GALATIANS 3 PART 2

We're going to take up where we left off in Galatians chapter three.  If you open your bible to verse 15, you will see more than Paul's intellectual understanding of grace. He makes his greatest argument for grace through the work of the Cross, versus works of the law.  The arguments are simple yet profound, and display Paul's deep understanding of Torah, and the principals of the promise.  Even more astounding is the fact that Paul is addressing gentiles who didn't have the cultural heritage of Judaism, or even a race identity as Hebrews.  Paul would eventually give his life to erase the divide between Jews and gentiles. Sadly, the divide still exists.  

It would be easy to think that with Christianity having spread to almost every nation on earth, that this divide wasn't an issue, but it continues because of erroneous teaching in the church.  It still continues because men simply can't give up control of their fate to their creator.   Just because someone calls themselves a Christian, doesn't mean they are.  Sadly, even well meaning Christians can become confused if they fail to listen to Holy Spirit, and ignore the cultural backdrop onto which Paul's message was put in front of.  

There are many awesome ideas that Paul puts forth in the 15 verses we're going to look at, but here are three that stand out to me.

The Promises to Abraham and His child.

The purpose of the law.

The Promises to all who believe. 

If we can't clearly express the promises of Abraham, and how they are important to others, we risk losing our ability to bring the nations to Christ.  We don't have to make the gospel relevant to the day and age we live in, we have to know what the gospel is and does for everyone we touch on a daily basis.  Just as Holy Spirit used Paul to make the gospel appealing to a bunch of rowdy Celts in Galatia, we can still make the gospel appealing to a dying generation.

Last week I was talking to a wonderful man of God who is also a landlord.  He was  about how his denomination was facing a crisis in reaching out to young people.  Among the denomination's leadership there was a sense that they could no longer reach young people for Christ.  As the leadership began to brainstorm the problem, they used old worn out ideas about relevancy, modernization, technology, and message. I asked him what the average age of the people in his church was, and he told me about 68 years old.  What he said next surprised me; Some of those need to die out in order for new blood to come in.  

I said NO, they need to pray like never before for a revival to sweep through their churches, and to preach Christ, and HIM crucified.  Everything else we do is 'pop culture' and generational reaction to the gospel.  If I want to praise God today, I'm not going to go find a harpsichord and play Bach.  Even as beautiful as it would be, it wouldn't 'appeal' to this generation.  However, if I tell what Christ has done on the cross for all mankind, it will have the same effect as it did 40 days later when Peter preached his Pentecost sermon.  We are the relevance to this generation, and the message of Christ is the appeal.  Holy Spirit knows who we are going to face everyday, and if we are listening to Him, He will fill our mouths with the relevance, and the message.  If you don't think you know what to say, just open your mouth and watch what spills out.  

GRACE THAT IS TRULY AMAZING

There are deep spiritual truths that seem to defy explanation.  Every Christian father wants their child to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, but if we can't define salvation for ourselves, we may find their faith destroyed by smooth talking secular humanists, or the wild eyed, buzzed arm chair philosophers that are their peers. There are terms we use as Christians that we assume every Christian understands, but when you try to get a believer to explain it, you come up empty.  This is why we must never assume that our children are learning everything they need to know by osmosis. Simply dragging your children to Church every Sunday, and Wednesday, is not enough. Sending them to Church Camp every summer invigorates them, but the spiritual high leaves them in about a month.  YOU have to be the one to instill the truth in them.  I also believe that this fellowship should agree on that truth.  For that reason, I've asked you to join with me in defining four of the most crucial aspects of our faith.  

Thankfully we are blessed to be a fellowship of strong, stable believers who are actively seeking God, while raising our children to go beyond our spiritual growth.  We have super teachers, and an awesome Pastor, but none of this will help your children learn what they need to know.  ONLY YOU, can teach your children what God the Father is like.  Only You have first access to their hearts, as well as their brains.  You are their first and constant teacher. This is why Karl Marx railed against the nuclear family.  In his mind, the nuclear paternal family perpetuated the religious capitalistic, free enterprise system.  To continue to fight against Marxist Socialism we have to have children who are anchored in the truth of the gospel. We need parents who example, and teach the most basic truths we hold.

As I've said before, you have two ways to teach your child what God the Father is like.  The first way is to talk about Godly things, to read to them from the Bible, and to give them spiritual counsel. Communication is the most crucial aspect of teaching a child.  As crucial as talking with your child is though, there is a much more difficult, but far more impacting method of teaching, and that method is called teaching by EXAMPLE.   OR, more simply; living the life.

Today, we're going to discuss how we teach GRACE.  We use the word a lot, and we've even come up with cute little phrases to describe it, but we rarely teach it by example.  We have hymns, anthems, and probably thousands of Christian songs that sing about it, but no one can really tell you what it is, let alone model it. The inability to model grace is because families are all about rules, boundaries, and limits, and those things by their very nature appear to speak against grace.  Notice I said 'appear'.  

Now, if you want to go full on basic, we all have the neat little descriptor 'unmerited favor,' but that isn't accurate, nor is it true. Just like 'unconditional love' has taken over our pulpits, so too has 'unmerited favor.'   We invent definitions of grace that we hope will convey its power, but in turn make it harder to understand.  To make matters worse we tie grace only to salvation, while ignoring its continuous work in our daily walk. The difficulty with living out grace in our daily walk is more to do with OUR lack of understanding. 

