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Grace takes you from where you are in your walk with God to where He wants you to be.
Studying it through the prayer of David, you will learn, even as he himself describes it, Both riches and honor come from you, O Lord, and you reign over all. In your hand is power and might, and it is in your hand to make great and to give strength to all. [1 Chronicles 29:12]
It reveals to you that God is the source, He is in sovereign control, and He has the power to lift you up in life, and bless you with riches and honor. The Bible also teaches you how it is all connected to true wisdom that is reserved for the righteous, wisdom which brings enduring wealth. [Proverbs 8:17-21]
And in the kingdom of God in the new covenant, everything that God works out in your life is on the basis of His grace that endures forever. There arises therefore, the need to know and apply the knowledge of His grace, and how it operates in your life, even in your finances, in order to remove poverty and lack, and to bring prosperity.
The grace perspective –
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty may become rich. [2 Corinthians 8:9] Paul’s very powerful words, are extremely relevant even today, in the area of finances in your life and mine. And he begins by saying, ‘You know…’. He presumes that there is already in you, a knowledge of the grace of Lord Jesus Christ. Grace has many dimensions to it. Therefore, what exactly Paul presumes here when he talks about knowing the grace of the Lord, is the key that unlocks the truth, embedded in the verse above.
Saving action of the grace of the Lord –
If you are saved, you ought to know what grace of Christ is, Paul points out in the verse of scripture. For salvation is the greatest blessing that anyone can receive from God, and it comes to you all by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And one needs to know this truth concerning salvation, instead of giving more importance to what comes through salvation, namely a house, or a job, or good health etc. Your eyes need to be fixed on Jesus, and not what you receive from His hand. For it is in knowing Jesus Christ that you experience eternal life, in other words, your salvation.
And if you have experienced salvation in your life, you already know the grace of Lord Jesus in your life. But the sad fact is that many people have experienced the grace of God in receiving salvation, but do not know the truth concerning it. And words like ‘honor’, ‘grace’ etc are used by the people of the world too, diluting the scriptural definition of it. The word ‘marriage’ is described by God as a sacred covenant relationship between a man and a woman. But, it has come to be seen and used by the world to mean a relationship that is like a contract or a civil partnership, and sometimes even between two people of the same gender ! It needs to be specified therefore, that when Paul talks about knowing what grace has done, what grace is doing and will do in your life, it is all about Christ, and contained within what He has already done.
Grace of Christ – experience and explanation –
For some, the experience of God’s word comes first. They experience a divine peace within them, and then, the word from God comes to them, clarifying their experience. But sometimes, the explanation comes, bringing expectation and then an overwhelming experience. When you know Him to be the God of all comfort, it can then lead you to experience His loving comfort in your life. But the truth that Paul establishes is that, no matter the order of it, there needs to be in you, an experience of the saving action of Christ together with the explanation, the revelation knowledge concerning it.
Knowing Christ, the person –
It is by knowing the person of Jesus Christ, that you will know His grace that has saved you. When you know Him as your Savior, you will experience, taste and see that the Lord is good. May the explanation of His Saving Grace, lead you to experience His goodness in your life, so that you may grow from one glory to another, progressively transformed to be in the likeness of His image, here on earth.
To understand grace in this particular context therefore, you need to understand the person, Jesus Christ, the Word who became flesh.
The Word who was God, who became flesh –
And the Word became 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 1:14] This is how the apostle John explains who Jesus Christ was, as He came into the world. And, prior to this John says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. [John 1:1,2]
Why is this truth very important ?
Grace and truth are divine qualities; it is what John establishes with great clarity. And it follows therefore, that they can be expressed only by the divine. The Word was God; and He became man, to express what He alone can express, which is true grace and truth. It is in knowing this truth you can be set free. In a world that abounds with the counterfeit, and self styled god men, it is vitally important that you get your definition from God Himself.
