Grace Notes – Cooperating With Grace

Cooperating With Grace
By John Woodward

“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Col 3:1-3). A.J. Gordon observed, “The method of grace is precisely the reverse of the method of legalism. The latter is holiness in order to (have) union with God; the former, union with God in order to (experience) holiness” ( In Christ, p. 11).

How can we cooperate with God’s grace so that the indwelling life of Christ may be manifested through us? Some key responsibilities include:

1. Reckoning yourself alive to God in Christ Jesus. Rom 6:4-11

2. Living according to “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”. Rom 8:2-4, 9-11

3. Putting off the ways of the flesh. Col 3:4-10

4. Walking in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Eph 5:18; Gal 5:16

Charles Trumbull was editor of the Sunday School Times for about the first 40 years of this century. His life was greatly blessed through a sermon he heard in Edinburgh in 1910 on the Resources of Christian Living. He was surprised at the speaker’s thesis: the resources of the Christian life are — Jesus Christ! God continued to illumine Trumbull to the life-transforming truths of Christ as life. The results in his experience included a steady communion with God, a freedom from besetting sins, and an evidence of the Spirit’s power in changing lives through his ministry. I have been blessed by the following pastoral counsel from this servant of God.

Trumbull summarized the basic conditions for fully cooperating with God’s grace: ” What are the two conditions of this victorious life? Only two, and they are very simple. Surrender and faith … Is there anything in your life this moment that you know you have been with-holding from the Lord? Won’t you just tell Him you now turn over to Him, for time and eternity, all that you have and all that you are, for His complete mastery and use. .? Every habit of your life, every ambition, every hope, every loved one, every possession, and yourself — all these He must have if He is to make Himself not only your Savior but your Life.

“… For after you have put yourself unreservedly and completely under the mastery of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you must remember that it at once becomes His responsibility, His — I say it reverently — duty to keep you from the power of sin. He pledges Himself to do so. ‘Sin shall not have dominion over you,’ He says, ‘For you are not under law (where your works have something to do with it) but under grace’ (Rom 6:14). Elsewhere He adds, ‘My grace is sufficient for Thee.’ ( 2 Cor 12:9). So it is that our Lord has just been waiting for you, not to pray for victory, but to praise Him for victory.” Victory in Christ, p.14,15

Our Father, guide us to set our minds on our spiritual union with Christ. Help us daily to surrender to your good, acceptable and perfect will. We trust You to do through us what we cannot do in our own strength. In Christ’s wonderful name we pray, amen.