The problem for most Christians is that we often confuse grace with mercy.  This is because we have distilled the gospel down to this simple thought; Confessing the Lord Jesus as your savior is all you need to do to be saved.  Somehow over the last couple of hundred years, we've allowed this lazy, and false statement to become the altar call for millions of people across the globe. It's not true!  Salvation is 100% God, and 0% us. I know that seems to smack in the face of the whole confession thing, but please bear with me while I attempt to make my point.

God's grace exists outside of salvation. The salvation experience is simply a pathway to relationship.  Holy Spirit calls a person to the Father by means of someone presenting Christ as Savior. (John 6:44).  That calling, is an act of grace. Without someone to preach the gospel, no one knows it even exists. (Romans 10: 14-15) It isn't a specific choosing (predestination) but an existing state of grace that is revealed when the gospel is preached. (The sending, the message, and the faith to believe it are gifts.)

When you hear the gospel, God gives you the faith to believe what you heard. (Ephesians 2:8-9) Faith is an act of grace. Paul tells us that even that faith is not of ourselves, but is a gift of God.  (What is one of the definitions of Grace?)

At this point we are told that we have to do one thing on our own that seems to come from ourselves, WE have to repent.  Without repentance there can be no salvation.  Repenting is not feeling sorry, but changing your mind about your existence. (Even repentance is a work of Grace, because you would never know to repent unless God revealed it to you.) This is all a mystery, but can be understood.  Still, if we believe repentance comes from us, we make salvation something of ourselves. Ta da!   I heard, I believed, I repented, therefore, I'm saved.  Aren't I something?   

NOPE! 

Once you repent, then you must believe in YOUR heart that Jesus is Lord, and make that confession with your mouth. (See there it is, that confession thing was there all along.)  AH!  Now you're saved.  Boy, am I glad that we got that all sorted out. Whew! I heard, I believed, I repented, I confessed, I'M SAVED, aren't I something?   

NOPE!!!  You've just been shown mercy.  Every despicable act you've ever done is now forgiven because Christ gave Himself as a sacrifice for your sins.  You are like a little child that's been caught stealing cookies, and your Dad decides to slap his own hand instead of yours.  You may feel sorry, and you may even appreciate what he did, but the cornerstone of salvation isn't there.  FORIVENESS \ IS NOT GRACE! 

To prove that salvation is not by works, we make it clear that once your are saved, you are free to live a life of service to God, doing what He GUIDES you to do, living as He instructed you to live, but even this isn't what saves you.  THIS IS NOT GRACE.  You are reverting back to works.  If grace relied upon your believing in Christ, it would not be grace.  Grace is before salvation, in salvation, and will continue beyond this brief moment we live on the earth. Grace helps you to believe, helps you live the belief, and helps you to the final moment of your life on this vale.

Grace holds the door of salvation open, and then leads you on the path to your eternal home.  The forgiveness through Jesus death, the eternal life through His resurrection, are all God's mercy made available by His grace. SOooooo, what is grace?  Let me give you my childlike idea of grace.

Let's just say that little Davey was just given the greatest toy car ever made.  I love my little car, and play with it for hours till it is time to go to bed.  The next day, I invite my best friend over to play with my toys, because he's my best friend.  He immediately spots my new toy car and wants to play with it.  It's hard for me to let go of it, but I let him play with it.  (That would be considered 'common' grace.) As the day wears on, we play and have a good time, but then he has to go home.  Later on, I realize that my toy car isn't in my toy box.  I tear up the room, look under the bed, in the closet, on the windows sills, and on my dresser.  No toy car.  

At this point it becomes clear that my friend must have took it.  I like him, he's a good friend. It breaks my heart that he stole my toy car, still amazingly I want him to still be my friend.

Later that day I walk over to my friend's house and I ask him if he has my toy car.  At first he denies it, but then his mother comes in and asks him if he has my car.  My friend tearfully admits he took it because it was the coolest thing he'd ever seen, and that he's sorry for taking it.  He runs upstairs gets the car and hands it back to me.  

It isn't easy, but I hand the car back to him.  "It's okay,"  I tell him. "Here, you keep it, I'll play with it when you bring it over to play." THAT IS GRACE!!!! 

Mercy was given when I didn't beat him up.  Grace was giving him what he wanted to steal, as well as keeping my friendship with him. I gave him the assurance that I wanted to be his friend more than I wanted him to be punished. (Isaiah 1:18) The problem often arises when we try to make up for our sins by trying to do things to atone for them. Which makes a mockery of the term 'Atonement'. (The word is actually a derivative of the term 'to set at one'.  Atonement is that moment when we lay every injury aside for relationship. (This is the topic of another lesson.) Sadly, we are a quantitative, qualitative, species. There hast to be a ledger! We'll even say it about others when they've done us wrong; "They have to pay!" we cry out as we look down the ledger of their misdeeds toward us. Some of us have even tried to help God out in the 'justice' department.   

God did away with the ledger on the cross.  Even the worst among us has equal opportunity for salvation. Grace removes atonement, and replaces it with relationship.  The injury was paid for by the injured party (Jesus), and we once again have access to God's grace. This is when you have the power to succeed. Grace is access to relationship with the Father through faith in Jesus Christ.  You aren't constantly starting over!  You own what you hoped to steal, and more than that, God wants you to keep it. The carnal reaction would be to say; Won't people take advantage of God?   God wants us to take advantage of Him. There is nothing you can steal from Him, because He already gives it to us freely.  Do you want to commit sin? No!! Do you want relationship? YES!  Once you fully grasp God's grace, you live in His freedom. The most free and liberated people are those who walk in God's grace, without fear, and without condemnation.   

