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7 Side Benefits of Grace, Part 2

Published April 6, 2016 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Grace, Job, Malachi, Side benefits of grace

To say that God has His eyes on you would be an understatement! Think about what this verse says –

For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. (2 Chronicles 16:9a TNIV)

That’s one of the most remarkable verses in the Old Testament. And it’s a profound truth; God’s eyes travel all over the world, continually, giving strength to His people. It’s a comforting verse. It can also be terrifying verse. Let’s note the context before diving into the third side benefit of God’s grace.

Before we read about the eyes of the Lord, we read this –

At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand.” (2 Chronicles 16:7 TNIV)

It’s a fascinating story that you should take the time to read, but in sum, the prophet Hanani took King Asa to task for trusting Syria (man) instead of God. His rebuke went like this: God once delivered the Egyptians into your hands; why couldn’t you trust Him this time?

Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand. (2 Chronicles 16:8 TNIV)

King Asa’s big problem here was his inconsistency. He trusted the Lord one time but not the next. He experienced a great victory when he trusted the Lord, yet he turned right around and instead of doing the very thing that guaranteed victory, he chose to trust man instead of God. Asa was so mad at the prophet, he threw Hanani into prison and oppressed those who didn’t like it.

We can denounce Asa and decry his behavior, but we need to look in the mirror. How easily you and I forget the power of God brought to bear in the great crises of life, but fail to trust Him in lesser decisions. Yet through it all, God is ever faithful to those who are faithful to Him. We don’t have to be perfect, just faithful.

The seven benefits of God’s grace work like that. They work as long as we are faithful to God. The first two side benefits of God’s grace are wonderful:

• God names His people;
• God numbers the hair on your head.

However wonderful they are, they only work when you are in a relationship with Jesus Christ. As long as you are in that relationship, God’s grace manifested in those two benefits will flow to you. But you’re out of luck if you’re out of that relationship for any reason.

Let’s turn our attention to side benefit number three:

God counts our very steps, Job 31:4

Does he not see my ways and count my every step? (TNIV)

Job was a man, you’ll recall, who had suffered greatly. He had such a great life.

Oh, for the days when I was in my prime… (Job 29:4a TNIV)

I guess anybody over 40 or 50 has said that. We look back with great fondness to the “good old days,” when we had hair and didn’t need glasses; when our knees didn’t hurt or our hands ache in the cold. But poor Job had it real bad. He had such a good life, but then it all went bad.

Terrors overwhelm me; my dignity is driven away as by the wind, my safety vanishes like a cloud. And now my life ebbs away; days of suffering grip me. Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never rest. (Job 30:15 – 17 TNIV)

This man was in bad shape; he’d lost his family, his reputation, and his health, and he was getting no help from even his closest friends. That’s often the case, by the way. When you suffer, you often suffer alone because honestly, no matter how sincere a friend may be, in the end, humanly speaking, you’re on your own. But Job never really gave up on God. At times it sounded like he did, but he continued to pray and plead his case before God, which is always a good thing to do.

Job was positively sure that he had done nothing to deserve the suffering he was experiencing, and that’s the whole theme of chapter 31. He goes through all kinds of sins or categories of sin that might have been the cause of his problems, but he solemnly swears he’s completely innocent. Of course, nobody is completely innocent, but in the midst of his declarations of innocence, Job manages to utter a deeply profound and meaningful theological truth: God counts our every step. That’s a real poetic way of saying that God sees everything you do and everywhere you go. Within the context of what Job is saying to God, that’s more than a comforting thought. Remember, Job was pleading his innocence before God –

I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman. For what is our lot from God above, our heritage from the Almighty on high? Is it not ruin for the wicked, disaster for those who do wrong? (job 31:1 – 3 TNIV)

The certainty of his innocence is based on the fact that he knows God knows what he’s been up to; that God sees all and knows all and He punishes only the wicked. And he’s not wrong about that. Job, in the midst of his misery, hit the nail on the head.

Does he not see my ways and count my every step? (Job 31:4 NIV)

Yes He does! There is nothing about you that you can hide from God. Good thoughts, bad attitudes, questionable relationships, and quiet compassion; God sees it and God knows it. It’s a side benefit of grace, that God takes such notice in your comings and goings.

