Whenever I
think about the grace of God, I am simply overwhelmed by God’s amazing love for
mankind. That’s what grace is all about. The goodness of God that cannot be earned
is now freely extended to man by faith.
You see, in
order to understand the foundation of God’s grace, you must understand the
state of separation and hopelessness mankind was thrown into after the fall of
Adam.
Man was
created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 126), and there is
a reason for that. First of all it was to create an equality of fellowship
between God and man. God is a Spirit (John 424), and He created Adam
essentially a spirit being.
It is
impossible for a man to have fellowship with a cow, regardless of any emotional
attachment there might be between the man and his cow. Equality of life is
required if there must be any level of understandable communication and
functional relationship between two living beings.
However, the
introduction of sin to humanity through Adam’s disobedience changed everything.
God said to Adam, you shall surely die the day you eat of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil (Genesis 216-17), and when Adam and Eve disobeyed
God, that same moment they died! It wasn’t a physical death but it was a
spiritual separation. That vital God-life was replaced with a sinful nature,
the dreadful principle of evil, originating from the devil.
Man retained
his soul and body in that corrupt state, but his spirit was completely
disconnected from God—the source and very essence of his existence. Although he
still remained a man, he became man without God, destitute of the divine nature
of God in holiness, love, wisdom, power, love, he lost everything.
You see,
that act of separation led man into the slavery of sin and death; it brought us
to the place of total hopelessness because Satan as a result of Adam’s treason
had absolute mastery over man through sin. And because we all came out of
Adam’s loins, we were all formed in that nature of sin, and born into its
dominion over our souls (Psalm 515).
Friends, every act of sin or
proceeds from the nature of sin; it is impossible to walk with God and be like
God with a nature of sin that is alien to the life of God! God Who is
love (1st John 416) and full of mercy, yet holy and just
(Exodus 347), was torn between extending His love and goodness to
man yet by no means overlooking his sins. In an act of grace, God introduced animal
sacrifices to provide a temporal atonement (or covering) for sin, in order to
bless man.
The law was
also given to bring man into the full awareness of his sins, reveal God’s
standard of holiness and judgment against anyone who transgressed against it
(Romans 319). No man, not one, can meet the required standard of
God’s holiness. Not even the most religious man or group, who observe the law
can. The sin problem is a problem of nature; it can only be solved by a change
of nature. This is why Jesus said, “You must be born again” (John 35-7).
Being born again is not a form of religious identity, it your ticket to liberty
from sin and death.
The law has
a compound hold on humanity which is why no man can be justified by its works
(Romans 320). What that simply means is that you may keep all the
laws yet if guilty of one, you will be guilty of all (James 210)!
You may never have killed anyone, stole anything that isn’t yours, dishonoured
your parents, or committed adultery, yet do you know that God commands us to
love others as ourselves (which is something we have all failed at), and if you
haven’t done so, the law finds you guilty of killing, stealing etc. You become
guilty of all. No man can fulfill God’s standard of holiness, this is why
righteousness (right standing with God) is a gift, and can only be received by
faith.
This is why
grace was established by God friends.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God came down to earth as man, to identify with
our nature though He wasn’t contaminated by it, otherwise He wouldn’t have been
a perfect sacrifice for our sins. He obeyed God in everything, He was perfect,
and it pleased God to make Him the punishment for our transgressions (Isaiah 535-6).
This is an act of grace because our efforts did not contribute to what Jesus
did for us by His death, burial and resurrection.
Adam’s sin
required a man-sacrifice that would be perfect, one who would live without a
personal sin of his own, fulfill God’s laws perfectly and be willing to take
the place of all humanity in judgement and death. Jesus was that man, and not
only did He die for our sins, but after three days in hell, after all of God’s
wrath against our sins was satisfied, Jesus rose from the grave to declare us
righteous, halleluiah!
Grace is the
goodness of God in placing our sins on His innocent Son in order to judge and
punish Him in our place, thereby declaring us guiltless and righteous with a
new and sinless nature (2nd Corinthians 517) to make us
free from the dominion of sin. We are therefore no more under condemnation
(Romans 81), we are no more separated from God and without hope
(Ephesians 212-16), and all that we lost in Adam has been restored
(Romans 517).
Jesus didn’t
do it for Himself, it wasn’t to earn for Himself fame, He did all for you and
me. Why did He do it and do we really deserve it? We deserved nothing but
punishment for our own willful acts of disobedience, but instead we were freely
justified by God’s love (Romans 324-26). That’s grace.
Let's look forward to the third part teaching on this series. I encourage you to read the first part also(http://www.timelessgospel.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-gospel-of-grace-series-you-should.html) in order to fully comprehend the teaching.
Dear Reader,
If you want to come into right standing and have peace and an intimate relationship with God, Jesus Christ paid the price. All you have to do is make this confession with faith in your heart:
Lord Jesus, I acknowledge you as the Son of God who died for my sins, and on the third day you were raised again for my justification. I ask you to come into my heart, even as you cleanse me from my sins with your precious blood. Thank you Lord, Amen.
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