With God's grace, you don't have to earn His trust, He gives it freely.  You're not working on your salvation, you're being His child, and His friend. I hope you get the point of this, because I hate it when people confuse grace with mercy.  Mercy can only be given by someone who has the power to punish. The Gospel is WAY MORE than atonement, and deeper than mercy.  Grace exists before our sin, in our sin, and after mercy.  As a last example, let me quickly use the Apostle Paul as my adult explanation.  Jesus met Paul in the midst of Paul's self-righteousness. Jesus sought Paul first!   Once Paul knows it is Jesus, he is convicted of his sin.  He professes Christ as his Lord, and then without his knowledge, is given grace to serve the Lord. The access to Christ is sufficient for anything that would come Paul's way, and boy did Paul have a bunch of stuff come his way. 

The reaction of the disciples was what most people would have done, including me.  "isn't he the same man who caused such devastation among Jesus' followers in Jerusalem? "  The human reaction is to 'make them pay.'  Yet, God gave Paul grace (power) beyond saving grace. God empowered Paul to preach the Gospel to the gentiles, and in this grace was the revelation that it would come with great suffering.  Within God's grace is the power to do what God has called you to do, but it always costs you your will.  Grace is the attitude of God, the purpose of God, and eternal life.  Grace is Jesus Christ.  Grace can't be comprehended by the carnal man.  That is why salvation is 100% God, and isn't based on anything I bring to the table.  I know it is hard to explain, but your children need to know it before the world gets a hold on them.   When your child understands the difference between grace and mercy, they will be able to defeat a major portion of the humanistic arguments against God. 

So how do you model grace to youngsters?  You embrace the grace he's given you, and treat others as He has treated you. When you favor one child over another, you don't have to apologize, even God did that.  You have to let the 'unfavored' child know why they aren't experiencing your favor.  THEN, you have to show FAVOR to the least deserving child anyway.  WOW!  Can you do that?  (Think prodigal son.) Another way to model grace is in how you treat your friends with grace.  We'll discuss that one next week.

 Yes, Grace is the power to succeed, but it is so much more.  Grace!  So much Grace!  The older I get the more it amazes me.   

THE TRANSPARENT KINGDOM

I’d like to say we’re moving on from our study in ‘grace’ as it pertains to the Kingdom of God, but the truth of the matter is; as Christians we are never too far away from the topic of grace.  In yesterday’s lesson, we began looking at the kingdoms of this world in comparison to the Kingdom of God. Actually we looked at the different societies mankind creates to bring order, and stability to our daily lives.  I would usually transfer our study sheet, and embellish it for this blog, but I wrote this lesson more than a year and a half ago.  It is written in bullet statement style, and wouldn’t make for an interesting blog. 

The gist of the lesson is how we form governments and kingdoms.  We began by looking at families, tribes (extended families), nations, cultural alliances, and the modern concept of globalism.  Of all the kingdoms that men have created through the years, none of them could bridge the language gap.  Without a common language, there can be no true understanding.  In the past, attempts at global kingdoms failed for lack of understanding.  Actually, it is more complicated than that, but the smallest societal groups split up over minor differences.  Understanding, which requires good communication, is the cornerstone of all successful societies.  Believing in the goodness, purpose, and intentions of the leaders of the society, allows the society to grow.  Sadly, somewhere along the line, a leader will make a decision they ‘believe’ can’t be understood by the people, or may even be a stretching of the society’s moral code. It is at this point, a critical decision to be either transparent or secretive is made.  Transparency will further the society’s growth, or cause it to begin the slow decline toward self-destruction.

All the kingdoms of this world are empowered by knowledge.  Knowledge is power. The kingdoms of this world fail because they seek to control knowledge. The control of knowledge is an illusion, just as control is an illusion.  The problem, is man’s fear of losing control. 

The Kingdom of God, on the other hand, isn’t plagued by this failure.  It is the Father’s GOOD pleasure to give us the keys to the Kingdom.  He isn’t threatened by what we know.  A matter of fact, he wants us to know all about Him.  His Kingdom is built upon us being intimate with Him to the point of his telling us everything.  It gives Him great pleasure to share what He knows.  The problem arises when Christian men, and women give in to their carnal nature.  When we attempt to build physical kingdoms out of Spiritual building material, God will only let it go so far.  Because he is ever merciful, tender, and kind, He is always warning those who try to create their own kingdom.  There are always ever increasing warnings to stop doing what they are doing.  The Kingdom of God will never be enclosed in secret levels, hidden rooms, buried documents, or as secret orders.  Those religions, denominations, and fellowships that do things in secret, will eventually be destroyed by the very secret they tried to hide. This was never Christ’s plan for us. 

Praise God, the Kingdom of God is once more advancing, due in large part to the power of the internet, television, and social media.  As men and women learn more by the Holy Spirit, the light of knowledge is spreading to the ends of the earth. The greatest threat to the Church will always be when Christians become fearful, and attempt to control the knowledge of the Kingdom.     

WHY GRACE MATTERS

Our indepth study into grace was necessary for us to understand the battle between the two extremes of  Christian thought. While there are varying shades of thought between the two extremes, they usually fall into one of two categories. The Kingdom of God suffers because the message we want to present is muddled by human interpretation. Once we accept one view or another, we can rarely tolerate people who embrace the other view.  Literalism, Calvinism, Armenianism, fundamentalists, protestants, and Catholics have all broke upon ONE word, GRACE.  As I told you when we began this study, I am not a theologian, nor do I consider myself studied enough to teach this beyond what I read in the Word.  I always pray that when I read the Word, I will be given insight by the power of the Holy Spirit to teach you true and right.  It isn’t important for me to be a scriptural bulldog, unwilling to let go of whatever spiritual bone I might dig up.  It is important for me to present the Kingdom correctly. 