God records our thoughts, Malachi 3:16

Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. (NIV)

This is a very personal, little insight into just how closely God pays attention to us. But let’s take a quick look at the context and you’ll see why it’s the fourth side benefit of God’s grace.

What everybody knows about Malachi is this –

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. (Malachi 3:10 NIV)

That’s right; Malachi is all about tithing, right? Wrong. It’s actually a very prescient little book that ought scare the devil out of Christians. It was written to a very specific group of Jews who lived thousands of years ago, but it describes the way too many modern Christians are. What prompted God’s challenge to tithe was the people’s arrogant attitude towards Him. Just read this exchange –

“Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’” (Malachi 3:8a TNIV)

And so it goes. God accuses His people of something and they come back with a smart aleck retort. That takes some nerve, doesn’t it? How about this exchange –

“You have spoken arrogantly against me,” says the Lord.
“Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’
“You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’” (Job 3:13 – 15 NIV)

“Arrogantly” is another way to translate the more obscure “stout,” as seen in the KJV. It refers more to an attitude than just words. Their arrogant, skeptical attitude resulted in their vocal criticism against God. Of course, they have their smarty pants response to God’s accusation ready: “What have we said against you.” That word, “said,” means “talking together.” In other words, these people seemed to be in the habit of talking together about God and the state of their lives and blaming Him for their unhappy state. They commiserated together about the apparent futility of serving God. They basically said that serving God and worshiping Him was a total waste of time. In the end, this attitude manifested the height of their selfishness: there was nothing in it for them. There was, in their worldly minds, no profit in serving God.

And if that doesn’t describe a lot of Christians, nothing does. Many believers think that God owes them a good life simply by virtue of their confession of faith. This kind of Christian may openly appear to serve God, but inwardly they have little or no relationship with Jesus Christ, yet they blame God for every bad thing going on in their lives. They have no joy in the Lord. God sees that arrogant attitude and He hears their false statements about His character.

But not everybody was like that in Malachi’s day, and not every Christian is like that today. Thankfully! And that brings us to the fourth side benefit of God’s grace. Just as He hears and takes note of those who carelessly talk about Him; who impugn His character; who play fast and loose with what He has revealed about Himself to man, our God pays attention to those of us who love Him and serve Him when we talk about Him.

In the prophet’s day, the godless in Israel complained about God and dissed Him among themselves, but then the godly did the same, except that their conversations were positive and right. What these pious people said was not recorded for us, but we can guess. Perhaps their conversations about God were like this:

I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. I will glory in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. (Psalm 34:1 – 7 TNIV)

Yes, in a way we don’t understand, God keeps a scroll, or a book of remembrance dedicated to our conversations about Him. We may debate the literalness of this passage all day – is this a real book or a symbolic one? To waste our time doing that is to miss the whole point of what Malachi is trying to get across, which is profound one. God pays attention to what we say, and when we get it right, our names and His thoughts concerning us are permanently, divinely recorded. This message of permanence to a people who were constantly facing threat after threat to their very existence must have been so comforting. To any of us today, facing our own threats – threats to our health, our livelihood, to our way of life, we should be comforted as well. God is an eternal Being, and that means His thoughts, His care, His concern, and His plans for us are also eternal. This is just another side benefit of His amazing grace, available only to those who love Him and are serving Him.

7 Side Benefits of Grace, Part 1

Published April 5, 2016 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: benefits of grace, good shepherd, Grace, numbered hairs

Our favorite definition of God’s grace goes like this: God’s unmerited favor. Grace is God’s agape love in action, treating redeemed sinners better than we deserve to be treated. We almost always think of God’s grace in relation to our salvation. We didn’t deserve to be saved, but out of the abundance of His grace, God saved us. True enough. But there are many “side benefits” of grace that are at work every day in our lives. Some of them may seem obvious, some might surprise you, but all are cause to stop and praise Him for His amazing grace.

We’ll look at seven side benefits of grace, although there are more if you scour your Bible for them. All seven of these side benefits of grace serve mainly to do one thing: They help you overcome fear. For example, the author of the letter to the Hebrews understood this, so he wrote this word of encouragement and explanation –

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14, 15 NIV)

Fear of death is a fear common to everybody anywhere in the world. Yet we are told specifically that Jesus Christ – from His Incarnation to His death – not only provided salvation from sin but also deliverance from fear of death. That’s why no Christian should fear death, ever. Christ died to remove that fear from you. Jesus Christ tasted death so that believers wouldn’t have to. If you fear death, that’s the Devil trying to gain a foothold in your soul. Don’t let him! Take control of your thoughts! That fear is gone, so you have no business entertaining it.

