Bible Studies Articles on the Grace of God
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Grace of God Defined |
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Paul stated to the
Corinthians, "But by the grace of God I am what I am .
. . I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but
the grace of God which was with me." A simple statement
by Paul to indicate that his labor was not of himself, but
by the grace of God. Labor does occur, but it is a product
of grace. The same principle is also given to the
Colossians. It is stated differently, however, which adds
insight to the meaning of grace. Paul wrote, "Whereunto
I also labor, striving according to his working, which
worketh in me mightily.". As indicated, labor is again
being performed, but it is not Paul's labor. The labor Paul
was experiencing was "according to [God's]
working." Finally, Paul helps our understanding of
grace to come together by making a similar statement to the
Philippians. He wrote, "For it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." In
pure Christianity, it is God, who is active in the believer
to produce His own will. In the final analysis, only God
himself can do His will. Both the "to will" and
the "to do" of God's will are done by God
Himself. "The
Grace of God Is Defined" by the
working of God in and through the believer.
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Saved from Religion by the Grace of God
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This is the story of my
salvation from religion. Although I have been involved
with the activities of churches for over fifty years, the real
essence of my salvation is just now becoming clear. I have been a
pastor (17 years), a Bible college and seminary professor (14 years), and
a Christian consultant (19 years). I have written over twenty
Christian books. It would seem that I should know something about
what it means to be a Christian. Until recently, however, I have to
confess that I knew much about religion but very little about true
Christianity. Amazingly, I needed to be saved
primarily not from bad things but from good things. I needed
salvation from the bondage of seeing Jesus as the object of my devotion, my piety, and
my worship. Seeing Jesus as the object of my action, I was being driven
to greater acts of devotion, piety, and worship. The increased
effort, with its motivation and consequential guilt when the effort
failed, brought me into greater and greater bondage. The harder I
tried the worst it became. I needed salvation from the religion that was
killing me. I no longer see Jesus as the object of my actions. I now
see Him more distinctly as ". . . the way, the truth,
and the life" (John 14:6). This redemptive revelation has brought
Jesus into focus as my breath and my heartbeat. He is becoming the essence of my
all--in Him I live, and move, and have my being. He is
making Christianity true life rather than a religion that kills. It
is Jesus living in and through me that has caused me to be
"Saved
from Religion by the Grace of God."
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The Grace of God: The
Gospel.
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The gospel, the
good message, is the heavenly Father will send his Son,
Jesus Christ, into your life to overwhelm you with his
Spirit to transform you into who you should be. It is
the coming of Christ into your life to enable you to have a
personal relationship with God. In the Old Testament,
the prophet Isaiah proclaimed the good tidings that God
would deliver His people out of captivity: "O Zion,
that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high
mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up
thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto
the cities of Judah, Behold your God!." It was a
good message to hear that God would save His people. Jesus,
when He began His ministry, said, "The Spirit of the
Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed me to preach the
gospel to the poor." Jesus said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the
gospel." The gospel is the grace of God in action
through your life. Let the words of Jesus take you
into the realm of experiencing the grace of God in your
life. Begin to understand "The
Gospel of the Grace of God."
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There is no
greater moment of joy than to experience the coming of the
Holy Spirit into the body of flesh. The union formed out of
the flesh of man and the Spirit of God is the life that God
intended for you to experience. Pure, unadulterated love
(the life of God) can flood your soul and touch every aspect
of your senses. The early followers of Jesus were patiently
waiting to receive the promise of the heavenly Father.
One hundred and twenty had gathered together. They
knew that Jesus had been raised from the dead. They knew He
was alive and had told them to wait until the time was
right. When the intercourse of the Holy Spirit came
into their flesh, there was nothing else that could occur
but to experiencing the full sensation of their being. Those
early believers heard the wind. They saw the fire. They
spoke with a new tongue. It was an experience like no other
experience. It would forever change their lives. You,
too, can have a new way of thinking, a new way of seeing,
and a new way of speaking by "The
Manifestation of the Grace" in your
life.
