The Ongoing Grace of God

“I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts”…it 
is good that the heart be established by grace. (Jeremiah 31:33 and 
Hebrews 13:9)

Our initial encounter with the grace of God involved forgiveness and 
justification. “In Him we have our redemption through His blood, the 
forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 
1:7). Rich measures of God’s grace washed away our sins and gave us new 
life in Christ. Of course, that initial justifying work of God could 
not exhaust His grace. Rather, it was “according to the riches of His 
grace.” There are unlimited riches yet available for our daily 
sanctification, our ongoing growth in Christ.

Hebrews 13:9 is one of the many places in Scripture that indicate 
progressive sanctification (that is, growth in godliness) is by grace. 
“It is good that the heart be established by grace.” This truth clearly 
pertains to sanctification and growth, not justification and new birth. 
At regeneration, we are given a new heart. “I will give you a new heart 
and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of 
your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). Then, after 
receiving a new, soft, responsive heart, the spiritual stabilization of 
that new heart must follow.

It is from within the heart that the development of applied 
righteousness must proceed. What is eventually seen and heard in our 
daily Christian lives sources from within the core of our inner being. 
“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of 
life” (Proverbs 4:23). The Lord wants to work from deep within us. “I 
will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts.”

If an unstable, inconsistent life is being expressed outwardly, an 
unestablished heart within is the cause. Jesus taught that “out of the 
abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). Whatever is 
developing and filling up our inner man will eventually come out to be 
seen and heard.

In order to develop in us an increasingly mature, Christlike walk, our 
heart must be established. The law of God is not designed to change 
men’s hearts. God’s grace is the essential and sufficient cause to 
bring about this desired work of godliness. “It is good that the heart 
be established by grace.”

Once more we have powerful biblical insight showing us that grace is 
not only God’s provision to forgive and birth us into His family, but 
grace is also His resource for the ongoing work of maturing us as His 
children.