That sounds like something a “name-it-and-claim-it” preacher would say, but in this case the truth is the truth no matter who says it. Still, it’s easier said than done. Maybe you struggle with lingering fear. Perhaps not necessarily fear of death, but maybe you fear other things. You are fortunate that the Bible is there to help you overcome those fears! Jesus Himself once said this –

Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (Luke 12:7b NIV)

Jesus spoke those words to His disciples and the context clearly indicates He was refering to a time of coming persecution. At such a time, His followers might be tempted to fear their persecutors. Jesus makes the point that such fear is a waste of time; all man can do is kill them. But God always has His eyes trained on them – He never stops noticing them or taking care of them. Jesus then compared something of infinite value – a human being – to something worth very little – a bird. If God takes the time to notice a bird, how much more is He paying attention to you?

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. (Matthew 10:29 NIV)

Our Lord chose the most common of all birds to teach what may be the most profound truth of all: God’s incredible care for us. David noticed this side of God and he wrote about it –

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. (Psalm 8:4 – 5 NIV)

Here’s how much God cares for us:

He names His sheep, John 10:3

The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. (John 10:3 NIV)

This verse is part of a parable addressed primarily to, of all people, a group of Pharisees –

“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.” (John 10:1 NIV)

Why in the world was Jesus telling a parable to Pharisees? This parable is actually linked to an incident in chapter nine, where Jesus healed a blind man. For the man who was healed, Jesus offered words of comfort and strength, but for the Pharisees who had witnessed the miraculous healing, Jesus’ words were of condemnation and judgment.

The parable explains our Lord’s role as both the gate to the kingdom of God and His role as the Shepherd who regulates the coming and going of sheep between the sheep pen and the pasture. As the gate, Jesus is the only way into the pen and He is the One who decides who enters – who is actually part of His fold, or the family of God. But we are more familiar with His role as the Great Shepherd, and that figure was something very familiar to the listeners of His day. The Jews were a very pastoral people and throughout the Old Testament, the figure of God as their Shepherd was well known. In Ezekiel 34, we read about shepherds who represented the leaders of Israel. But not in a very good way –

“Son of dust, prophesy against the shepherds, the leaders of Israel. Say to them, ‘The Lord God says to you: Woe to the shepherds who feed themselves instead of their flocks. Shouldn’t shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the best food and wear the finest clothes, but you let your flocks starve. You haven’t taken care of the weak, nor tended the sick, nor bound up the broken bones, nor gone looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled them with force and cruelty.” (Ezekiel 34:2 – 4 TLB)

That’s a terrible way for God’s people to be treated, so one day, He’s going to take charge –

For the Lord God says: “I will search and find my sheep. I will be like a shepherd looking for his flock. I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places they were scattered in that dark and cloudy day. And I will bring them back from among the people and nations where they were, back home to their own land of Israel, and I will feed them upon the mountains of Israel and by the rivers where the land is fertile and good. Yes, I will give them good pasture on the high hills of Israel. There they will lie down in peace and feed in luscious mountain pastures.” (Ezekiel 34:11 – 14 TLB)

That paragraph refers to the Jews specifically, but in it we see God the Father’s character painted with bold colors. And in John 10, His Son picks up the same idea. He is the Good Shepherd – He possesses the same character as that of a shepherd. He is the One who functions as our Shepherd. We belong to Him as any sheep belongs to any shepherd. He has complete authority over our coming and going. He leads us. He guides us. He protects us. He is also completely responsible for our welfare, and He, like a shepherd who cares for sheep does, names us. Think about that. Jesus Christ attaches a name to every believer. We’re not just a number to Him. He names us. That’s significant. You name something important to you. You choose a name that suits it. Jesus names each and every believer in His care.
There is a relationship between Shepherd and sheep that is based wholly on the nature of the Shepherd. He knows us. He leads. He guides us. He names us. It’s all Him for our benefit. This must have meant so much to the man who had just been healed of his lifelong blindness. Remember him? Here’s how the Pharisees treated the poor sod –

To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out. (John 9:34 NIV)

The Living Bible is a bit more graphic –

“You illegitimate bastard, you!” they shouted. “Are you trying to teach us?” And they threw him out. (TLB)

He had been excommunicated from his synagogue and family, but now he was a member of another family – he was a follower of the Good Shepherd and part of His fold, His family.

