Understanding Grace (Part 2)

SIMPLY AMAZING!

2 Cor. 10: 9-10 (GNB) But his answer was: "My grace is all you need, for my power is greatest when you are weak." I am most happy, then, to be proud of my weaknesses, in order to feel the protection of Christ's power over me. I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Rom.5:20 (AMP)…But where sin increased and abounded, grace (God's unmerited favor) has surpassed it and increased the more and super abounded...

Grace is the ‘unmerited’, ‘unearned’ and 'undeserved' favour of God. It is the gift of God to us when we accepted Christ as our Lord. The operation of the grace of God keeps us wondering. It is simply amazing!

Let’s look at the operation of Grace from three standpoints:

1 .The Grace of God makes up for our sins:

Grace made God accept us in spite of all our sins when we received Christ. The same Grace still makes up for all our trespasses up until now. Whenever we miss it and turn to God for forgiveness, Grace reconciles us with God, catches up with us right from where we stopped and keeps propelling us forward towards God's purpose for our lives as if nothing happened! The operation of the grace of God is simply incredible!

2. The Grace of God makes up for our inadequacies:

Apart from making up for our trespasses, the Grace of God also makes up for our weaknesses, infirmities and inadequacies; and above that, Grace pushes us forward as if our inadequacies don't even exist! In fact, Grace mostly makes us perform much better than we would have if the frailty were not there!

That is why the apostle said in our scripture for today, "…when I'm weak, then I'm strong! "

The word of God also says, "… where sin abounds grace surpassed it and increased the more and super abounded".

Like wise, where infirmities, weaknesses and inadequacies abound, grace also overtakes them, surpasses them and increased the more and super abounds!

As we’ve seen, it’s the grace of God that makes His ‘weakness’ stronger than man!

Where natural ability ends…

Judges 6:13-17 (KJV) And Gideon said unto him… if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us... And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee? And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. And the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. And he said unto him, If now I have found GRACE in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me.

1Cor. 15:9-10 (KJV) For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the GRACE of God I am what I am: and his GRACE which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the GRACE of God which was with me.

Is there anyone who has a seemingly insurmountable task- a larger than life obligation to deliver but can't find the strength or ability required?

There are times in life when we feel so incompetent and unfit to give our deliverables at home, at work, in church or in our communities. We feel so ill-equipped to do what we must necessarily do, or what we believe God would have us do.

That is the time we need to draw Grace from God and this leads to the third point on the operations of Grace.

3. The Grace of God gives Ability:

Gideon was from the weakest and poorest clan in Israel. Moreover, he was the least recognized and most despised member of his family. The task before Him was enormous and judging from his physical circumstances, there was no way he would have accomplished it.

When he found and touched the GRACE of God however, He did not only defeat the Midianites, he conquered them quite easily- smiting them as just one man!

Similarly, the Apostle Paul was the least of all the apostles. He never met Jesus in person, never interacted with Him, never sat under His earthly ministration. Moreover, He had a terribly bad record of being a persecutor and murderer of those who knew the Lord.

Yet when he got to know the Lord, and got in contact with His Grace, he outperformed all the remaining apostles combined, authored about two thirds of the epistles and evangelized the entire world as it were.

This is why the grace of God is often referred to as 'Divine Enablement'. The grace of God enables. It gives ability beyond our age, experience or exposure- ability beyond our human ability or comprehension!

Have you said ‘NO’ to your boss, mentor, spouse, kids, or even God, due to inability recently? Please receive Grace and Divine Enablement today and go back to take up that same challenge. And His divine ability will overtake your human (in)ability and put you over cheaply in Jesus name.

Please remember that the Grace of God is an overflow of God's abundance just because He is God. Grace is not something we have to ‘qualify’ for. It is very free and available to as many as will receive. Just because He's God. It's ours to receive- ours for the asking.

Have you missed God lately? Then it’s time to return to Him for forgiveness and receive Grace to carry on.

Are you weak or weary? Do you have infirmities or inadequacies? Now is the time to turn to God for the grace to carry on in spite of your frailty.

It is freely yours today for the asking!