Next week, we are going to rejoin the original study about the Kingdom of God. We’ll spend some time looking at human kingdoms, human societies, and the carnal view of things first.  WHY?  Because we live in this earthly vale.  The problem as Christians, is that our perspective, and therefore, our way of life within that perspective is skewed to our world view.  The AWAKENING, is happening now, and if we are trapped within a rigid perspective, we’ll be worse off than the spiritual leaders of Christ’s day.  When the Grace Awakening occurs, we don’t want to be looking for the old things, while the new things pass us by.  Grace was, is, and will ever be the founding principal of the Kingdom of God. 

EXAMPLE TIME: As an American citizen, I am guaranteed freedom.  Liberty was the founding principal of our nation. We established liberty as the bedrock of all our laws, and privileges. Our laws established the limits of our liberty, while at the same time we trust in those laws to ensure the expression of our liberties. Our laws are a double-edged sword that protects us, and limits us at the same time. The only way we can lose our freedom, is to either commit crimes against society, or to surrender them to others.  As we’ve become a global society, American’s have surrendered many of their ‘rights’ in exchange for safety, and security.  What we hold dear to ourselves is the last thing we will relinquish as the ‘socialization’ of our government continues.  It is my personal belief that as the march of years continue, freedom will be exchanged for safety.  It is inevitable. Where once we were born to enjoy liberty, we will one day be satisfied with just being ‘safe.’  Eventually, liberty, and freedom will become distant concepts.

In the same way our nation was founded upon the principal of liberty, the Kingdom of God was, and still is established upon the principal of Grace. The laws of the Old Covenant, as well as the Spirit of the New Covenant have Grace as the guiding principal of the Kingdom.  AS I said earlier, Grace is more powerful than liberty.  It is God’s grace that gives us liberty.  Where once we were slaves to our sinful nature, we are now at liberty to live the divine nature.  Only grace gives us the power to do that.  When we exchange the power of grace for the false security of the law, we become worse than the Pharisees.  If we go to the other extreme of denying the power of grace to change our natures, we risk becoming as carnal as the Sadducees.  Trying to appease the carnal kingdoms of this world is exactly what the scribes and teachers were doing when they handed Christ over to Pilate. It didn’t work. Trust me, the kingdoms of this world will only grant you liberty in as long as it doesn’t rob others of what they seek to possess.  This concept is easily seen in totalitarian forms of government, but is just as active within ‘democratic’ forms of government.  We’ve seen plenty of examples within the Middle-East of what happens to people who are in disagreement with the majority, or even the leader of a nation.  The dissenter’s liberties are taken from them without a moment’s notice. There is no true liberty outside of God’s grace.  We are seeing that in our own nation, today.  The very government that is supposed to protect our rights is challenging every right given to us in our Constitution.  This is all being done in the name of peace, and safety.  Sound familiar? 

Grace, on the other hand, is something that gives us liberty even when we are bound, or imprisoned by the kingdoms of this world.  The power of grace transcends this physical world, and moves things in the Kingdom of God.  Grace’s expression, is liberty, true liberty of spirit. Spiritual liberty is what Christ came to bring to us. When you read the passage from Luke 4:17-21 it becomes clear that liberty is the heart of grace.  What does grace do?  It brings hope to the poor, it releases the captive, it gives sight to the blind, and releases the oppressed.  LOOK specifically at verse 19.  “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  God’s blessing, and favor have come, and his favor is more than the salvation of our soul.  This promise was made to Isaiah in chapter 61.  God’s promise of grace has always existed.  God’s favor, His good will toward men has always existed, and will never end.  His Kingdom, is given by birthright, not by naturalization. Grace then becomes the expression of those who choose to live out their true citizenship.  This is why these last few weeks matter.  This is why we’ve spent so much time studying grace.  Grace is the underpinning of the Kingdom, just as liberty is the underpinning of our nation.  Anything that robs another believer of his or her liberty in Christ, is not grace. That is why we have to be so careful in our walk with Christ. Grace is the divine nature expressed through the Godhead, as well as those who are born again.  Sadly, the church has lost its way on the issue of grace, because we’ve exchanged our grace for the safety, and security of laws, by-laws, constitutions, declarations of faith, and governments.  Pastors became possessors,  Apostles became appointers, Prophets became profiteers, teachers became taunters, and Evangelists became legalists.  We enshrined our thinking above God’s grace.  It has taken thousands of years to do it, but the path to safety has returned us to the same spot Adam found himself in. We’re afraid to be clothed with God’s righteousness, so we use the fig leaf of human doctrine to cancel the power of God’s grace.  Instead of being without shame as Christ intends us to be, we are continually checking to make sure our nakedness isn’t showing. It is high time for the Church to wake up, and make herself ready for the groom. 