And there is a wonderful exclusiveness about being a member of God’s flock – there is only one Voice we need to hear, only Way for us to go, only one Will we need to be concerned about. Life is complicated, it is said, but for the sheep of the Good Shepherd, for the members of God’s great family, there is only peace of mind, focus of purpose, and one Love that really matters. Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, never lets us down.

He numbers the hair on our head, Matthew 10:30

And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. (Matthew 10:30 TNIV)

The old joke that goes along with that verse is, “And for some of you, that’s not hard to do.” But the truth is that’s actually a very serious statement of fact made by Jesus. It’s no wonder the French critic Joseph Ernest Renan, expert on all things having to do with the Middle East, said this about Matthew’s gospel:

It is the most important book which has ever been written.

Why is this Gospel so important? One reason could be the way it portrays our Lord. Here is Jesus, who cares so much for us that He has taken the time to number our hair! He’s already encouraged His disciples when He talked about those sparrows. One sparrow was worth at most a cent in His day. Even though they weren’t worth much from a commercial standpoint, not a single sparrow could fall to the ground without God noticing. It’s not the sparrow that’s important in Jesus’ illustration, it’s God. It’s impossible for the finite to grasp God. Only infinity can explain such a concept as the care and concern of God. Finite minds like ours cannot. It takes a “leap of faith” to not only believe in God but to believe His care and compassion is just as infinite as His Person is. That’s why Jesus taught this. He’s not teaching us about birds. He’s trying to do justice to God; He’s trying to help us understand Someone essentially un-understandable.

To make it a little more personal, Jesus turned to hair. Something almost everybody has. Hair is commonplace, and if you’ve ever swept your bathroom floor, you can see how much hair you lose every day, yet it continues to grow (for most of us).

At this point in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus told His disciples this –

“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16 TNIV)

Rough times were on the horizon for them. They would face possible persecution from both religious and civil authorities. But Jesus told them to be cool headed; to fear God and not their persecutors. Even more than that, there was this –

Everyone will hate you because of me, but those who stand firm to the end will be saved. (Matthew 10:33 TNIV)

This is our Lord’s admonition to His followers then and now. True disciples of Jesus don’t give up in the face of persecution or some discouragement. No matter what the circumstances, Christians are to “stand firm.” And we can stand firm no matter what because of God’s attentiveness. He’s watching us. He cares about us and cares about what happens to us. The fact that He has numbered the hairs on our heads is an indicator of how well our Father knows us.

The Lord’s loving care is linked to your relationship with Him. You have to be in one! Stand for Him because He knows you that well. And why wouldn’t you acknowledge the Lord when you know how much He cares for you?

Grace, Promises and Faith

Published January 22, 2015 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Faith, Grace, Promise

Grace, promise, faith: three words you see often in Scripture. Yet they are more than just words, they are also attitudes and ways of thinking. We need to define them before we attempt to understand how they are related to each other. First, what is “grace?” Very simply put, the word “grace” refers to the many gifts and blessings that come into our lives from God. “Grace” is not something we can earn or convince God we need more of. We do not merit any “grace” from God. “Grace” is sort of an all-encompassing term that covers all we receive from God through His Son. It goes without saying that the greatest “grace” of all is salvation through faith the Lord Jesus Christ.

Second, a “promise” is not unlike grace in that every “promise” is given to believers by means of God’s grace. From God’s perspective, a “promise” may be viewed as a sort of I.O.U. – a means by which the Lord guarantees that He will provide whatever it is He said He would. From our perspective, a “promise” rests on our complete trust in God and in His ability to provide what He said He would. It is not, however, a legal contract where one party stipulates pay (promises) for labor (merit). God’s “promise” to His people is something they do not deserve nor earn. All we must do is believe that God will deliver.

Third, “faith” is closely related to “promise,” especially in the context of what Paul is teaching in Romans. Abraham’s faith kicked in when God made him a promise:

I have made you a father of many nations. (Romans 4:17 NIV)

This is an important truth that a lot of Christians miss: real, Biblical faith exists ONLY as a response to divine revelation.

