The Grace of God
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| In loving memory of my father Robert Louis (Bob) Padgett July 28, 1931-May 22, 2023 |
In the next seven or eight messages I want to share with you about the grace and glory of God. We will start with His grace.
The word "grace" appears more than 150 times in Scripture, twelve times in the Book of Ephesians. The first occurrence of the word, "grace," is in
With the exception of the epistle to the Hebrews, every letter written by Paul begins and ends with "grace," thus constantly emphasizing that the Christian life begins with grace, is lived by grace, and ends with grace, not by reliance on self or works. The Greek word is charis, which describes the undeserved, unmerited favor of God which He rains down upon us. Perhaps a more practical definition of grace is that it represents God's enabling power to overcome the world, my flesh, and the devil. Without dependence upon His grace, we saints cannot live the supernatural (victorious) Christian life. The Lord told Paul, "My grace is sufficient for thee" (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Grace is like the "bookends" of Ephesians; Paul begins and ends with a prayer for grace for the saints.
Grace and peace are always found in that order because grace is the foundation and peace is the result. Paul knew the essential place of grace and peace from God in the life of the believer, and He knew that receiving or accepting God's grace comes before a walk in peace with Him.
Grace is God at work in our life and peace is a sense of security and trust, knowing that we are in the palm of His hand. Unless God moves upon us and within us, we can never enjoy His peace. But after that comes the practice, the application, the working out of these in terms of the normal situations of life. We must work out that which God works in.
Without the grace of God, we can do nothing. We cannot even take our next breath except for His grace. Grace is a Divine outworking of the sovereignty of God. Obviously grace is for us mortals. God needs no grace for Himself. So the God of all grace is even greater than the grace of God! The Giver is always greater than the gift.
So what did John the Baptist mean when he said that "the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ"? I believe he meant that Jesus was and is the personification of truth and grace. Jesus IS the Truth and He IS the manifestation of the grace of God.
However, we need to be careful.
Note that His purpose comes before His grace.
The pathway to receiving more grace from God is humility, walking in His righteousness, and doing the will of God from the heart. It is exemplified by the parable of the talents, in Matthew 25:14-30. In that parable, a man called his servants. He gave five talents to one, two talents to another, and one talent to the third servant, to every man according to his several ability. The first two servants doubled their talents; both were faithful over a few things and both were made rulers over many things. The servant who had received only one talent went and hid his talent in the earth and returned it later to his lord. That servant was soundly rebuked.
The fact that we can receive more and more grace is clearly indicated by,
The word, "favor," means grace. That amazing grace is marvelous in our eyes! The grace of God abounds, ever fresh, according to our need.
Now let us return to Titus 2:11-14
The purpose of salvation is not just so we can go to heaven. That is almost an "escape" mentality. Further, it focuses too much on "me" and what "I" get. But God created man and is in the process of making man into the likeness of His image for His purposes. We have been designed to worship God in the beauty of His holiness and to enjoy fellowship or communion with Him even on earth as well as when time is no more.
No man will ever be able to say, "Lord, You never gave me a chance." For the grace of God has appeared to all men. After the fall of the first Adam, the LORD asked Adam and Eve four questions. Of course the LORD knew the answers to all the questions. Why then did He ask those questions? simply to give Adam and Eve a chance to repent, which they did not. The LORD asked Cain 5 questions, giving Cain a chance to repent, which he did not. The LORD even asked the great prophet Elijah, after he had fled from Jezebel, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" The Bible does not state whether the great prophet, Elijah, admitted his mistake. But that is the grace of God that gives us a chance to repent.
Back to Titus 2:12 ...
The grace of God teaches us many things. The word translated as "teaching" can better be translated as "chastening" or "disciplining." The grace of God leads us into discipline. Grace perfects us; grace enables us to stand up. Grace can also be very stern at times. The costliness of grace requires great demands on our part. Grace teaches us to deny our self, take up our cross, and follow Him.
So the grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. That speaks of repentance and justification. Ungodliness says, "I will, me, my." We are born self-centered. But we must restrict our self; my self must be nailed to my cross. Worldly lusts are lusts of the eyes, lusts of the flesh, and the pride of life. Solomon had more silver and gold, more wisdom and knowledge, more power, and more pleasure (delicious food, 700 wives, and 300 concubines) than any other man in history. But in Ecclesiastes Solomon said at least 25 times, "All is vanity." In Ecclesiastes 12, Solomon finally said, "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth."