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This truth of the
gospel of grace is difficult, if not impossible, for the
mind of western man to comprehend. The perceived freedom of
the mind has been in control of man’s thinking for so long
that man has become deceived into thinking he is something
that he is not. Man lives his entire life, unless set free
by Jesus Christ, in the fantasies created by his own
mind. God is still in control of everything, but the
mind of man creates a fantasies world of which he thinks he
can control. Man's freedom exists only in that he can
fall away from God in the illusions of his mind. Only
the mind of man will allow him to think he is something
other than what he is. Then, it will further convince
him into thinking that if he will just keep believing that
he is something other than what he is, he will actually
become that which he is not. It is the classic deception of
the mind, which will always divert attention away from
itself as being the real problem of man. By the mind
constantly offering new and better ways to live, it stays in
control to "The
Rejection of the Grace of God."
Although it is only in the fantasy world of his mind, it
nevertheless destroys the opportunity for his soul to rest
in peace.
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The Grace of
God: The Experiencing
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How do you escape
the hells of your life? How do you find the good life? How
do you hear the gospel, the good message of Jesus Christ?
Paul recorded a dynamic statement concerning the uniqueness
of experiencing the gospel. He recorded a statement of
Isaiah who was quoting God: " . . . I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.". This
mystery of the gospel lies at the very heart of
understanding the unique Christian approach to God.
Although God stated He was found of them that sought Him
not, Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek,
and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
for everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh
findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened"
(Matt. 7:7,8). These two seemingly contradictory statements
(God is found by them that did not seek Him and Jesus’
admonition to seek and it shall be found) can be understood
by recognizing that obviously there is a way to seek God
that is not seeking Him. The knowledge of the ways of
God comes not from man's effort to study God. Rather, man
must be put in a position whereby the Holy Spirit can reveal
the Word to him. By the circumstances of life, the
outworking of God for man’s life, man is humbled to the
point of realizing that he has no understanding and no
capability to pull himself up to the life of God. Being in
sackcloth and ashes, dying to his perceived ingenuity, man
is now ready to receive the knowledge of God and His ways.
When man comes to the end of himself, the Holy Spirit
reveals the gospel of the Word of God. It is "The
Experiencing of the Grace of God."
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| Living
by the Grace of God |
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When trouble,
perplexity, pressure, and being put down occur in our lives,
we often experience distress, despair, a sense of being
forsaken and a sense of being destroy. When we attempt
to live in the outward man, we will always find ourselves
fighting against the very thing of which we are, a created
entity that born to die. When God takes us through the
trouble, the perplexity, and the pressure of life his
intentions is the manifestation of His Son, Jesus Christ, in
our lives. With the outer man perishes by trouble,
perplexity, and pressure of daily living, the inner man can
be raised up to newness of life. The secret is the
"seeing." If you focus not on the things which are
seen (trouble, perplexity, and pressure) but on the things
which are not seen (God's eternal power and essence), you
can experience the miracle and the mystery of life coming
out of death. Life after death is experiencing Christ being
raised out of you through the death of your outward
existence. The pressures of life (like the condition of the
ground that causes the seed to germinate) is the means by
which "the glorious liberty of the children of
God" can be experienced in you. You can never
have the bloom of the rose without the planting of the
seed. Seedtime and harvest is "Living
by the Grace of God."
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Conquering Your
Adversary
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The New Testament
writers obviously believed there was satanic action in the
world of their day. They knew the powerful potential for
destruction the adversary possessed. They continually warned
of the ever present temptation that could beset every
person. Jesus and His disciples, however, were not
mythological in their belief. They did not make satanic
power into something it was not. They knew that the enemy of
their souls would never come from without. The temptation to
corruption that would destroy them would always come from
within their own thinking. They knew the mind, when out from
under the control of the Holy Spirit, was the adversary that
brings death and destruction to the soul of man.
"Conquering
Your Adversary" is always a reality
in the grace of God.
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The Biblical Concept
of Satan
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Who is
the arch-enemy of God -- the adversary of God? Who is
it that is constantly in an adversarial role with
God? Who is
it that "opposeth and exalteth himself above
all
that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in
the temple of God, shewing himself that
he is God?" The English word "Satan"
is found 56 times in the Bible: 36 in New Testament
- 20 in Old Testament. What does the Bible really say
about "Satan?" What is the "Biblical
Concept of Satan?"
