The Grace of God
I was speaking with a fellow recently who said, "All I want from God is Justice!" I replied, " I know you, if you get Justice from God it won't end well. What you really need is mercy!"
Today we are thinking about the Grace of God.
Packer 'In the New Testament, 'grace' is a word of central importance – the keyword, in fact, of Christianity. Grace is what the New Testament is about. Its God is 'the God of all grace' (1 Pet. 5:10); its Holy Spirit is 'the Spirit of grace' (Heb. 10:29); and all the hopes that it sets forth rest upon 'the grace of the Lord Jesus' (Acts 15:11), the Lord who upheld Paul with the assurance, 'my grace is sufficient for you' (2 Cor. 12:9). 'Grace,' says John, 'came by Jesus Christ' (John 1:17); and the news about Jesus is accordingly 'the gospel of the grace of God' (Acts 20:24).'
LORD'S DAY 24
62. Q. But why can our good works not be our righteousness before God, or at least a part of it?
A. Because the righteousness which can stand before God's judgment must be absolutely perfect and in complete agreement with the law of God, whereas even our best works in this life are all imperfect and defiled with sin.
63. Q. But do our good works earn nothing, even though God promises to reward them in this life and the next?1
A. This reward is not earned; it is a gift of grace.
64. Q. Does this teaching not make people careless and wicked?
A. No. It is impossible that those grafted into Christ by true faith should not bring forth fruits of thankfulness
Packer 'It is often said, and truly, that the theme of the New Testament is salvation. But the New Testament salvation is of grace from first to last (Eph. 2:5, 8); it is the grace of God that brings it (Titus. 2:11), and the praise of the glory of God's grace that is the end of it (Eph. 1:6). It thus appears that, rightly understood, this one word 'grace' contains within itself the whole of New Testament theology. The New Testament message is just the announcement that grace has come to men in and through Jesus Christ, plus a summons from God to receive this grace (Rom. 5:17; 2 Cor. 6:1), and to know it (Col. 1:6), and not to frustrate it (Gal. 2:21), but to continue in it (Acts 13:43), since 'the word of his grace ... is able to build you up, and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified' (Acts 20:32). Grace is the sum and substance of New Testament faith.'
Grace is God's undeserved favour, His unmerited love. The word translated 'grace' in the New Testament (charis) is used in the Greek Old Testament to render the Hebrew chen, also translated 'grace' in the KJV, which signifies the 'favour' that a suppliant 'finds' in the eyes of a superior person from whom he cannot claim favourable treatment as of right.
Dr Snaith (Theological word book of NT)rightly comments: 'Nothing impressed Paul more than the fact that God's love for men was a free gift from God, entirely undeserved on men's part, depending only upon God's own will' (op. cit., p. 176).
The theme of grace began before the creation of the world.
It is Electing Grace
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
Election does not in any way depend on the foreseen faith or good works of man, as the Arminians teach, but exclusively on the sovereign good pleasure of God, who is also the originator of faith and good works, Rom. 9:11; Acts 13:48; II Tim. 1:9; I Pet. 1:2. Since all men are sinners and have forfeited the blessings of God, there is no basis for such a distinction in them; and since even the faith and good works of the believers are the fruit of the grace of God, Eph. 2:8,10; II Tim. 2:21, even these, as foreseen by God, could not furnish such a basis. - Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology
Robert M'Cheyne wrote:
Chosen not for good in me, Wakened up from wrath to flee
Hidden in the Saviour's side By the Spirit sanctified
Teach me Lord on earth to show by my love how much I owe
It is Redeeming Grace
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace8 which He lavished on us.
Packer 'The New Testament always connects grace with the person and work of the Mediator, the God-Man Jesus Christ. 'Grace ... came through Jesus Christ' (John 1:17; cf. 1 Pet. 1:10). 'Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus' (2 Tim. 2:1). 'Grace abounded ... so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness [Jesus' obedience to death] to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord' (Rom. 5:20f.). It is in union with the person of Jesus, crucified and risen, and by virtue of His atonement, that men know grace, and it is faith in Christ – belief of the 'word of the cross' (1 Cor. 1:18), and trust in the risen Saviour – that is the means by which they enter into it.'
