not just form

But the reality of the Spirit in the one reborn.

Often we pray earnestly for more grace

As if our supply has gone without trace

Forgetting grace never increases or decreases

But that grace to us God infinitely releases.

So that to grow in grace is not more grace

But to walk in God’s word pace after pace

Having our feet shod with the Gospel of peace

Spreading the Gospel north, west, south and east.

That God gave His Son is an undeniable fact

How much more grace is possible than that?

Grace, God’s unmerited favour to you and me

Expressed in Jesus there at Mount Calvary.

To grow in knowledge is in review of such grace

That the sinless one died in the sinner’s place,

The wrath of the Father fully visited on His Son

That the vilest sinner can to the Saviour be won.

Growing in grace is an appreciation for all this

A thought that no born again believer should miss

Grace so undeserving, so full and so free

That rescues a penitent sinner from hell’s reality.

The Scriptures contain all the knowledge we need

To walk in righteousness and godly lives lead

God’s grace having appeared to each and every man

Telling all and sundry of His redemptive plan.

God’s grace the initiation of priceless salvation

Growing in grace the evidence of our sanctification,

Assured grace a focus on the promised glorification

Transforming grace the deposit of our redemption.

Growing in grace is nothing that we do

I am sure your stance is not that Pharisaical view,

Growing in grace is God’s continued work in us

As he purposes to conform us to the image of Jesus.

Stewart Russell © 2016