Grace might seem to take His time but His freedom is "free indeed."

Beloved of God, Grace is a Person. His name is Jesus Christ. Titus 2:11 says of Him: "God’s marvelous grace has manifested in person, bringing salvation for everyone."

Verse 14 of the same Titus 2 says: "He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

Believers whose righteousness is found in Christ, trust in Christ to make you "free indeed," even free from your sins. Matt. 1:21 says of Him:

"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Don't let anyone bully you into believing that it is up to you to save yourself and that you are headed for hell if you don't do certain things that they prescribe for you to get back into God’s good graces or be godly aka "be like God." Christ paid the price for that and all who truly believe Him, having Him as their righteousness and strength, are forever righteous in God's sight and forever in God’s good graces- Romans 5:9-

And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

Believers, good works are evidences of our salvation, not conditions. God works His salvation in us and these good works come about “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.” Philippians 2:13.

Don’t fret over when or how these evidences of your salvation will manifest. See yourself as a little child whose father has a long, full beard. Imagine the child worrying that he is not the child of his father because he has no beard! In time, as he grows and matures with his Father as his sole Source, he will grow a long, full beard, just like his father. And it will grow without him straining or doing anything to make it grow. He was complete, beard and all inside him, on the day he was born; just as we were made complete in Christ when we became born-again. So look forward to your long, full beard- the hope of our righteousness in Christ.

But some seemingly godly people try to make you feel that you ought to grow a long, full beard and start driving on the day of your birth; they tell you that you are not your Father’s child anymore because your "beard" is yet to manifest and try to get you to grow a your beard aka bear fruit ("be like God") BY YOUR OWN WILL-POWER to prove your sonship. These ones do not use their words to point the sinner to Christ for salvation. They use their words to accuse and to condemn. Believer in Christ, beware of such preachers. They are simply echoing the words that Satan the accuser spoke to Jesus in the wilderness:

“If you are the Son of God….”

Christ's situation in the wilderness where Satan tempted Him did not portray His glory and majesty as the Son of God. He was hungry. In the eyes of the world that did not know Him, this Man certainly could not be the Son of God. But His situation when He walked the earth as the Son of Man did not change the Truth of who He is. He is the Son of God and did not need to turn stones to bread or jump off the pinnacle of the Temple to prove it, just as we who are in Him today are children of God despite our many imperfections and "wilderness" situations where Satan's messengers try to make us feel that we are not children of God.

Believer, having a beard is not what makes you a child of your father. Your beard grows according to the kind that your Father has BECAUSE God IS your Father. Good works are not CONDITIONS for salvation. They are EVIDENCES of our salvation in Christ.

Believer, Christ said in John 15:5— “I am the Vine, and you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without Me.”

How does the branch abide in the Vine? By depending on the Vine for its every single need. The branch cannot nourish itself much less bear fruit by itself. It is wholly dependent on the Vine. No pain is too small to let Christ the True Vine handle. That pimple on your face is not too trivial to talk to Him about. He cares about every detail of our lives. So, abiding in Christ, depending on His help for even the tiniest of issues, don't worry. The world may not see the evidences of your salvation yet and so judge you, just as they would have turned up their noses at Abraham when he slept with Hagar to get a child and lied about Sarah to save his neck after God declared Him righteous (and still saw Him as righteous!) but keep on abiding in Him (confessing Him as your Righteousness and Strength) and you will surely bear much fruit. Christ said so.

2 Corinthians 3:18 says- "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."

Believers whose right-standing with God is found in Christ, beware of those "men of God" who tell you that you can transform yourself and make you feel less than what Christ has made us to be (godly) because of your imperfections. Such trust in the arm of flesh that will fail to transform the sinner but reject the power of the Holy Spirit to transform the sinner to right living!

Salvation is not at all about behaviour modification, clenching your teeth and doing your best to suppress sins. Everyone has their limits and like Peter, the volcano of sins that are being suppressed will erupt when one is tempted beyond what he can bear. Salvation is all about hearts' transformation: Christ takes the desire to sin away. This is the "free indeed" that is our portion in Christ.

See Hagar and Sarah typified as the two covenants of Law and Grace in Galatians 4. Law-keeping (dependence on human effort to accomplish anything before God) produces quick results, like Hagar (Law) with Ishmael, but the results are weak and fading away, unable to make one inherit anything. There is no “free indeed” here. One can only go as far as the arm of flesh (dependence on human effort) that will fail can carry one. Failure is certain. The arm of flesh (human effort at achieving good/godliness) will fail.

But Grace is undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour. There is no human might and power involved; only the Spirit of the Lord as it was with Sarah (Grace) and Isaac. Grace might take His time, but the power and quality of its fruits are divine and everlasting. Here, we get to inherit Abraham's blessings.

Our Abba Father says to all who are looking for Salvation from enemies of fear, worry, lack, acts of sins, depression, oppression and every earthly ill in Isaiah 30-

"Your strength will come from settling down

in complete dependence on Me—"

Never trust yourself, even if you seem to be doing a good job of being a good person. Peter found out the hard way that there is no good in man of himself after he trusted himself and then thrice denied Christ, something he knew he could never do. Trust in Christ to save you from your sins and every earthly ill. That's why He gave His life for you and I:

"He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds." Titus 2:14.

In Him, we get to bear much fruit.

Right believing always produces right living.