You can be sure, the awakening is going to happen, the Church must wake up!   How can we convince a world to embrace the grace, when we ourselves aren’t convinced of the liberty wherein we now live.  How can we convince people of the divine goodness of God, if the divine nature isn’t found in us.  The divine nature lifts us beyond our human desires, and enables us to live a life of faith, moral excellence, divine knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, brotherly affection, and a love for EVERYONE.  We could never do this through the carnal nature.  Don’t get me wrong, the carnal nature is capable of doing ‘good’ things, even following the law, until it becomes puffed up.  The default attitude of the carnal nature is pride.  So, what looks good on the outside is actually filthy on the inside.  The problem with pride, is that it is the beginning of all sin.  It denies everyone of their liberty, even the one who is bound up in it.  Grace immediately challenges the carnal nature.  You see, when Christ spoke in Luke 4 about HIS anointing, He made a list of the things that the carnal nature does.  The carnal nature clothes itself in bad news, it enslaves, it blinds, and it oppresses.  As you will see in the next few weeks, this is the power of the kingdoms of this world.  When we advance the Kingdom of God, we are bringing liberty to those who don’t even know they are wretched, poor, blind, captive, and oppressed.  We must be busy like Christ, destroying the strongholds of darkness, and tearing them down.  We are leading people into the Kingdom of light, through the leading of the Holy Spirit. That is why we are ambassadors for Christ, we are representing a better Kingdom. Even if the evil one should try to jail us, persecute us, beat us, and shut our mouths, he will fail because his kingdoms are already defeated.  As we saw in Russia, and we are seeing in China, it is impossible to destroy God’s grace. Leaders will fail, oppressors will fail, and false teachers will fail.  The governments of this world will eventually bow before the true creator of all things, and they will acknowledge the grace of God. The power of God’s grace will ensure His Word goes out into all the world to save, heal, and deliver.  We only have to be willing to be the agents of His grace.              

THIS IS GRACE

We’re not through with ‘grace’ by any means, it is the foundation of the Kingdom of God.  I am overwhelmed by the complexity, beauty, and richness of God’s grace to the point of tears as I write this.  My prayer is that we never allow ourselves to diminish the power of His grace, through trivializing it.  We, who once stood as accused men before the holiness of our creator, can only grasp the treasures of his truth with trembling fingers.  If we are to be a testament to the principalities , and powers of the air to the manifold wisdom of God, then grace should be the song that speaks our testimony in more than written words.  God’s grace is poured out on the hardened clay of our hearts, and He gently traces the words of life upon them with His very own fingers.  Can any angel, demon, or heavenly being deny the wondrous beauty of God’s holiness, when they view His grace at work in our lives? 

We who stole, steal no more.  We who told lies, lie no more.  We who betrayed our creator’s love, ignoring His tender calls to repentance, are now embraced in His loving embrace.  He still walks in the garden, calling out to us as a Father for His lost child. 

But, that is not grace. 

We who thought only of ourselves, are consumed with touching the lives of others.  We who desired to live in the pleasures of this life, make another life our desire.  We who had no way to appease the wrath of a just God, stand righteous, holy, and blameless before Him. 

But, that is not grace.

When Satan held the law before us, and spoke of our wicked deeds, Christ nailed them to the cross.  Not only were our deeds crucified with Christ, but Christ made a mockery of sin, and death, parading them for all to see how weak and powerless they are before a loving savior.  Not just content to nail our sins to a tree, he cast them into the sea of forgetfulness.  They are forgotten!  Never to be remembered again! 

But, that is not grace.

I stood before Him, guilty as charged; treasonous, lecherous, vile, carnally minded, rebellious, faithless, and devoid of any good thing.  Yet, He called me brother, adopted me, put a ring upon my finger, and a robe upon my sin weary shoulders.  I would have been happy to be a slave in His household, yet He crowns me with His glory. 

But, that is not grace. 

What is grace?   Grace is everything I’d desired to steal from Him.  The Apostle Peter said it so succinctly;  He has given us everything we need for life and godliness. 

Grace is everything we need for life and godliness.  He gives us of the vast storehouse of His grace, everything.  When Satan says God is holding something back, we hold up ‘everything’ crying out: “ It is mine!  MINE!”   Yet, it isn’t mine, because strangely  enough for those with open hands, all that is poured out upon us, is given as God’s gracious gift to others. We find ourselves desiring to give it away, it baffles us, yet consumes us.  He was not satisfied to rescue, and redeem, He had to give us equal standing.  Everything!   Everything we need is ours.  Our accuser has to fall back in shame as God loads our pockets with His riches. 

Please, let’s not trivialize Grace!  

GRACE BY WHICH WE STAND

NOTE:  It would be hypocritical to post this lesson with confrontation in mind, when the lesson itself is about grace.  For anyone who may stumble upon this blog through a search engine, our men are on a quest to live out the Kingdom of God on earth today.  Part of that quest is to have a solid understanding of how to enter into, and live in the Kingdom of God.  We’ve concluded that Grace is the outward manifestation of the Kingdom life, just as sin is the outward manifestation of a carnal life.  If you continue to read this blog, it is sure to offend those who’ve grown up with, or been indoctrinated by the prevailing definitions of Grace.

(SORRY CHARLIE, THIS IS A LONG BLOG)

LESSON:  Grace is much more than love, kindness, privilege, compassion, mercy, or any other ‘one word or two word’ definition that we’ve come to embrace over the years.  I hope by now, you’ve come to understand the complexity of grace.  We could spend the rest of our lives studying this one word, and still not fathom all that it is, nor all that it does, because IT is the work of the HOLY SPIRIT, dare I say Grace is the Holy Spirit. Even as much as I’ve prepared for this study, I haven’t even scratched the surface, although I have bashed my head on it a few times.

The problem with any study into grace, is our tendency to confuse grace with salvation.  We interchange the two as if they were Lego blocks, even though the evidence to the contrary is in the scriptures.  They aren’t one in the same, and never will be.  I believe one of the easiest ways to prove a point is to inject our accepted definitions into a scripture.  Let me do one of our Pastor’s favorite passages: 2 Corinthians 12:9 NLT  Each time He said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”  . . . Let’s substitute ‘salvation’ for grace.  “My salvation is all you need. . .” Uhhhhh, nope, that don’t work for me.  Now, let’s inject Pastor’s definition of Grace; “My power to succeed is all you need.  My power works best in weakness.”   Yep, that’s better!  Now let’s inject the Holy Spirit in there; “My Holy Spirit is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”  NOW that’s what I’m talking about!  