Understanding Grace

I often hear this type of question from people who misunderstand election: 

“Are you a robot, running around doing whatever God preprogrammed you to do?” 

This is a fair and constant question. I hear it all the time.  Here is my answer.

In issues pertaining life and death, would to God that I would be such a faithful and obedient servant! Even as a robot!

Would to God that I would merely move to the motions He makes! I would rather respond only to the prompts of His program!

Would to God that His thoughts were my thoughts, without the pollution of the human reasoning!

I would give my last breath just to be a sheer representation of His Sovereign Will and His perfect government!

I’d rather be in His constant and perfect control than to trust my own heart!

 Why?

 Jeremiah 17: 9 the heart is deceitful above ALL things, and desperately wicked: who can know it! 

 Psalm 14:3 There is no one that doeth good, no not one, (Romans 3:10)

All my inclinations would be evil if it would be not for the Sovereign and Glorious interventions of God my savior! 

Proverbs 3:5 Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. 

(6) In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths, (equivalent to “He will do everything for you because you are incapable of doing it”).

That’s the kind of God I want to serve. A God that knows that I am helpless and then helps me. Not a confused and contradictory “god” who says that you are helpless without him and at the same time tells you to help yourself having faith first! Such would be a “god” of dis-grace rather than the GOD OF GRACE!

I serve a God who takes the initiative and the “finish-ative”: Philippians 1:6 “ He began a good work and is able to finish it”:

 Also…

Exodus 3:7 I’ve seen the affliction… I heard their cry… I know their sorrows… So I WILL 

COME DOWN TO BRING THEM UP!

Same thing in– “you were dead but I made you alive”. “Salvation is NOT OF YOURSELVES. It is a gift of God!” Ephesians 2.

The God I serve is a God of plan and design. He sent Jesus to die for me, undeservingly, one of the elect. And that was a plan, not a chancy, whimsical thing that He did in the spur of the moment. He did not save me because I sang three verses of  “Just as I am”. He did not save me because I prayed “the sinners prayer” (is there any other kind?). He saved me because of Himself. He saved me and saved the elect because of His Name! He chose me in Christ before the foundation of the world “according to the pleasure of His will” and not the frivolity of mine! (Ephesians 1 – 2 Tim 1: 9). And then to crown His plan with His Glory, He gave me the Holy Spirit as an “earnest” (Ephesians 1), meaning, “a down payment”, a “guarantee of a safe delivery” and a “seal of ownership” which the word “earnest” meant when Paul wrote Ephesians. I’ve been paid for, sent to the shipping department with the necessary stamp (His blood), and all will know WHOSE I am! (What a nice three point sermon!)

He “predestined me", "called me", "justified me" (that means I am just if I’d never sinned) and also "glorified me"! All before I was even born, because He called me according to His purpose, and not mine! (Romans 8: 26-30)

I am the one who sees the assembly line. God already knows the finished product! Praise His name forever!

1 Corinthians 2:16: This is in no way to admit that the elect is a robot in God’s hands. When God saves by Grace the elect, God gives him HIS MIND. We now have the mind of Christ. Now all our passions, desires, emotions and everything with our being is reprogrammed, to use the term of our questioner, to DO THE WILL OF GOD in the same manner, intensity and speed that Christ did His will. This is glorious. To say that the elect believes that he is a robot, without feelings is to say that Christ is a robot today in heaven, sitting at the right hand of the Father (oh the mystery of a triune God!) doing the Father’s will, forever and ever doing the Father’s will! I believe that the Apostle is not talking about the mind of Jesus before the resurrection alone. He is also speaking about the Glorified Christ, seated at the right hand of the Father, eternally reigning according to the Father’s great design.

 
We should be perpetually grateful to our God for having given us the mind of Christ, so now we can, as the saved elect, reflect His will with pleasure and in a way that honors the Father’s name! Perhaps that’s what the Apostle meant when he declared “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me”. Let us rejoice in the fact that God has fixed our depraved nature, made us new creatures and gave us the mind of Christ, so now, we no longer live, but He lives in us.


That's the Grace of God!