Acts 14:26: “From there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had completed.”

April 11th, 2022 by Pastor Ed in devotional

This phrase, “commended to the grace of God,” should sound like sweet, cleansing music to the ears of all believers. The word commended here means, “to give into the hands of another, to give over into one’s power or use.” The point is that Paul and Barnabas had been “handed over” to the grace of God in order to do the work they’d been given. They correctly understood that they couldn’t accomplish any work on their own; it had to be a work of grace. Ventures in faith have to be a work of God’s doing to be successful and not a work of human initiation or effort. And because Paul and Barnabas trusted in that grace and then went out, they found that they were successful.

Grace is a subject that captures our thinking from the very beginning of our Christian walk and continues on through to our last breath. Grace is central to the very heart of God and worthy of our close attention and meditation. Although many have tried to describe it in earthy terms, there is no completely adequate definition that captures its fullness. However, one of the best attempts was by the reformer Martin Luther. After his rediscovery of the biblical doctrine of justification by grace, someone confronted him with the remark, “If this is true, then a person could simply live as he pleased!” “Indeed!” answered Luther. “Now, what pleases you?”

Luther’s response was not meant to give a person licenses to indulge in their sinful nature, but to confront the underlying motivation of their actions. The person who has been justified by God’s grace has a new heart, and is therefore motivated, in a supernaturally natural way, to live in holiness and service to the Lord. Because of God’s amazing grace, we sense the changes in our own heart in a way no one who has not had the experience can truly understand. When we trust in the grace of God, when we have “been commended to the grace of God for the work,” then His life flows through us to others, and God-incidences, the opposite of coincidences, begin to occur in our lives on a regular basis.

“LORD, please make Your grace flow through our lives this day, and may we find ourselves doing things that please You.”