Let’s do another verse, Ephesians 2:8  “For you are saved by salvation through faith. . .”   Not much better.  Yet, when we talk about Grace, we make it a loose definition for being saved.  NOW, let’s do it as written, “For you are SAVED by GRACE through FAITH, and that not of yourselves, it (salvation) is a gift of God.”  (emphasis mine) Faith is a gift of God, Grace is the gift of God, Salvation is a gift of God.  Duh!  God created everything, so it would stand to reason that grace, faith, and salvation would be of God.  Without wanting to step into the obvious minefields that surround any discussion of grace, let’s make our position perfectly clear; YOU MUST BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST IN ORDER TO BE SAVED!!!!!!  If you don’t believe me, then believe Jesus. (I am talking to Christians here.)

There are three things Jesus said you must do in order to be saved.  YOU must repent, (He would not tell you to do it unless it was something you had to do.) you must believe, (God is not going to believe for you, else he wouldn’t be going about looking for someone to show himself strong in) and you must be baptized (Christ already did that once, he doesn’t need to do that for you.)  Yes,  I’m being facetious.  The problem with Ephesians 2:8 isn’t with the words, but with how we translate those words. Those who want to make a mantra of the last part of Ephesians 2:8  try to make grace into some kind of mystical force that can’t be resisted.  ‘You will serve me. . . .(eerie synthesizer music plays in the background)…..You are helpless before me. . . . .(a wave of the almighty’s arm,) . . ..You will love me. . .   Okay, I’m getting out there.

The other side of the grace argument is just as flawed, because it makes grace into marshmallow filling that sweetens a poor excuse for cake.  “God’s grace has covered all my sins, I’ve accepted Jesus as my savior, I choose to follow Jesus. I can act any way I want to, because I’m covered by grace.”  WRONG WORDS DUDES!   Let’s take a look at the one example that busts both ideas.  Turn to Luke 18:18-30

A rich young ruler came to Jesus, the savior of all mankind, with a sincere desire to do something to inherit eternal life. (Doesn’t everybody?) Jesus didn’t confront the young man, nor did he make him bow before him. The young man could easily see for himself, that Jesus knew the way to eternal life, that’s why he came, and bowed before Him of his own free will.  If the idea of total depravity were true, the rich young ruler wouldn’t even have guessed that Jesus could lead him to eternal life.  Jesus knew the young man was serious, and moved to tears by the young ruler’s stated obedience to the law of Moses.  Jesus asks the young man the one thing he asks all of us to do, “sell all that you have. . .and follow me.” 

DECISION TIME! 

The hope of eternal life stood before the young ruler, and he rejected it.  The Holy Spirit was busting on this boy’s chops hard! Jesus is weeping, the disciples are hoping, heaven holds its breath. . .Still, he was able to turn his back on the one thing he came to Jesus for.  This story clearly puts the decision to believe in Jesus in our own ballpark.  I reject the notion that human beings are ‘totally depraved,’ and grace is the only way we can find Him.  I believe God is always searching for us, no matter where we may be hiding.  He’s been calling out to us since the dawn of creation.  The Gospel is the call, and love is the reason for the call. Grace is what we get when we answer the call. I’ll repeat my assertion, the biggest problem we face when we are discussing grace, is confusing the GOSPEL with grace.  They aren’t the same.  If we take Jesus at His word, GOD LOVES EVERYONE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!  The gospel is that truth, but the Gospel can be resisted, and hell will be filled with people who resisted the gospel.  Salvation is not Grace, and Grace is not the offer of salvation.  I hate it when we lump everything in one basket and throw it up into the air like a tossed salad.  “Here, eat this, we’ll throw a little ‘carnal’ dressing on it to make it more palatable.”  Before long, the salad doesn’t matter, it’s the dressing we taste.  God doesn’t have love potions to make us love Him. Yes, everything comes from God, but it is still our choice to believe, repent, and love Him. God didn’t program us to follow Him.  Actually, he’s looking for those who willingly follow him.  We’re going to be coming back to Ephesians 2:8-9 a lot more over the course of our study, so we’ll leave it alone for right now.  Let’s look at another passage that clearly demonstrates Grace’s function in our salvation, and ultimately what its role in the Kingdom is.  Last week I told you we’d be looking at Romans chapter 5, so let’s turn there now. 

Romans chapter 5,

5:1  Our faith in the atoning, cleansing, work of Jesus Christ is what justifies us.  (the therefore, is chapter four) We stand clean before God, through the work that Jesus did. 

5:2   It is faith in JESUS that gives us access to the GRACE (Spirit) of God in which we stand (Justified/righteous/blameless/ empowered/ and HOLY) rejoicing (boasting) in (Jesus) the hope of the Glory of God.  Duh!!!!! Jesus is the Glory of God.  We boast in HIM because he Did it.  He bought our ransom, paid the price, redeemed us.  WE BOAST IN HIM, because we believe in the work he did.  FAITH ACTIVATES GRACE!  (Remember: you are saved by grace through faith.)  YOU MUST BELIEVE!  Faith (trust) opens the gates  of heaven. NOW Grace is available to you. 