So then, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through preaching Christ. (Romans 10:17 GNB)

Biblical faith has nothing to do with “believing in yourself” or in practicing some kind “positive thinking.” Granted, those things are important – a Christian ought to have self confidence and he ought to have a generally positive outlook on life. But Biblical faith must always rest in what God has said – what He has promised.

Galatians 3:10 – 25

But Christ has bought us out from under the doom of that impossible system [Jewish law] by taking the curse for our wrongdoing upon himself. For it is written in the Scripture, “Anyone who is hanged on a tree is cursed” (as Jesus was hung upon a wooden cross). Now God can bless the Gentiles, too, with this same blessing he promised to Abraham; and all of us as Christians can have the promised Holy Spirit through this faith. Dear brothers, even in everyday life a promise made by one man to another, if it is written down and signed, cannot be changed. He cannot decide afterward to do something else instead. (Galatians 3:13 – 15 TLB)

It is impossible, Paul taught, to be justified by the Law – by observing the many demands of the Jewish legal and religious systems. Christians are not Jews, so what does that teaching have to do with us? If Paul were writing to us, he might write something like this: Doing good things or living a good life doesn’t earn you points with God. For the Jews, when Jesus Christ hung on the Cross, He was being punished for their inability to adhere to those impossible legal and religious systems. Jesus was punished in their stead. Because of that, the Law was rendered useless. That’s the whole point of verse 13 –

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law…

If that Law and it’s consequent curse were rendered powerless by the work of Christ, it could never work alongside of or supplement simple faith. This is what Paul is arguing. It made no sense for the Galatians to have faith in both Jesus and the Law. The work of Jesus ended the need for the Law, so why would any thinking person want to go back to it?

This is the tension that also exists even among Gentiles. Of course, we have nothing to do with the Law, but a great many of us think (consciously or subconsciously) our pure thoughts, good intentions, and upright lives can result in our ultimate justification and salvation. The fact is, like the Jewish Law, all those things – as good and as helpful as they may be – cannot save you or make you look worthy of God’s attention.

Galatians 3:16 – 18

Now, God gave some promises to Abraham and his Child. And notice that it doesn’t say the promises were to his children, as it would if all his sons—all the Jews—were being spoken of, but to his Child—and that, of course, means Christ. Here’s what I am trying to say: God’s promise to save through faith—and God wrote this promise down and signed it—could not be canceled or changed four hundred and thirty years later when God gave the Ten Commandments. If obeying those laws could save us, then it is obvious that this would be a different way of gaining God’s favor than Abraham’s way, for he simply accepted God’s promise. (TLB)

The impotency of the Law – or of good works – is demonstrated even further when Paul notes that the great Law came many, many years after the promise He made to Abraham couldn’t annul the covenant – the promise – He made to Abraham. What was the promise? It was not a promise to save people if they performed good works or obeyed the letter of a law, even it was the Law He gave them. The promise was simply this: salvation comes through faith.

Galatians 3:19 – 25

Why did God give the Jews the Law and all people a conscience? The answer is found in verse 19 –

Well then, why were the laws given? They were added after the promise was given, to show men how guilty they are of breaking God’s laws. But this system of law was to last only until the coming of Christ, the Child to whom God’s promise was made. (And there is this further difference. God gave his laws to angels to give to Moses, who then gave them to the people… (Galatians 3:19 TLB)

Without the Law, or even without your conscience, how would you know if you were ever in the wrong? That’s why God gave man those things – to show man his shortcomings and his need for a savior. However, the Law was shown by Paul to be inferior to faith because it was given as a temporary addition to faith. Not that it added anything to faith, but came after faith in terms of history. Furthermore, the Law was vastly inferior to faith because the Law was received by man through means of a mediator – Moses – while God’s promise was received directly from God. That is, God gave His promise directly to Abraham without any intermediary.

Before you get the wrong idea, the Law was in no way ever in conflict with faith. Both the Law and the promise came equally from God. It was man who never understood that. In short order man came to value the Law far above the promise, in effect, ignoring the necessity of faith altogether, but that’s not the way it should have been. Like man does with most of God’s blessings, he perverted and misused the Law.

John Piper’s observations are interesting:

God gave the Law originally as a railroad track to guide Israel’s obedience. The engine that was supposed to pull a person along the track was God’s grace, the power of the Spirit. And the coupling between our car and the engine was faith, so that in the Old Testament, like the New Testament, salvation was by grace, through faith, along the track of obedience – sanctification.

