Days of grace

Really, aren't all of our days to live purely by grace?

I am reading this morning again from Jeremiah 8 and 9.  The prophet Jeremiah is rebuking a rebellious Judah in no uncertain terms.  They have denied and dishonored the Lord with their words and actions, and they are being cut off.

So why haven't I been cut off?  I know by His grace and election I am saved, and so I cannot be cut off in one sense.  My punishment was taken fully by Christ on the cross, so none remains for me.  However, even since trusting in Christ as a teenager, there have been times where I have veered dangerously close to living "in" sin. 

In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul instructs the church in Corinth on proper attitudes toward fellowship.  He points out how inappropriately many have approached their times of breaking bread together...and have done so in sin.  And then he says this:

1 Cor 11:28-30 "Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.  That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died."

The greek for "have died" is κοιμάω (koimao), which is also translated "sleep."  It is similar to many other places in the new testament that talk about believers, Christians, who have died in Christ and await the resurrection of life (Matt 9:24, Matt 27:52, Mk 5:39, Lk 8:52, Jn 11:11-13, Acts 7:60, Acts 13:36, 1 Cr 15:6, 1 Cr 15:20, 1Cr 15:51, 1 Th 4:13-15, 1 Th 5:10, 2 Pet 3:4) as well as in the OT (PS 90:5, Dan 12:2).  But here in 1 Cor, Paul refers to sleep or death that has come to those who have sinned.  I don't know if this is something that is specific to the sin mentioned here--eating and drinking without discerning the body--or is just one example of how God may cause some to sleep (or die in the body) because of personal sin.  

I have two thoughts about this.
1) To be made to sleep, or die in the body, only to await the resurrection of the redeemed and  eternity with Christ is no punishment.  Rom 8:1 says "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."  If anything, it is mercy.  Instead of allowing his children, the elect, to live unfulfilling lives and perhaps stray from him, he calls them home early. 
2) Why does he allow some, like me, and perhaps like Paul (not to place myself in the same category, necessarily) to live on in the flesh though we have within ourselves "the sentence of death" (not meaning condemnation, but a true threat to physical life?  Certainly there has been in my life reason for God to take me when I may have caused more harm than renown to come to His name. 

Paul gives me the answer to my question:
"indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead" (1 Cr 1:9)
 "If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me" (Phil 1:22)

My hope is in the promises of the Lord, in eternity, and in the coming resurrection of the dead.  This is my hope now, even while I live in the flesh.

If He takes me today, it is grace.  If He lets me live on in this body, it is grace, and means fruitful labor for me.  These truly are the days of grace.