"We should live soberly, righteously, and godly" speaks of sanctification ... an on-going process. It speaks of being filled with the Spirit and remaining filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18 says, "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit" (wherein is NO excess). The Greek word for "be filled" means "keep on being filled" or "stay filled" with the Spirit. The goal of the Christian life is to remain Spirit-filled.
That blessed hope is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The word "appearing" means the manifestation or advent of Christ. It is the same word as in
"A peculiar people" means "a purchased people." We have been bought with a price. That price was the blood of Jesus. We cannot fully comprehend how costly and precious the blood of Jesus was.
A few months ago I heard a minister describe an event which occurred in the life of an Englishman around 1850. Apparently this was a true story, which I want to briefly paraphrase. I will call his name Sam (not his real name). When Sam heard about the gold rush in California in 1848, he quickly came to the U.S., went to California, and bought a gold mine which turned out to be a very profitable venture financially. He made a lot of money very quickly and then sold the mine after a few years for even more profit. He was also very careful to save his money. He then decided to travel back to the east coast via the southern route and stopped for a few days in New Orleans. His plan was to then travel to New York and get a ship back to England. Of course that was a time period when slavery was very common in the south. One day, out of curiosity, he decided to attend the slave market in New Orleans, where human beings were being auctioned and sold like animals.
At one point a very beautiful slave woman was put up for auction. He heard a few other people around him say that one greedy man always bought all of the beautiful women for his pleasure and that he threatened any man to bid against him. He also heard many vulgar and indecent remarks about what that man would do with that beautiful slave woman after he bought her. That incensed Sam, the Englishman, so he decided to bid against the greedy man. The bids went back and forth for a while. Then Sam decided to end the bidding war. Sam doubled the last bid of the greedy man to a point unheard of at those auctions. The auctioneer asked Sam if he really had that much money to back up his bid and Sam guaranteed he had the money. When Sam went to collect his purchase, the woman through clenched teeth told Sam, "I hate you!" She also spit in Sam's face, but Sam calmly wiped his face off. Sam then led the beautiful slave woman, who still had a strap around her neck, to the office where he paid the purchased price. The woman still had much hatred in her eyes for Sam. Then Sam led the woman to another government office, where he completed the paperwork for the manumission of the woman. Manumission means official papers setting the slave free. Sam gave the document to the woman and said "you are now a free woman." He also gave her some money and told her to travel north and live as a free woman. The woman could not believe it. She said, "You mean you paid all of that money just to set me free?" Sam quietly said, "Yes." She said, "Do you know you paid much more money to set me free than anyone has ever paid for a slave?" Sam said, "That's what they told me." Still unbelieving, she repeated, "You mean you paid all of that money just to set me free?" Sam said, "Yes, I know." At that point the woman fell on her knees, cried profusely, and told Sam she had never been treated with such kindness. She then asked Sam if she could be his servant forever. Sam said, "No, I have to go back to England." The woman, still crying profusely, thanked Sam over and over again. Then Sam left.
The moral of that true story is self-evident. Whenever we are allowed to see the extreme costliness of the blood of Jesus ... whenever we are allowed to see even a small measure of the amazing grace of God at work in our lives, our response must be the same as that slave woman.
We are all beautiful in the Lord's eyes. He has bought us with a price that exceeds our imagination. And all we can do is to weep at His feet because of His great grace and mercy and kindness to us; and then to say, "Lord, I will not go out free; bore my ear through with an aul, that I may be your faithful servant forever."
In our next message we will continue with the topic of the God of all grace.
The word "grace" appears more than 150 times in Scripture, twelve times in the Book of Ephesians. The first occurrence of the word, "grace," is in
Genesis 6:8, "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD."
With the exception of the epistle to the Hebrews, every letter written by Paul begins and ends with "grace," thus constantly emphasizing that the Christian life begins with grace, is lived by grace, and ends with grace, not by reliance on self or works. The Greek word is charis, which describes the undeserved, unmerited favor of God which He rains down upon us. Perhaps a more practical definition of grace is that it represents God's enabling power to overcome the world, my flesh, and the devil. Without dependence upon His grace, we saints cannot live the supernatural (victorious) Christian life. The Lord told Paul, "My grace is sufficient for thee" (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Grace is like the "bookends" of Ephesians; Paul begins and ends with a prayer for grace for the saints.
"Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1:2)."Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity"
(Ephesians 6:24).
Grace and peace are always found in that order because grace is the foundation and peace is the result. Paul knew the essential place of grace and peace from God in the life of the believer, and He knew that receiving or accepting God's grace comes before a walk in peace with Him.