It is why the God who is full of grace and truth, became flesh and dwelt among us; and ‘we beheld His glory, His perfections’, says John. And now, when you are a child of God, Christ, the hope of glory, the God of grace and truth is living in you. You can expect therefore, manifestations of His glory, His perfections in all areas of your life, making you whole and complete in Him.
Christ is greater than Moses –
For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. [John 1:17] Moses received the words of law from God to give it to the people who awaited it. But with Christ, the same reasoning cannot be applied, for He Himself is the source, the originator, the manufacturer and supplier of grace and truth that comes through Him. And you become the channel for it to flow through you, for He is now living in you. Understanding the depth of this truth will see a mighty change in and through your life.
Of His fullness, we have all received, grace upon grace. [John 1:16] Day after day, every day, it is possible for each one of the millions of people who connect with Him to experience the overflowing fullness of the grace of Christ. Each person can be satisfied and full, having received from the Lord and still the Lord Jesus would remain full. It is the abundance of God. And it is the nature of your response to His overflowing fullness that determines whether your yield is thirty, sixty or a hundred fold. With Him there is no partiality; all who touched Him were healed. Grace upon grace, day after day, you receive from Him as your cup runs over, and you will see goodness and mercy follow you all the days of your life. Such is the grace of God, and it can happen in you, only in Christ and through Christ.
Grace and truth –
A simple connection can be made between grace and truth, one which will see it written very powerfully in the tablet of your heart . ‘Grace is the truth; and the truth is grace’.
For, what is grace ?
It is the saving action of Christ where on the Cross He has already done it all for you, which is the truth.
And, what is the truth ?
It is that, on the Cross, Christ has done it all for you and that is nothing but ‘grace’. It is His grace by which you are alive today; and it is His grace that has prepared a place in heaven for you. It is His grace that sees your every need provided here on earth. And this is the wondrous truth that needs to be imprinted in your heart. For, only when you understand it, you will know, why He who was rich, had to become poor, that you may become rich.
Grace and truth are all in the one person of Jesus Christ ! There is only one gospel, the gospel of Christ; and it is the grace of Christ.
And how can it be applied in our lives ?
Applying the truth is fundamental to Christian living, for subtle twisting of the true gospel often happens. It happened as early as in the early church at Galatia; a controversy that Paul addresses strongly in order to give clarity, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel which is not another; but there are some who trouble you, and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. [Galatians 1:6,7]
A doctrinal deviation from the truth of the grace of God was what was upsetting him very strongly, even to the extent of saying, ‘O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you ?’. [Galatians 3:1] And even today, there are different gospels that float around that can deceive you, for they seemingly appear to be true. The need to know the truth of God’s word is very important, that you may not be carried away by every strange wind or doctrine. Therefore, studying the verses of scripture above to establish the truth of the gospel, there are two phrases on which to build upon, which are ‘grace of Christ’ [vs 6] and ‘gospel of Christ’. [vs 7]
The gospel of Christ, the grace of Christ, is Christ Himself –
The word ‘gospel’ means good news or glad tidings. Good news can be shared joyfully with others. It is the news that through Christ there is a way to spend eternity in heaven.
What is the good news of the gospel of Christ ?
The good news, the gospel, is Christ Himself, what He has done, what He is doing in your life, and also what He is going to do in your future. The good news is that, Christ has done for you and I, something that we cannot do for ourselves.
For, what can a dead man do to help himself ?
Nothing at all, Yet, even when you and I were dead in our transgressions, unable to do anything to help ourselves, Christ died for our sins on the Cross, to set us free and raise us up to new life. It is the good news, the gospel of Christ. And the other aspect to it is that He is appropriating for us what we cannot do for ourselves. It is the good news of His grace. Grace is good news; and grace is Jesus.
Thus, the good news of the gospel of Christ is the good news of the gospel of grace. And it is all contained in Christ Jesus, and what he has accomplished on the Cross. There is no other gospel.
What then, is the ‘other’, the ‘different’ gospel ?
It is when people try to add something to the message of the Cross and Christ, by saying you need to do something, give more, pray more, make more spiritual effort in order to be accepted by God; for your prayer to be heard. When you are not sufficiently grounded in the truth of God’s word, people can come along to lead you into such wrong paths that will only lead you to a point of confusion and frustration.