5:3  (Now that we believe, and grace is available to us,) We can do more than boast about Jesus’ work on the cross, we can also boast when we go through tribulations and trials.  WHY?  Because we KNOW that tribulations work to make us patient. [Patience is a fruit of the Spirit, (Galatians 5:22) which proves that GRACE is already at work IN us.] 

5:4  We know that enduring tribulation also develops strong character, and once we’ve developed a strong character,  we’ll abound in confidence.  (Remember these things are happening AFTER we believe into Jesus)

5:5  Our confidence (hope) in Jesus won’t disappoint us.  (We won’t be ashamed when we pass from this life to the next, because when we stand before God, we’ll have believed in the truth, and Grace will have completed its work in us.) Not only can we have confidence on the Day of Judgment, but also we can have that confidence NOW, because we have God’s love spread all over our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit.  (This love is how people SEE the grace of God.  Grace is tangible, and visible to all.  (How do you think people know you are ‘gracious.’  It is how we know we are HIS.)

NOTE: Up to this point, Paul has been describing the work of Jesus Christ, which not only sets us in right standing with God for the future, but it also gives us strength to endure tribulation, and hardships.  Now he will show us the scope of salvation in its intricacy.  All this stuff is past tense stuff, before you became a NEW man.

5:6  There was a time when we were powerless, weak, and carnal. (Sinman)  THEN (BAM!) Christ died for us!  (We didn’t ask Him to do it, and we could have cared less that He did it.  It wasn’t our idea.)  He didn’t die for the righteous, holy, blameless, or more deserving, HE died for us when we were helpless, decrepit, evil, despicable, nasty, and stinky.  He loved us when we were his enemies.  (This is HIS love at work, not His grace.  If grace were love, He would have said: For God was so gracious, he gave his . . .)  God loves all of us, but His love for us isn’t the issue.  Our loving Him isn’t the issue.  No matter how much He loves us, and regardless of whether we love Him, sin still stands between us,and God. 

5:7  The carnal mindset is offered up here; A carnal man would be tempted to give their lives for someone who is good or righteous, but who would give their life for a child molester, murderer, thief, liar, rapist, adulterer, prostitute, or addict?  WHO WOULD DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS? 

JESUS!  Wow!  Paul loves to mess with people’s minds. 

5:8  Yes, while we were totally messed up beyond all hope of ever being right with God, Jesus gave his life for us.  He stood in our place (I want you to get a mental picture of this, because it is the key to understanding grace.)  HE HUNG UPON THE CURSE (THE CROSS) AND TOOK UPON HIMSELF THE MOST VILE SIN ANY MANY OR WOMAN HAS EVER COMMITTED.   He did this while we were his enemies, while we were still sinners, while we were helpless, while we didn’t even know what He was doing.  THIS IS THE LOVE HE HAS FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD!  (This is still not grace.  Love alone, doesn’t make salvation happen for us, we have to believe Jesus is the Son of God, that He died, and rose again.)

5:9  As if being justified (made right, forgiven, just if I’d never sinned) by His death wasn’t enough, He has given us a back door to escape God’s coming wrath.  Yes, God’s wrath is coming.  The earth will be purged by fire, and we will escape it through the work Jesus did on the cross.

5:10 FAVORITE VERSE ALERT:  I  love it when Paul does stuff like this;  for if when you were enemies to God, He chose to reconcile you to himself through the death of His Son, imagine the salvation he has in store for us through the resurrection (LIFE) of His Son.  In other words, if you think Christ dying on the cross for your sins was awesome beyond words, wait till you figure out what his resurrection means!   HIS resurrection makes life available to us.  We were reconciled, cleansed, made whole, by the work of the cross.  I won’t diminish its power or deny its strength.  BUT!!!!   His resurrection is LIFE!  Hello, we’re talking about Grace here. 

5:11  His resurrection life (Grace) allows us to boast in God, through our relationship with Jesus, His Son.  It is a familial joy, a joined exuberance, a “my Dad’s bigger than your Dad” boasting.  Not that we’ve done anything, but that we know who our Daddy is.  This keeps on proving the old adage that it’s not what you know, but WHO you know that counts.  If I get to do nothing but be a gatekeeper in God’s stadium, that’s enough for me. (I think there’s a scripture that is similar to what I just said)

5:12   Now we’re going to step back into the discussion of sin again:  By one man (Adam,)  sin entered the world,  and by that sin death, which has passed upon all men from that time till now, because all men have sinned.  (I want you to think about the immensity of the influence and power of sin.  All men have sinned) 

5:13  Paul makes it clear, that sin has been in the world since Adam, but we weren’t held accountable until the Law was given to Moses. The law is God letting us have just a glimpse of how bad we are messed up, and just how HOLY He is. Sin’s power to kill is absolute, how do we know that?  Paul says the proof lies in the fact that men continue to die. 

5:14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, (one sin is death, white lie, big lie, steal bubble gum, say; I hate you etc. .  .) even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. (remember, God doesn’t kill us, separation from Him kills us. When we sin, we choose to die. Sin and death are hand in hand, but Paul is setting us up, Adam is a type of. . . )

5:15  But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.  In other words, if you think Sin was the tough boy in the park, wait till you link up with grace. 

5:16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin (Adam). For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.  Paul is trying to show us the unimaginable power of Grace.  It absolutely destroys, and overwhelms the power of sin.  The next verse makes it perfectly clear.  

5:17 For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.  The power of sin is destroyed, and we are new creations, without the curse of sin and death ruling over us. 