That’s how it should have been.

Galatians 3:29

Okay, what about us, what about those of us who aren’t Jews? What does all this have to do with Gentiles? Paul explains:

And now that we are Christ’s we are the true descendants of Abraham, and all of God’s promises to him belong to us. (Galatians 3:29 TLB)

That’s an exciting verse: all of God’s promises to Jesus – remember, He was referred to as “Abraham’s Child,” meaning whatever God promised to Abraham He promised to Jesus – now belong to us. But why did Paul write this to the Galatians? A group of itinerant preachers known as Judaizers were undermining the Gospel Paul and the other apostles were preaching – salvation by faith in Jesus alone – by saying that only through the Law could a person be a child of Abraham and receive all the promises. They didn’t eliminate faith in Jesus altogether, but sought to add elements of Judaism to simple faith. This false teaching infuriated Paul, and this was how he vented his frustration to the Galatians:

You foolish Galatians! Who put a spell on you? Before your very eyes you had a clear description of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross! Tell me this one thing: did you receive God’s Spirit by doing what the Law requires or by hearing the gospel and believing it? How can you be so foolish! You began by God’s Spirit; do you now want to finish by your own power? (Galatians 3:1 – 3 GNT)

Those Galatian Christians, Gentiles, were, in reality, the true children of Abraham by faith in Jesus and they, not the false teachers, would receive the promise. Because they were Christ’s they were also Abraham’s children and heirs.

This is what Christ has done for all who believe in Him. There are no “second class citizens” of heaven. Jew or Gentile doesn’t matter to God. What does matter is whether or not a sinner puts his full faith and confidence in what Jesus Christ did for them on the cross. William Temple observed:

My worth is what I am worth to God; and that is a marvelous great deal, for Christ died for me. Thus, incidentally, what gives to each of us His highest worth gives the same worth to everyone; in all that matters most we are equal.

Galatians 4:4 – 7

But when the right time came, the time God decided on, he sent his Son, born of a woman, born as a Jew, to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law so that he could adopt us as his very own sons. And because we are his sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, so now we can rightly speak of God as our dear Father. Now we are no longer slaves but God’s own sons. And since we are his sons, everything he has belongs to us, for that is the way God planned. (TLB)

In these verses, Paul outlines God’s purpose in sending His Son. Actually, it was a two-fold purpose: (1) To redeem those under the Law, that is, the Jews. This He had to do for His people because the Law never made a single Jew a child of God. (2) That all sinners (Gentiles included) might be adopted into God’s family.

For the Jew, slavery had a special connotation. Historically they had been delivered from their bondage to the Egyptians by the power of God. But they were still in bondage – a bondage to the Law. Slaving day after day after endless day trying to live up to the demands of the Law did them no good. Jesus Christ came to set them free from that bondage by making the Jews God’s sons, and we all know a son of God can’t be a slave to God at the same time. The same thing applies to the Gentiles. We had been enslaved, not to the Law, but to sin. Christ came to set us free and through our faith in Him we also become sons of God.

Law and Grace

Published December 15, 2014 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Election, Galatians, Grace, Law

A huge chunk of the Old Testament is taken up with teachings on the Law. When we read books like Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, we are reading about the Law. As Christians, we dismiss the Law. Yet we shouldn’t. The Law was given to Israel by God; it came from the very heart of God. It may not apply to Christians, but we certainly should know about the Law. Jesus Himself was known to have said things like this:

Don’t misunderstand why I have come—it isn’t to cancel the laws of Moses and the warnings of the prophets. No, I came to fulfill them and to make them all come true. (Matthew 5:17 TLB)

As Christians, we would rather talk about grace. Most of us have been taught that the Old Testament is all about Law while the New Testament is all about grace. That’s partly true, but partly wrong. In the Old Testament, the Law is prominent but grace is there, lurking in the background. In the New Testament, grace is obvious but the Law is still there, in the shadows.

Is there a conflict between the Law and grace? Does grace nullify the Law completely? Since the Law is present in the New Testament, Christians should try to understand why it’s there and resolve the tension that may exist between the Law and grace.