Grace is God at work in our life and peace is a sense of security and trust, knowing that we are in the palm of His hand. Unless God moves upon us and within us, we can never enjoy His peace. But after that comes the practice, the application, the working out of these in terms of the normal situations of life. We must work out that which God works in.
12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.Philippians 2:12-13
Paul said, in 1 Timothy 1:12-14, "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."
Without the grace of God, we can do nothing. We cannot even take our next breath except for His grace. Grace is a Divine outworking of the sovereignty of God. Obviously grace is for us mortals. God needs no grace for Himself. So the God of all grace is even greater than the grace of God! The Giver is always greater than the gift.
From John 1:14-17, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John bear witness of Him, and cried, saying, This was He of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for He was before me. And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for [in addition to] grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
Now we know that grace and truth were both available under the Old Covenant.
Psalm 119:142, "Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth."Romans 7:12, "Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good."Genesis 6:8, "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD."Exodus 33:17, "And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name."
So what did John the Baptist mean when he said that "the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ"? I believe he meant that Jesus was and is the personification of truth and grace. Jesus IS the Truth and He IS the manifestation of the grace of God.
2 Timothy 2:1, "Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus."Every believer knows Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."
However, we need to be careful.
From Romans 5:20-21 and Romans 6:1-2, "Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?"
Most churches today major in minors and are content to preach a feel-good, happy message of "let's get saved and go to heaven one day." Even the grace of God frequently gets pushed beyond its scriptural boundary. Grace, as wonderful as it is, is simply a means toward an end. The true end is that the purposes of God might be fulfilled. It is the difference between a God-centered theology and a man-centered theology. We were created for His pleasure, not for our pleasure.
2 Timothy 1:9, "Who [God] hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,"
Note that His purpose comes before His grace.
Titus 2:11, "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men."
The grace of God is, initially at least, available to all men. It is our reaction or reception to the grace of God that makes the difference. There are several possible reactions man can have to the grace of God. The first and best reaction is to accept, receive, and appropriate His grace with thanksgiving.
Another possibility is to despise the Truth and thereby do despite to the Spirit of grace.
Another possibility is to despise the Truth and thereby do despite to the Spirit of grace.
Hebrews 10:29, "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?"
A third possibility is to frustrate the grace of God by trying to establish our own righteousness through good works. This is an area that we believers need to be very careful to avoid. We can also frustrate the grace of God (make it of none effect in our life) by seeking our own will and being friends with the world. This latter desire is VERY prevalent within the charismatic churches of today. It is the same attitude that ALL of the elders of Israel stated when they told Samuel, "Make us a king to judge us like all the nations" (1 Samuel 8:5). James puts it this way:
3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?6 But He giveth more grace. Wherefore He saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. James 4:3-6
Paul said, "I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." Galatians 2:21
The pathway to receiving more grace from God is humility, walking in His righteousness, and doing the will of God from the heart. It is exemplified by the parable of the talents, in Matthew 25:14-30. In that parable, a man called his servants. He gave five talents to one, two talents to another, and one talent to the third servant, to every man according to his several ability. The first two servants doubled their talents; both were faithful over a few things and both were made rulers over many things. The servant who had received only one talent went and hid his talent in the earth and returned it later to his lord. That servant was soundly rebuked.
The fact that we can receive more and more grace is clearly indicated by,
Luke 2:52, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man."
The word, "favor," means grace. That amazing grace is marvelous in our eyes! The grace of God abounds, ever fresh, according to our need.
Now let us return to Titus 2:11-14
11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;14 Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
The purpose of salvation is not just so we can go to heaven. That is almost an "escape" mentality. Further, it focuses too much on "me" and what "I" get. But God created man and is in the process of making man into the likeness of His image for His purposes. We have been designed to worship God in the beauty of His holiness and to enjoy fellowship or communion with Him even on earth as well as when time is no more.
No man will ever be able to say, "Lord, You never gave me a chance." For the grace of God has appeared to all men. After the fall of the first Adam, the LORD asked Adam and Eve four questions. Of course the LORD knew the answers to all the questions. Why then did He ask those questions? simply to give Adam and Eve a chance to repent, which they did not. The LORD asked Cain 5 questions, giving Cain a chance to repent, which he did not. The LORD even asked the great prophet Elijah, after he had fled from Jezebel, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" The Bible does not state whether the great prophet, Elijah, admitted his mistake. But that is the grace of God that gives us a chance to repent.
the goodness [graciousness] of God leadeth thee to repentance. Romans 2:4
Back to Titus 2:12 ...
