“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).
Most Christians don’t understand grace. Grace is not unmerited favor. You can’t grow in unmerited favor, you either have it or you don’t.
Grace is the special influence of God upon a person.. You can grow in the special influence of God in your life. The more you surrender to God, the more you die to self, the more God fills your life.
You cannot reap a harvest if you don’t plant seeds. And the seeds won’t grow if you don’t water them. But if you plant and water the seeds, they will grow and produce fruit.
The seeds are your resolutions, the water is the spiritual disciplines, and the fruit is the result in one’s life in the form of thoughts, words, and deeds. The sun is God’s grace, it is his influence that works in and with you, enabling you to live a holy life.
God’s grace is already given, it is in the very presence of God as the Ground of Being. We are God’s offspring, our existence is a donation of God’s Being to us. Therefore, all we do, we do with the rays of divine influence all around us.
God’s grace is like the sun. As the sun hardens the clay but softens wax. So too does God’s grace hardens the selfish heart but softens the loving heart. When we resist the divine influence, we harden our hearts against God. When we surrender to the divine influence, we are saved. For we are saved by grace, not by the self-centered works.