Galatians 5:1 – 11

Paul was probably the greatest theologian who ever lived. He was probably the greatest thinker in history. He possessed a towering intellect, and yet he never divorced doctrine from life. He always sought to integrate the two, doctrine and life, so that doctrine could actually change a life. Typical of Paul, his letters followed a pattern. First, he would put forth some heavy duty doctrinal ideas. Reading these parts of his letters requires patience and sometimes a dictionary. He uses big words to teach his big ideas. Thankfully, though, he always followed his purely intellectual teachings with a “how-to” section. In other words, first he would tell you how you should live, then he would show you how to live. Galatians 5 begins Paul’s showing you how to live.

So Christ has made us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get all tied up again in the chains of slavery to Jewish laws and ceremonies. (Galatians 5:1 TLB)

This verse represents Paul’s summation of what preceded it, namely, that the Law brings slavery but faith brings freedom. Another translation of this verse goes like this:

Plant your feet firmly therefore within the freedom that Christ has won for us, and do not let yourselves be caught again in the shackles of slavery. (JBP)

Or, maybe you prefer this translation:

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (NIV)

Well, no matter which version you prefer, the idea Paul is advancing is best summed up like this:

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? (Galatians 3:1 NIV)

That’s pretty strong language! The “bewitching” took the form of some false teaching that had infiltrated the church. These Galatians had once been heathens, in bondage to heathenism. Upon hearing the Gospel, they exchanged their bondage to heathenism for Christ’s free grace. But this new-fangled false teaching said that while faith in Christ was important, it wasn’t enough. If you wanted to be saved, you needed Jesus and the Law of Moses. That’s how false teaching works, by the way. There’s usually an element of truth in it. The false teachers, Judaizers by name, made a career out of following Paul and the apostles around, slipping into churches they founded, and teaching their perversion of the Gospel. For them, salvation was Jesus + the Law.

Paul’s point of contention with the Galatians was that it was totally crazy of them to give up the wonderful freedom they had found in Christ, to go back into having to obey a bunch of burdensome regulations. It was Christ who had set them free from their slavery to sin. They couldn’t set themselves free.

This is an important point to make note of. We cannot set ourselves free, either from the Law (in the case of Israelites) or from sin (in the case of the Galatians and us). Only Christ can do that. However, there is a definite sense of co-operation. That is, we must co-operate with the Holy Spirit in living the Christian life in freedom. Even though Christ lives in us, we must determine to keep standing firm in the freedom Christ has won for us.

The thing the Judaizers were trying to get the Galatians to practice in order to secure salvation was circumcision. This incensed Paul.

Listen to me, for this is serious: if you are counting on circumcision and keeping the Jewish laws to make you right with God, then Christ cannot save you. I’ll say it again. Anyone trying to find favor with God by being circumcised must always obey every other Jewish law or perish. (Galatians 5:2, 3 TLB)

Keeping part of the Jewish Law meant keeping all of it. It’s as if Paul were saying, “You think it was rough being in bondage to sin. Wait till you try obeying the Jewish Laws!” No wonder he called them “foolish.” And Paul would know! He was a strict observer of the Jewish Law until Christ set him free.

It was so serious to add anything to Christ’s gift of free grace, Paul adds this:

Christ is useless to you if you are counting on clearing your debt to God by keeping those laws; you are lost from God’s grace. (Galatians 5:4 TLB)

In the strongest language possible, Paul says the consequences of seeking salvation beyond the simple Gospel are dire indeed. They would literally lose God’s grace because Christ would have nothing to do with them. It’s not that God would abandon them, it’s that they would abandon God. Turning to the Law, or anything else, for salvation after having experienced Christ’s free grace is fatal.

If anyone sins deliberately by rejecting the Savior after knowing the truth of forgiveness, this sin is not covered by Christ’s death; there is no way to get rid of it. There will be nothing to look forward to but the terrible punishment of God’s awful anger, which will consume all his enemies. (Hebrews 10:26, 27 TLB)

Why so dire? E.M. Bounds offers a bit of wisdom that goes a long way toward ansering that question:

All God’s plans have the mark of the cross on them, and all His plans of death to self in them. But men’s plans ignore the offense of the cross or despise it. Men’s plans have no profound, stern or self-immolating denial in them. Their gain is of the world.

He’s absolutely correct. Seeking salvation through any means other than the supernatural means provided for by Christ through the Cross is not profound at all and it elevates man to an unnatural height far beyond the place assigned him by his God. Not only that, it devalues Christ and God’s grace.