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The Fall
of Man
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When
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Bablyon, fell from the glory, the
honor, and the brightness of the kingdom that God had given
to him, his heart, the inner most essence of his being, was
changed from the heart of a man to the heart of a beast. The
thinking processes of his mind changed. The base of his
understanding, his soul, shifted completely. He lost the
capacity to observe, to comprehend, and to enjoy the glory,
the honor, and the brightness of his existence. He became
driven by the simple motivations and drives of an animal.
Although he was still king of Babylon, one of the seven
wonders of the ancient world, he experienced life as a lowly
beast of the fields. The story of the fall of
Nebuchadnezzar is the story of every man. It is the
most accurate description of "The
Fall of Man" found in the
Scriptures.
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Paradise was no more. Man would now trust no one.
Corruption in all relationships became the way of life.
Refusing to be no longer open and honest, man began to hide his true
feelings. Others were blamed for the difficulties of his life that was
escalating out of control. No matter how much effort he put into the
experiences of living, life seemed never to achieve the peace, the joy,
or the sense of justice he so desired. It was as if life was cursed.
All who attempts to experience life by any other means than encountering Jesus Christ will
experience exactly that to which they have turned for life. When
man turns to the mind to try to experience life, then it is
within the mind that he experiences his life. No
matter how great the circumstances may seem, the mind of man
will eventually corrupt the joy that should be experienced
in those circumstances. The only hope for man is the
coming of the kingdom of God. The coming of Jesus Christ
into the believer's life to
baptize him with the Holy Spirit to take him where he could not and
would not go himself. When the struggles of life are all
around, the faith that knows does not falter. It realizes that the
heavenly Father is at work to bring forth the glory of His Son Jesus
Christ. In the struggle of good and evil, it is only "Living
by Faith" that produces the life of
peace, joy, and a sense of justice.
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Like the darkness
of the night that has its existence only because light has
been removed, the illness of our souls runs rampant reaping
havoc needlessly. As darkness has no power within itself,
spiritual illness also is powerless. What seems to be the
obvious destructive power of spiritual illness is in reality
the manifestation of the removal of spiritual health. It is
the absence of spiritual health, as with light, that is
destructive. For example, Jesus emphasized this truth,
when He said, "Are there not twelve hours in the day?
If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he
seeth the light of this world. But, if a man walk in the
night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him"
(John 11:9,10). The power of the night is not the darkness
nor the thing that caused the stumbling. The problem
is the absence of light. Although an object in the night can
cause a man to fall, it does so only if the man does not see
it. The essence of all stumbling is the absence of light.
The answer for all failures is not the removal of things
that causes you to stumble but the restoration of light in
your life. The solution is not to be saved from the
incident that caused the stumbling but to be saved from our
lacking of seeing. "The
Cry of Jesus Save Me" is a cry to be
saved from ourselves.
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Salvation in
Evangelism
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How do you
experience salvation? How do you bring your friend, your
neighbor, or your family member to know the Lord? How does
the evangelism of the church reach everyone in the world?
The world of evangelism has become a myriad of methods and
techniques. From the one-on-one, high pressure selling of
Christ to the subjection by force of entire armies and
nations, well meaning people have tried just about
everything in their attempt to share Jesus. In the
recent years, however, these evangelistic methods have a
mortality rate of 76-92 per cent. According to the latest
Church Growth experts, out of 100 people converted to
Christ, 76 of those conversions (92 in one case study) will
lose their spiritual identity before they become an
integrated part of the Christian community. Although
these methods appear to be successful, the back door of the
church is as wide open as the front door of the church . How
did Jesus share the life of the Father? How did He bring
salvation? How did He teach evangelism? How did he
experience "Salvation
in Evangelism?"
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Mystery
of Life
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One of the greatest paradoxes
of the mystery of grace is the enormous number of people that fail to
experience the rich, full, and contented life. This failure is even more
mystifying when it is understood that the strongest motivation within man
is to experience that life. Ultimately, everything man does, it is done
with the hope that it will produce the life he so desperately craves. Yet,
even though man's basic drive is to experience life in the fullest sense
of the word, few people experience the life they desire. Life and death issues are not matters of
choice (or chance). They are matters of truth and the vainness of man's
imaginations--matters of deception. It is the "Mystery
of Life." |
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