DIVINE GRACE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 285, 2 December 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

DIVINE GRACE.

MAN'S NEED FOR RENEWAL.

A thoughtful article appeared recently in "The Times" weekly edition as follows: —

The earliest Christian writings presuppose the existence of a Christian community with a specific religious life of its own. Before any of the documents of the New Testament had seen the light there was in existence a Christian way of living. St. Paul's Epistles are addressed to those who were already trying to put into practice the truths about God which they believed. As we study the record we discover some of the characteristics of this way of life, but, what is more important, we find ourselves in what may be described as an atmosphere of creativity. Everywhere there is the underlying assumption that man is in relation with a source of Divine life which can reinforce his will and transform his personality, making of him "a new creation." "By the grace of God I am what I am," wrote St. Paul to the Corinthians. It is a confession of inward change wrought by a power other than his own, a testimony to the fact that there are Divine resources for man in his journey through life. The transformation experienced by the apostle was complete. The current of his life was reversed; the persecutor 'became a Christian missionary. Transformation is a word written large across the story of Christianity, which indeed retains today its vitality because it proves itself in experience to be a religion of Tenewal. We pray in the Collect, "mercifully grant unto us such a measure of Thy grace." He must be a very self-satisfied person who does not know in his own soul that he needs that grace. Confronted with the difficulties and tertiptations of life we long for power and guidance. Can these be found? Christianity answers with an unhesitating affirmative. It challenges the world to put to the test its doctrine of a God who, as the Creative Spirit "in whom we live and move and have our being," sends His life into those who seek for fellowship with Himself. "By grace ye are saved"; not by restless striving or violent efforts of the will, but by quiet acceptance of God's gift of peace and power.