ADMONITION WARNING:  The tendency for most Christians is to wrap themselves in what they think is grace, and battle with sin at a personal level.  Doing this robs grace of its purpose for our lives.  When the battlefield is in our own backyard, we are rendered ineffective for the Kingdom.  When we were carnal, we didn’t fight with righteousness.  If we did something good, we didn’t feel bad about it.  The carnal nature is only focused on itself.  On the other hand, grace’s greatest power is when we put the Grace of God on display. Sin has to cower before the light of God’s grace.  When we are consumed with the Holy Fire of God’s love, sin is a non-issue.  If we are obsessed with our own salvation, I guarantee you, we won’t be able to help anyone find theirs.  WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN A WEALTH OF GRACE TO OFFER TO OTHERS.

5:18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.  {if you haven’t picked up on it by now, I don’t think you ever will.  Christ has done it!  Whereas sin entered the world through the action of one man, Grace (the opposite of Sin,) has entered the world through the action of one man.}  (BAM! BAM! BAM!)  Death’s outta there! 

5:19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.   (Instead of sinning, we are gracing.  Grace allows us to do God’s good works, we gotta tell the world, gotta share da love..)

THIS IS WHERE WE ENDED OUR STUDY SUNDAY:  Go ahead and read on, because we’re going to finish this on Sunday. 

5:20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, (because Grace is the opposite of Sin, and sin is powerless before Grace, Grace wipes out sin)

5:21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

There you have it!  Grace (The Spirit of Christ) is at work, and alive in us to overcome the power of sin.  Death is swallowed up in life.  WE are great big grace machines, spreading the good news, releasing the good stuff, and chasing death down every dark alley it tries to hide in.  We are LOVE’S sidekicks.  “Here, let me give you some healing, Man.”  “Oh, that, that’s nothing, I got GRACE for that.”   “Trouble?  I got da cure for trouble.” 

I’m not being smug, prideful, or anything like that.  I’M CONFIDENT IN THE POWER OF CHRIST!  When Peter, and John healed the man on the way to the temple, they weren’t being prideful when they said; “Silver and Gold have I none, but such as I have. . . .”  Grace, is what we got. (I know, poor English.)  It’s the difference between carrying around a little puff gun, and carrying around a disintegrator ray gun.  When death tries to set up shop, we whip out the ray gun of grace and blow him away.  KNOCKED OVER!   Then we watch with joy as another loved soul runs off with their ‘fuzzy.’   For those who were predicting the death of the Church, and the end of Christianity, you better grab a hold of something solid, because the Kingdom of God is erupting all over the world.  Love, mercy, healing, and deliverance are what this great awakening is all about. A tidal wave of Grace is about to sweep over the world.  The fire of LOVE is going to consume everything in its path.  THE NEXT GREAT REVIVAL IS HERE!!!!!

STILL GRAPPLING WITH GRACE

Defining Grace is not as easy as it sounds.  It is more than just "unmerited favor."  Try plugging that into about half of the scriptures where Grace is found, and you'll see that it doesn't work.  Like all things that must be translated into English  it doesn't work all the time. Our men's group is working it from all angles, but we're not even close yet.  Grace is so much more than a simple act of mercy, or forgiveness. Grace is alive, thinking, and moving in us.  What we've learned from our study so far, is that grace is dynamic, powerful, and given to those who have faith.
One thing we worked hard to overcome, is the concept of fairness.
While God is not a "respecter of persons,"  that doesn't mean He treats everyone fairly.
eeeooooooooouuuuuuuuuwwwwww!
All we have to do, is look at His dealings with Cain, and Able.  Was there something we weren't told in the story?  If God were fair, He would have approved of Cain's sacrifice just as He did Able's.  Yet, we know that he didn't.  We can make all kinds of conjecture as to why, but the answer is; we don't know why.  I can hear Cain saying: "That's not fair!  I worked hard to grow that stuff! All Able did was bring a stinking lamb."  We as human beings, believe in fairness.  We believe that it is one of God's qualities, but it isn't.  HE IS JUST.  Justice assumes that all things are not fair.  Laws are hard, written in stone, and inflexible, Justice is not.  One of the greatest battles we face as a species going into the technological age, is the war between Law, and Justice. We want to believe in fairness, but it doesn't exist.  As people, we aren't equally valuable. That is why the Constitution of the United States of America is one of the most intriguing documents ever written by carnal men. The founding fathers of this great nation had a vision of what men could be if they moved beyond the idea of selfish ambition. They themselves were torn between the idea of governance, and rule.  I am sure that they would be dismayed to see their ideal of selfless governance turned into a dictatorial taskmaster. This is the end result of trying to be fair.  Their vision of equality was a loose framework that was inclusive, yet liberating. It is when we hand over the issue of fairness to the merciless hands of the law, that equality is swept aside for mindless uniformity. It is when we sacrifice judgment, and wisdom for the letter of the law, that we become trapped in tyranny. WE can see the results of this today as our government regulates our every movement, and maybe someday, our every thought.  This was never the founding fathers intent, nor is it our Heavenly Father's intent.  Fairness is not equality.
That is why judgment is the Lord's.  He is the wise, and kind judge.  We do not possess the knowledge of the future to decide as He decides.  Yet, when Christians are confronted with the carnal concept of fairness, we shrink back from the perceived cruelty of an unfair God.  Cruelty is situational. God is not situational.  He knows the beginning from the end.  Even Christians doubt His goodness when confronted with seemingly cruel things beyond their control.  Yet, we know God is good, or at least we should know He is good.
Grace is God making all things good, not fair, but good.  I'm sure that there are things I don't know, but He is revealing more of Himself every minute to those willing to listen. Men know more about the nature of God, than they have at any other time in history.  I'm sure that we will figure out God's definition of Grace before this is over with.