There’s something transformative about reading the Bible consistently. Studies have revealed a remarkable pattern: when individuals read Scripture at least four days a week, significant life changes occur. Addictions begin to lose their grip. Broken relationships start to mend. Peace settles into previously chaotic lives. The living Word of God does what it does best: it changes hearts from the inside out.
The question isn’t whether Scripture has power. The question is whether we’re positioning ourselves to experience that power regularly.
The Subtle Work of Scripture in Our Hearts
When we immerse ourselves in God’s Word, changes happen that we might not even recognize ourselves. Sometimes others notice before we do. We carry a different countenance, a deeper peace, a shift in how we carry ourselves through the world. This isn’t about performing better or trying harder. It’s about allowing the truth of Scripture to sink deep into our souls and reshape us from within.
Consider this: consistent time in Scripture can unveil hidden attitudes we didn’t even know we harbored. A passing moment of envy over something trivial. A seed of discontentment that threatens to grow into something larger. When we’re steeped in God’s Word, the Holy Spirit uses it to show us what’s really in our hearts. He does not condemn us, but invites us into greater freedom.
The Beautiful Tensions of Faith
Scripture is filled with what appear to be contradictions but are actually beautiful tensions designed to keep us humble before God. These tensions aren’t problems to solve but mysteries to embrace.
God is absolutely sovereign over all things, yet we have genuine personal responsibility. We are already saved, yet salvation is also a future hope. God is incomprehensibly holy, yet intimately near to each of us. We have assurance of our faith, yet Scripture warns us not to fall away. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone, yet James tells us that faith without works is dead.
How do we hold all of this together?
The Fullness of Christ
Colossians 1:15-23 paints a beautiful portrait of Jesus Christ. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Everything that exists – visible and invisible, thrones and dominions, rulers and authorities – was created through Him and for Him. He existed before anything else, and in Him all things hold together.
The fullness of God dwells in Christ. He is fully God and fully man, another tension we can barely comprehend but must embrace. Through His blood shed on the cross, He reconciles us to Himself, making peace between holy God and sinful humanity.
And here’s where it gets personal: although we were once alienated from God, enemies in our minds and in evil deeds, Christ has reconciled us. Because of Him, we are presented before God as holy, blameless, and beyond reproach.
But then comes that challenging word: “if.”
“If indeed you continue in the faith firmly grounded and steadfast, not moved away from the hope of the gospel.”
The Gift That Keeps Giving
This “if” doesn’t mean our salvation depends on our ability to white-knuckle our way through life. Grace and faith are both gifts from God. To “continue in the faith” isn’t about working to maintain something we earned. It’s about remaining in what we’ve been given. It’s about not walking away from the hope of the gospel.
Romans 8 provides beautiful assurance: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” And at the chapter’s end, Paul declares with conviction that absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of God. Not death, life, angels, rulers, things present, things to come, powers, height, depth, or any other created thing.
Nothing.
This is grace. Unearned. Unmerited. Freely given. Always sufficient.
The Paradox of Grace
Here’s a strange truth: the more we recognize God’s grace in our lives, the more deeply we realize how much we need it. We see our sinfulness more clearly, yet we also see His mercy more abundantly. We understand our weakness, yet we experience His strength.
The opposite is equally true. When we think grace was just for our past sins and now we must work our way forward, trying to pay for our mistakes and earn our standing before God, we actually realize less of how His grace is transforming us. The harder we work in our own strength, the less we experience the sufficiency of His grace.
The enemy loves to heap shame on us when we stumble, making us think we need to somehow pay for our failures. But there is no condemnation for those in Christ. Repentance? Yes. Turning from sin? Absolutely. But not shame-driven self-punishment. Grace is sufficient.
Tested and Refined
1 Peter 1:6-7 reminds us that even in trials, we can greatly rejoice. Not because suffering is enjoyable, but because these trials prove our faith. It’s not to show that we’re good enough, but to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is good enough. Our faith, tested by fire like gold, results in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
His glory. His honor. His praise.
Paul David Tripp describes it like this in New Morning Mercies: When we face difficulties, God leads us where we didn’t plan to go to produce in us what we couldn’t achieve on our own. He’s altering the values of our hearts so we let go of our little kingdoms of one and give ourselves to His kingdom of glory and grace.
Working Out What God Works In
Philippians 2:12-13 offers this instruction: “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
Working out our salvation doesn’t mean striving to earn it. It means bringing into expression what God has already worked inside us. It’s like squeezing a tube of toothpaste: what’s inside comes out. God is at work within us, and as we cooperate with His Spirit, that internal work becomes visible in our lives.
We do this without grumbling or disputing, becoming blameless and innocent children of God, shining as lights in a crooked and perverse generation.
You’re Invited
Grace isn’t just a doctrine to understand. It’s a gift to receive and keep receiving. Daily. Moment by moment. When we fail. When we succeed. When we’re strong. When we’re weak.
The call isn’t to try harder but to remain in what we’ve been given. To let the Word of God wash over us regularly, reshaping our hearts and revealing both our need and His sufficiency. To work out what God is working in, not in our own strength but in the power of His Spirit.
This is the life of grace: held in tension, walking in humility, resting in sufficiency, shining as lights in the darkness.
And it all begins with opening the Book and letting the living Word do its transforming work.