It is Enlightening Grace
In all wisdom and insight9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him.
It is Merciful Grace For The Spiritually Dead
Ryrie"Among [the sons of disobedience] we too all formerly lived" (2:3). We all lived among the dead, having the same nature as they have. Paul then describes with a triple punch the kind of lifestyle all of us once experienced (2:3):
We lived in the lusts of our flesh (emotional depravity).
We indulged the desires of the flesh (physical depravity).
We indulged the desires of the mind (rational depravity).
These are not three completely separate things but three aspects of our human condition as totally depraved, spiritually dead people.
Emotional Depravity. When Paul says we once lived in the "lusts of our
flesh," he uses the word epithymia [1939], translated "lust," which is a neutral term that simply means "deep desire" (Mark 4:19; 1 Thes. 2:17). When governed by the flesh, these "deep desires" always lead us in a downward spiral. Uncontrolled desires and fickle feelings drive those who are wallowing in spiritual death into ever-deeper emotional instability.
Physical Depravity. Paul then says that the unsaved sinner had no choice but to indulge the"desires of the flesh." The word"desires" here is
the Greek word for"the will"—our decision making capacity (thelēma). When choices are presented to the lost person, he or she usually makes decisions based on physical, not spiritual, priorities. That's how the old nature thinks. Materialism, physical appearance, external beauty
—these things dominate the lives of those walking in spiritual death.
Rational Depravity. Finally, Paul mentions the intellectual sphere, the
rational capacity of a person. Children of disobedience indulge the desires "of the mind." Not only are their thought lives governed by self-centeredness, but they are also controlled by self-deception, rationalization, confusion, and irrational beliefs. Twisted thinking characterizes those who lack spiritual life from God.
As he continues to describe the horrible condition of fallen humanity, Paul
delivers a deathblow to the "we're all fine" philosophy. He sums up the
condition of lost people by emphasizing their nature and their end. They are "by nature children of wrath" (Eph. 2:3). By using the term physis [5449], "nature," he refutes anybody who might say, "Well, I'm basically a good person. I just have a few bad habits." He trumps those who claim, "We all have good and bad in us." Rather, all human beings apart from Christ are "essentially and unchangeably bad." Worse than this, our totally corrupt nature results in condemnation. Fallen humans are "children of wrath"—those who are, by default, under the wrath of God (John 3:36; Rom. 1:18).
It is Effectual Grace
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
It is Humbling Grace
9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
It is Transforming and Keeping Grace
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Packer 'he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ' (Phil. 1:6), grounding this certainty on God's faithfulness to His plan, His promise and His people (2 Thess. 3:3; cf. 1 Cor. 1:8f.). In Romans 8:30 he spells out the plan: 'those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.' The past tense of 'glorified' argues that because it is fixed in the plan it is as good as done already; thus it is in effect a promise that it will certainly be done in due course. So Paul can say he is sure that God 'is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day', and exultantly declares: 'The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom' (2 Tim. 1:12; 4:18, NIV; cf. 2 Tim. 4:8). Christ's own promise undergirds this confidence: 'My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand' (John 10:27)
Toplady wrote:
The work which his goodness began The arm of his strength will complete;
His promise is Yea and Amen, And never was forfeited yet.
Things future, nor things that are now, Not all things below nor above,
Can make him his purpose forgo, Or sever my soul from his love.
My name from the palms of his hands Eternity will not erase;
Impressed on his heart it remains In marks of indelible grace;
Yes, I to the end shall endure, As sure as the earnest is given;
More happy, but not more secure, The glorified spirits in heaven
It is Welcoming Grace
12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.14 For He Himself is our peace, ..reconciled . 18 for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.
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