“You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1).

Every Christian agrees that our salvation begins with grace. Paul wrote, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith” (Ephesians 2:8). The truth that has sometimes been overlooked is that grace is also our source of strength as we live the Christian life. The grace that led to our salvation also leads to our successful living. From start to finish our lives stand on the grace of God.

Too many of us have built our lives upon our willpower. We grit our teeth and try to live out the Christian life by our fierce determination. Or, we rely on our emotional energy. We leave a worship service and try to live the rest of the week on our stirred emotions. Others depend on their intellectual grasp of doctrinal truth. Will power, emotion, and intellectual understanding certainly play a role in our spiritual lives, but they don’t supply its power.

Our strength comes from God’s grace as surely as our salvation did. And there is only one place we can go for grace and the strength it generates. It is only found in Jesus Christ. Our spiritual life begins with God’s grace and our daily lives draw their strength from God’s grace. That’s why Paul wrote Timothy and said, “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”