12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
The grace of God teaches us many things. The word translated as "teaching" can better be translated as "chastening" or "disciplining." The grace of God leads us into discipline. Grace perfects us; grace enables us to stand up. Grace can also be very stern at times. The costliness of grace requires great demands on our part. Grace teaches us to deny our self, take up our cross, and follow Him.
5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him:6 For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Hebrews 12:5-11
So the grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. That speaks of repentance and justification. Ungodliness says, "I will, me, my." We are born self-centered. But we must restrict our self; my self must be nailed to my cross. Worldly lusts are lusts of the eyes, lusts of the flesh, and the pride of life. Solomon had more silver and gold, more wisdom and knowledge, more power, and more pleasure (delicious food, 700 wives, and 300 concubines) than any other man in history. But in Ecclesiastes Solomon said at least 25 times, "All is vanity." In Ecclesiastes 12, Solomon finally said, "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth."
"We should live soberly, righteously, and godly" speaks of sanctification ... an on-going process. It speaks of being filled with the Spirit and remaining filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18 says, "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit" (wherein is NO excess). The Greek word for "be filled" means "keep on being filled" or "stay filled" with the Spirit. The goal of the Christian life is to remain Spirit-filled.
Back to Titus 2:13 ...
13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
That blessed hope is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The word "appearing" means the manifestation or advent of Christ. It is the same word as in
2 Timothy 4:8, "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."And, Hebrews 9:28, "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation."
So the important question is ... Are you looking for Him? Are you ready to welcome Him if He returns today to judge the world in righteousness?
Back to Titus 2:14 ...
14 Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
"A peculiar people" means "a purchased people." We have been bought with a price. That price was the blood of Jesus. We cannot fully comprehend how costly and precious the blood of Jesus was.
A few months ago I heard a minister describe an event which occurred in the life of an Englishman around 1850. Apparently this was a true story, which I want to briefly paraphrase. I will call his name Sam (not his real name). When Sam heard about the gold rush in California in 1848, he quickly came to the U.S., went to California, and bought a gold mine which turned out to be a very profitable venture financially. He made a lot of money very quickly and then sold the mine after a few years for even more profit. He was also very careful to save his money. He then decided to travel back to the east coast via the southern route and stopped for a few days in New Orleans. His plan was to then travel to New York and get a ship back to England. Of course that was a time period when slavery was very common in the south. One day, out of curiosity, he decided to attend the slave market in New Orleans, where human beings were being auctioned and sold like animals.
At one point a very beautiful slave woman was put up for auction. He heard a few other people around him say that one greedy man always bought all of the beautiful women for his pleasure and that he threatened any man to bid against him. He also heard many vulgar and indecent remarks about what that man would do with that beautiful slave woman after he bought her. That incensed Sam, the Englishman, so he decided to bid against the greedy man. The bids went back and forth for a while. Then Sam decided to end the bidding war. Sam doubled the last bid of the greedy man to a point unheard of at those auctions. The auctioneer asked Sam if he really had that much money to back up his bid and Sam guaranteed he had the money. When Sam went to collect his purchase, the woman through clenched teeth told Sam, "I hate you!" She also spit in Sam's face, but Sam calmly wiped his face off. Sam then led the beautiful slave woman, who still had a strap around her neck, to the office where he paid the purchased price. The woman still had much hatred in her eyes for Sam. Then Sam led the woman to another government office, where he completed the paperwork for the manumission of the woman. Manumission means official papers setting the slave free. Sam gave the document to the woman and said "you are now a free woman." He also gave her some money and told her to travel north and live as a free woman. The woman could not believe it. She said, "You mean you paid all of that money just to set me free?" Sam quietly said, "Yes." She said, "Do you know you paid much more money to set me free than anyone has ever paid for a slave?" Sam said, "That's what they told me." Still unbelieving, she repeated, "You mean you paid all of that money just to set me free?" Sam said, "Yes, I know." At that point the woman fell on her knees, cried profusely, and told Sam she had never been treated with such kindness. She then asked Sam if she could be his servant forever. Sam said, "No, I have to go back to England." The woman, still crying profusely, thanked Sam over and over again. Then Sam left.
The moral of that true story is self-evident. Whenever we are allowed to see the extreme costliness of the blood of Jesus ... whenever we are allowed to see even a small measure of the amazing grace of God at work in our lives, our response must be the same as that slave woman.
We are all beautiful in the Lord's eyes. He has bought us with a price that exceeds our imagination. And all we can do is to weep at His feet because of His great grace and mercy and kindness to us; and then to say, "Lord, I will not go out free; bore my ear through with an aul, that I may be your faithful servant forever."
In our next message we will continue with the topic of the God of all grace.
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