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The Psalmsinger Pages |
Beyond the Basics Grace |
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Grace
is a common term. We use
it all the time. It’s
part of our speech. It’s
used as often as Praise the Lord and Born Again.
It shows up in our prayers when we’ve blown it.
“Oh God, thank you for your grace, because I’ve really
blown it.” It speaks of
what we think Grace is. By
corporate definition, we have accepted that grace is “unmerited
favor”. As a result, we
have been walking in casual error, and we have been robbed certainly
one of the greatest gifts that God has given to us.
The great truth of grace has been veiled.
Satan does not want us to know the truth. The understood meaning of the New Testament church has been
lost over the centuries. We
have indeed fallen from grace. Satan
has come and twisted the meaning of this great gift because he does
not want God’s children to know the truth of the empowerment that
comes from walking in God’s grace. Here
are three questions for you to consider. 1.
If Grace is unmerited favor, why does God only give it to the
humble? “God opposes the proud but gives grace
to the humble.” (James 4:6).
Does God give unmerited favor in a preferential sort of way? 2.
If Grace is unmerited favor, why can you fall away from it?
Why would God give us something we don’t deserve, and then
take it away from us even though we don’t deserve it? 3.
If Grace is unmerited favor, then Jesus was full of it.
Are we really prepared to say that Jesus was full of the
unmerited favor of God? How did we get here? In the Old
Testament grace does mean to stoop in kindness to an inferior.
This meaning has been
exported from the Old Testament, downloaded into the New Testament,
creating a virus on our floppy drive. In the New Testament, the language is different, and the
understood meaning of grace was totally different than the Hebrew
meaning of Grace.
Ever since Eden, the forces of both good
and evil exist within us, and both struggles for control.
The good side of the good and evil can be just as dangerous as
the bad side, because it results in self-righteousness or
self-redemption. No one
can understand this until they find the Tree of Life, which is Jesus.
There is some good in the worst of people, and some evil in the
best. In the dark ages,
leaders who felt they were doing good things did some of the most
horrific things done to man. They were diabolical. These same people were also capable of kindness and
generosity. See the example of Peter.
(Matthew 16:15-23) He received revelation that Jesus said was
from above, and moments later Peter was rebuked for accepting
influence that was straight from hell. In times of war and conflict, governments
become paranoid. Treason
is usually punished with death. In
severe crisis, perceived or suspected treason is often met with swift
death with little if any mercy. This paranoia came upon the Roman
Empire and the state church of Rome.
Heresy was regarded as treason, and made the perceived heretic
an enemy of the state. Heresy
does not always mean to just teach falsly, it can also mean to bring
division. When Constantine was converted, the
church had endured centuries of persecution.
When Constantine embraced Christianity and made it the state
religion, the church breathed a collective sigh of relief, but it also
opened the door for those who understand real power. It became
fashionable to claim belief, which was then essential for political
influence. Leading positions attracted ruthless religious and
political operatives, causing a veritable meltdown of the standards of
truth and morality. Much
more can be said about this of course, but much truth was lost during
what we often call The Dark Ages.
Now the truth is being uncovered once again. We need to have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying. What is Grace? In the New Testament
the word grace is used 131 times.
Jesus
Himself defined Grace. 2
Corinthians 12:9 Paul has asked God
three times to take away the thorn in his flesh. Finally Jesus answers him and says this. “My
grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in
weakness.”
Jesus said, “my Grace is My Power at work in your weakness.” Grace is the Presence of God’s Power in our weakness. In fact, grace is the presence of the miraculous ability, abundance, miracle-working power, strength and mighty wonderful work in our weakness. This is light years
away from the understood and widely held meaning of “unmerited
favor. Now we still have
God’s unmerited favor. It’s
called mercy. He gives
mercy to everyone whether they are humble or proud.
That’s right, even if you are full of pride, God is still
there to give you his mercy. But
Grace is not unmerited favor. They
are two different words.
Now things are
starting to make sense. God
is not going to give His grace to the proud.
Why? Pride is
interested in self, not God. Pride
says, I want to do this my way. I
want to do my own thing. God
is going to let pride run until it comes to a fall, so that in his
mercy he can reach down and give him his mercy, even though he was
rebellious and doesn’t deserve it. How do we fall from
Grace? In (Galatians
3:24-25, 5:4) Paul said, if you are trying to make it by keeping the
law, you’ve fallen from Grace.
No one can keep the law, but the law remains.
It is our tutor that brings us to the place where we understand
that we are helpless and hopelessly imperfect, and not able to live up
to the commands of the law. But
if we are going to insist on trying to make it by our own works, we
are fallen from Grace. We are not relying on God’s empowering presence to help us
walk in love. We are
fallen from grace, trying to make it on our own strength. And it certainly makes sense to see Jesus full of the empowering presence of God, to enable him to do what he was called to do, and to be who He was meant to be. Examples
from the early church §
Acts 4:32-33 – Great
grace great power resulted from preaching that they were witnesses to
the resurrection §
Acts 11:19 – Had seen
the grace of God – the hand of the Lord, the power of God §
Acts 14:3 – They
heard the Word of His grace. For
a whole year they stayed there and spoke boldly of the Word of His
grace. There were signs
and wonders. Would
it make any difference if you lived your life with the Power of God
resting on you?
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