For they became a righteous people; they did lay down the weapons of their rebellion, that they did not fight against God any more, neither against any of their brethren.
The questions we must ask ourselves are: What are our weapons of rebellion? How are we fighting against God? And what do we have to do to lay them down? Each answer is individual and personal. Our weapons of choice may be very subtle, hardly noticeable to an outside observer. The tiniest bit of pride, a faint trace of stubbornness, an invisible addiction, a harmless temptation, a fleeting but recurring thought, a memory we like to replay, just the smallest sin we harbor and protect in our heart. Each time we indulge, we put a brick in the wall that separates us from God.
When we repent, the Savior pulls the brick down. We put up the bricks one by one, but Christ can knock down a whole bunch of them, even the whole wall, at one time if we let him. The best course, however, is to stop building the wall in the first place.
So how do we stop piling up bricks? We have to cut off our supply so we don't have any more bricks to stack. We have to terminate our contract with our supplier and then refuse to accept his charitable donations. To do this, we need a powerful advocate on our side--one more powerful than our adversary and ourselves. That advocate is Christ. Only he can show us our weapons, teach us how to lay them down, and then empower us to put the program into effect. And that is the definition of grace.
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