For the everlasting, unchanging truth remains that Christ has already accomplished through the victorious Cross, all that you need for life and godliness. Your focus therefore, needs to be upon Christ, and His finished work on Calvary. And all that you need to do is to receive the truth with faith and understanding, and appropriate it in your life. When the dough has already been ground and prepared, you need not grind it again. All you need to do is to pour it out, and cook it, to make the dish that you desire !
Seated in the heavenly realms :
The person that is already seated, need not do anything extra, and try to sit once again. He only needs to relax and maybe sit more comfortably in his seat, without any worry or anxiety. The good news of the gospel is that, even when you were dead in your transgressions, Christ has died for you and risen again. And you have been raised together with Him, to be seated together with Him in the heavenly realms .It is all by His grace, and therefore, you can relax, and be at ease.
Having the right understanding of the truth of the gospel and the grace of God is the key to it, as Paul writes to the Colossians, the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you, since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth. [Colossians 1:6] It is to the same God that each and every child of God prays to, whether he is big or small in the kingdom of God. And with the depth of understanding of God’s truth, you will know that when you pray, God certainly listens and answers.
When does error come in ?
You who want to be justified by the law, have cut yourselves off from Christ, have fallen away from grace. [Galatians 5:4] Paul’s words of admonition above, are to the Galatians who had swiftly turned away from the right understanding of the truth. And when a wrong understanding of the gospel of grace is taken to an extreme, error will surely creep in.
The two extremes –
1) Christ has done it all for me, so I do not have to do anything at all. I need not take up a job, provide and care for my family, take up any responsibility at all. This wrong understanding will make you careless and unfruitful in life.
2) God will not help me, unless I help myself; so I have to do it all. This extreme position will make you increasingly dependent on your own self, leading to restlessness and anxiety. The word of God though, never advocates both extremes; but instead prescribes a wonderful balance that will keep you peaceful and fruitful.
Grace teaches you –
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age. [Titus 2:11,12] Grace teaches you and it is from Christ that you receive grace upon grace, for every circumstance of your life. Therefore, having done it all for you on the Cross of Calvary, now Christ teaches you, what to say and what to do.
‘It is what happened at the wedding in Cana’
‘Whatever He says to you, do it’ –
They were the words of Mary to the servants, when the wine had run out at the wedding feast. In your life too, Christ full of grace and truth teaches you, even as He instructed the servants that day. Christ bade them fill the water pots with water and they did it. He then asked them to take it to the banquet master and they did it. And when exactly the water turned into wine we do not know; maybe it was when the banquet master tasted it ! The important truth that needs to be observed though is that, the person who did the miracle, and the people who were involved in the miracle, were all in a restful position, without any anxiety.
It is what grace does even in your life. It is in a point of restful trust in Him that God works, to appropriate all that He has already prepared for you. Grace teaches you how to respond to what Christ has already done. So when the Lord asks you to pray, you only need to pray, nothing more. When He asks you to be still, just be still; hit the pause button !
How precisely did the Lord instruct the disciples who went ahead to prepare for the Lord’s Passover meal, the Last supper. [Luke 22:7-13] So the disciples went and found it just as He had said to them, and they prepared the Passover. Even in your life, there is no need to shiver and shake in worry, concerning something that He has already worked out. When He bids you not to be anxious, do not be anxious. And when you ask Him, He will teach you, how not to be anxious, for grace teaches you !
Therefore, rest in Him –
Rest in God, in His grace; may all restlessness leave for the rest of your life and relaxation enter in. It is what the grace of God has already done for you, and what God wants you to appropriate in your life.
May you know the grace of God not just intellectually, but also experience it in your life. Let your heart be enlightened with a deeper revelation of the grace of God, by which you will know that it has all been taken care of on the Cross of Calvary. May you know the richness of the Lord’s amazing grace every day of your life ! In the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen.
