In Accordance With Grace

So one of my new favorite verses is Romans 4:16, which says:

"For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all...."

God clearly defines for us how we are to relate to Him and thereby obtain all the benefits He has to offer us: only through faith are we able to rightly relate to Him and receive His promises for us. In the context of Romans 4:16, this grace is given to all who place their faith in God, whether a Gentile, or a Jew whose status before God formerly depended on the Law.

This biblical faith stands firm in its belief that God justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5) merely on the basis of belief. (By the way, in the Old Covenant, God called those who justified the ungodly an abomination (Proverbs 17:15). That'll mess with your under-appreciation of Grace.)

I love how the Amplified Bible translates Romans 4:16: "[inheriting] the promise is the outcome of faith and depends [entirely] on faith". WOW!!! Did you see that word "outcome"? In other words, faith in God can bring us nothing but the promises of God!

Until this point I've referred in a general sense to "faith in God". But mentioning only the person's name leaves out the substance of any reason for faith in them. Along with their name, their characteristics must also be numbered. In the case of God, we have faith in His goodness, in His kindness, in His faithfulness toward us, etc, because He IS goodness, He IS kindness, He IS faithfulness, etc.

Here is the main idea I want to present: only the type of faith based on the stability of God can have the outcome of obtaining promises. In other words, if I choose to believe that my performance will bring the promises of God to me, then I will constantly shift and be unstable in my confidence to receive said promises. But when I place my faith in God's person and His characteristics, I can safely rest in His stability to bring me those promises. That is why our righteousness comes through our faith in His gracious nature (remember also that He IS Grace). It is His grace which (and it is He who) is stable and can never fail. Both His person and His grace overcome my doubts and shifting confidence...not to mention my inability to perfectly perform.

One more idea: the thought that scoring a 90% or 95%, or even 99% on performing righteously before God and thus qualifying us to receive reward has no basis in scripture whatsoever. The penalty for missing the mark on perfect obedience is obvious: it is death. There is no slap on the wrist, no second or third place,...no "I'll do better next time" mentality.

Under law, you either obey perfectly, or you don't. If you do, you get the promises. If you don't, you lose, and losing means death. This is why we need grace to bring us under a totally contrasting and new system (not a mixture). Our position is secure under His personhood and His grace. He is our security to receive all His promises and remain in right relationship with Him.

~Jeremy

Abundance

I am for the message of Grace--utterly and totally. No one with whom I have spoken has a problem with God's grace in their life. They accept it, they preach it, and they know that God is gracious to them.

But here's the issue: Exactly just how gracious is God to us? What type of grace does He offer us?

I find that most people who believe God is gracious to them believe so because they were taught He is gracious. I also see that they tend to believe that grace in their life is some general application of God's goodness--some surface-level, benevolent nature within God to be kind, but with strings attached to the kindness toward you.

No one preaches, and therefore no one hears about abundant grace. I'm talking about overflowingly excessive, crashing-wave, bunker-busting, deepest-pit-filling, grace.

I'm talking about grace that does not keep records of wrongs. It doesn't say "you're forgiven" and then murmur "you better shape-up or ship-out". This grace doesn't remind you of the Laws of God that you've broken--or even might break, if you aren't careful. Instead, this abundant grace only reminds you of God's goodness and kindness--without obligation on your part. Your sin-debt was paid, and you have not been brought into a relationship with God where you have to pay Him back for His kindness to you. He set you free so that you could be totally free. And this Grace doesn't assume you might take advantage of that freedom.

No one says that the supremacy of His grace and kindness far exceeds the repulsiveness of sin. No one says His grace specifically targets our most horrendous acts and darkest deeds. We don't hear that His grace abounds toward us. We believe there are limits—that God's grace cannot excuse the most terrible thing I've done or thought, or am. That's right: this Grace is even not limited by the sinner's nature. His Grace sought you out while you were still hostile to it.

Until you realize and accept as a free gift God's abundant grace toward you and His righteousness for you, you will never know how much He truly loves you.

Consider Romans 5:17: "...those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ."

I am like Isaiah, Daniel, and Peter...all who were terrified by God's holiness, but whose sins were atoned for by Christ. I once was under the curse of the Law because of Adam's transgression, but because of Christ's obedience I now am under Grace and have eternal life. The old me passed away with Christ, and I now live as a new creation.

"God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them...." 2 Cor. 5:19.

God's Goodness

We all know that every person is capable of doing something "good". For example, it is good to donate to charity and to help others, one should also be kind to others, but those actions do not necessarily mean the person acting is in his nature "good".

We see that God's goodness is something the whole world experiences everyday. Whether the world realizes it or not, there are, separate from all the unfortunate events in the world, daily acts of God's kindness.

Ultimately, the issue is not whether or not God's goodness is seen. It is not enough to say "I have seen God's good acts". We must be able to not only say we believe God is good, but most importantly, we can only truly and rightly say He is good if we know Him.

"Our awareness of His goodness is in direct relation to how well we know Him" (quoted from Banning Liebscher). The revelation of His nature of goodness disarms our fears and brings into a closer relationship with Him, thus we trust Him because we know He is good.

If we don't completely trust Him, then we don't really know Him.

It's not about the rules.

Watch this video through the link below. I was blown away when the speaker mentioned someone who had been praying for him and how through this person he experienced the love of Jesus.

http://www.everystudent.com/videos/christian.php