The transformation of the inner being is as much or more a gift of grace as is our justification before God. Of course neither one is wholly passive. (To be forever lost you need only do nothing. Just stay your course.) But with reference to both justification and transformation, "boasting is excluded" by the law of grace through faith (Romans 3:27-31; Ephesians 2:1-10). In fact, we consume the most grace by leading a holy life, in which we must be comnstantly upheld by grace, not by continuing to sin and being repeatedly forgiven. The interpretation of grace as having only to do with guilt is utterly false to biblical teaching and renders spiritual life in Christ unintelligible.
~Dallas Willard, pg. 82
What an amazing concept and one that I, at least, had never before thought about. The fact that we need grace from God constantly is taken as a matter of course by most Christians, but in why we need it is almost always seen only in the light of forgiveness for sin. Is it easier to resist temptation and push off sin or to ask for forgiveness after having given in? Could someone ever say that they resisted temptation without the grace of God?
The idea that grace from God is only given when one is asking for forgiveness from sin is a lie, and can do a lot more damage than we realize at first. Christians can get into the practice of remembering their need for God's grace only through committing sin and the process of forgiveness that it starts. The fact that it is only through God's initiative and continuing grace that we are anything but depraved is something that we should remind ourselves constantly so that we do not take anything for granted, but are continually thankful and humble in the remainder of our race.
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