John 1:14 – 17

This group of verses is remarkable in it’s implications as far as God’s grace toward sinful man is concerned.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

What kind of person could ever minimize what happened in the above paragraph? What kind of hard heart could disregard that kind of grace? Leon Morris comments:

God’s grace to His people is continuous and is never exhausted. Grace knows no interruption and no limit. In contrast to the Law, it stresses the dynamic character of the Christian life. “Grace” means an ever-deepening experience of the presence and the blessing of God.

To give that up and simply walk away from it takes a special kind of cold, hard heart. No wonder Paul’s warning to the Galatians was so stark!

God the Father literally gave sinful man all He had when He gave His only Son to make a way of salvation. To accept God’s grace through a relationship with Jesus Christ is to become part of His family – that’s how close we become to God through Jesus. Lee Strobel makes this clear when he wrote –

Believing the right things about Jesus isn’t enough. You’re not adopted as God’s child until you confess and turn away from your wrong doing and receive the freely offered gift of forgiveness and eternal life that Jesus purchased with His death on the cross. Until that, you’ll always be on the outside looking in.

Ephesians 1:3 – 10

This passage is perhaps the most profound in all of Scripture concerning salvation. In it, Paul shows us how God laid the plan for our salvation long before He actually created the material universe.

The source of all blessings

How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every blessing in heaven because we belong to Christ. (Ephesians 1:3 TLB)

In the Greek, it’s simply “blessing,” in the singular. Paul doesn’t distinguish between material or spiritual blessings. All those things that benefit us in some way come from God simply because we belong to Christ. That’s important to note. It’s not out of love for us, although God does love us. It’s not out of obligation or even compassion. God blesses us because we belong to Christ.

To be “in Christ” denotes a kind of “union of persons.” It’s Paul’s way of describing a relationship so close there really are no words to adequately describe it.

Salvation enacted before time

Long ago, even before he made the world, God chose us to be his very own through what Christ would do for us; he decided then to make us holy in his eyes, without a single fault—we who stand before him covered with his love. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And he did this because he wanted to! Now all praise to God for his wonderful kindness to us and his favor that he has poured out upon us because we belong to his dearly loved Son. (Ephesians 1:4 – 6 TLB)

Election is a Biblical doctrine no matter how hard it may be to understand. God chose us. Salvation is always HIS initiative. Our salvation is so important to God, He began His initiative before the creation of the universe! When a sinner responds to that initiative, that sinner becomes part of “the elect,” a group of believers God knew would become part of His great family. One scholar put it this way –

This new people, the church, is not the result of a hasty, temporal expedient, but is a part of God’s eternal purpose…

And part of that eternal purpose is to take a man, corrupt and covered in the filth of sin, and clean him up, re-creating and re-making him into someone holy. This happens when God’s grace is operating in his heart. At that moment, that redeemed sinner is made part of God’s family. Paul uses the term “adoption,” and without delving into the deep theological significance behind it, let’s just say that only God the Father is able to take a person estranged from Him and in an instant make him part of His family. The person can’t do that. He can’t make himself part of God’s family. This is wholly a work of God.

So overflowing is his kindness toward us that he took away all our sins through the blood of his Son, by whom we are saved; and he has showered down upon us the richness of his grace—for how well he understands us and knows what is best for us at all times. (Ephesians 1:7, 8 TLB)

Our adoption was purchased through the death of Christ. It was that sacrifice that resulted in the forgiveness of our sins. The idea of the “blood” of Christ is significant. It shows how valuable we really are to God! We are equal in value to Him as His Son is.

Again, the words of Hebrews 10:26, 27 ring in our ears –

If anyone sins deliberately by rejecting the Savior after knowing the truth of forgiveness, this sin is not covered by Christ’s death; there is no way to get rid of it. There will be nothing to look forward to but the terrible punishment of God’s awful anger, which will consume all his enemies. (Hebrews 10:26, 27 TLB)

Considering what God did for us, in us, and to us, we can understand how serious a thing it is to willfully turn your back on Christ’s salvation. This isn’t merely backsliding referred to here; it’s a selling out of your soul to the world. It’s apostasy. No wonder Paul called the Galatians “foolish” when they were just contemplating messing up God’s perfect plan of salvation.

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