Grace Anointed!! 2006/16 06/29/06
God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense!
Grace Is My Power To Use My Ability On Your Behalf Even Though You Don’t Deserve It.
Above, are two descriptions that we often hear when we hear grace spoken of, and I really don’t have a problem with that, but I sometimes think we need to give this more than a cursory glance. I picked up my copy of Eerdmans Bible Dictionary and went to the word and found that in the Old Testament, there are two words used to denote grace and one is ‘hesed’ and it is translated as mercy, kindness, lovingkindness, and goodness and this is the one that I think is most often used. The other is the word hen and its use is limited to only several places. But we are not going to be in the OT that much, because we have to look at our time, for grace to grow in, so why not turn to 2 Peter 3:17;
“But grow in grace (undeserved favor, spiritual strength) and recognition and knowledge and understanding of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (the Messiah). To Him [be] glory (honor, majesty, and splendor) both now and to the day of eternity. Amen (so be it)”
I want to stretch your thinking for just a moment and approach this from the standpoint of grace, as a strength that will empower us to attain certain virtues, or new dimensions in our inner man, rather than a gift of God, that we just happen to have, and really do not know how to use. Lets turn to a portion that we have had before, but the Holy Spirit has directed me there again just recently and it will be in Romans 5:1+, after I have made one opening statement about where Paul was coming from. He had been speaking about the faith of Abraham being accredited to him as righteousness, and then in 4:23-25 he said;
“But [the words], it was credited to him, were written not for his sake alone,
But [they were written] for our sakes too. [Righteousness, standing acceptable to God] will be granted and credited to us also who believe in (trust in, adhere to, and rely on) God, Who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
Who was betrayed and put to death because of our misdeeds and was raised to secure our justification (our acquittal), [making our account balance and absolving us from all guilt before God].”
Romans 5:1-2+
“Therefore, since we are justified (acquitted, declared righteous, and given a right standing with God) through faith, let us [grasp the fact that we] have [the peace of reconciliation to hold and to enjoy] peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
Through Him also we have [our] access (entrance, introduction) by faith into this grace (state of God’s favor) in which we [firmly and safely] stand. And let us rejoice and exult in our hope of experiencing and enjoying the glory of God.”
Just before we begin today, with what I believe the Lord would have us meditate on, let’s look at some of what the faith of Abraham accomplished, as it was made unto him as righteousness. As you heard two weeks ago, from Brother Bob, faith saw the place from afar off; faith saw God. Faith told the servants, “wait here, for I and the lad will return; Faith went up the mountain with the lad, who carried the wood and faith built the altar of sacrifice; Faith picked up the knife and began its downward plunge, and would have plunged it into the heart of Isaac, but faith had also said that if necessary God would raise him from the dead because the covenant declared that his seed would be as the stars of the heavens. Now faith also saw a ram in the thicket and offered it as a burnt offering. The angel stopped Abraham’s arm, saying, “Now I know that you are one who fears [is in awe of] God”. I have said all this because Abraham’s faith moved him into the “hesed” or grace character of God and he would enjoy that from that moment on. Now on to our experience of God’s word.
We have just read above that we have our access and introduction to this grace by faith and that is where we all must start. There is a great force in grace, where we are to walk, in the grace of God, and that is truly kingdom atmosphere. This all builds our character, and that is the molding process that we are destined to be committed to. Molded into the Image of Christ and that is His character and His nature. Let’s go to the next verses in Romans 5 and see the beginning of our being constructed. [vs. 3-5]
“Moreover [let us also be full of joy now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance.
And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces the habit of] joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation.
Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in (shed abroad in) our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.”
Before I go on, I feel that have to show you two words that are implied in the text. The words ‘produce’, meaning to bring forward and to exhibit an outcome, and the other is ‘develop’, meaning to unfold, to make to grow and lay open to view. That all gives us a glimpse into the grace that we were given access to by faith and that grace is the empowerment to endure during the development.
Now, I have to go on with the above, but I cannot, until I finish up with Abraham, The word hope above, keyed me into the following and we need to understand that the writer to the Hebrews was also talking about Abraham when he penned the words in Heb. 6:18-20, and please go back this week and read Heb. 6:13-20;
“…This was so that, by two unchangeable things [His promise and His oath] in which it is impossible for God ever to prove false or deceive us, we who have fled [to Him] for refuge might have mighty indwelling strength and strong encouragement to grasp and hold fast the hope appointed for us and set before [us].
[Now] we have this [hope] as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul [it cannot slip and it cannot break down under whoever steps out upon it – a hope] that reaches farther and enter into [the very certainty of the Presence] within the veil,
Where Jesus has entered in for us [in advance], a Forerunner having become a High Priest forever after the order (with the rank) of Melchizedek.”
Now, if we can, we will go back for a moment to Romans 5:3-4 and get a handle on what needs to be produced and developed. First we see that troubles bring on pressure, afflictions (testing) and hardship (to our flesh, that does not want to give up its own rights) that produce patient and unswerving endurance. This endurance or fortitude, as some translations use, is more than the way we normally think. It literally means the spirit which can overcome the world (even our faith). It means the spirit which never passively endures, but which actively overcomes the trials and tribulations of life of whatever sort they may be.
Note: This pressure and testing and hardship all stem from the daily encounters we all have. There are events, personalities, personal needs, national and worldly crisis and these are just a part of all the influences that we are faced with. We all have them and how we handle them determines just how long it takes for us to grow up into the mature manhood that is spoken of by Paul throughout his letters.
Now, what happens with that production. That endurance begins to develop a maturing of character, which the Amplified Bible brings forth as (approved faith and tried integrity). Now, we have to go from there knowing that any development bears the fruit of production; from development to production of joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation, and all that it implies. There is a difference when we look at how God has chosen to mold and conform us to the image of His Son Jesus, Whose character we are destined to conform to (Romans 8:29).
I do not know about you, but this is all exciting to me, because it tells me that even in the conformation that I am called to, He makes a way of empowerment through grace to achieve what I could never accomplish on my own. And since we have come up to this point in the virtues that we are to achieve, lets go another step, turning to 2 Peter 1:1 through 11 and I know that this is a long stretch but I have covenanted to do as the Holy Spirit directs even when I do not understand why at first.
“Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received like precious faith with ourselves in and through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
May grace and peace (which is perfect well-being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, and freedom from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts) be multiplied to you in[the full, personal, precise, and correct] knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the [full, personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and excellence (virtue)
By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape [by flight] from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness, and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature.
Note: “…great and precious promises” This does not mean that He brings us the promises, but that the promises are in Him. In Him they all have their yea and their amen (2 Cor 1:20)
For this very reason, adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort in exercising your faith to [develop] virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge (intelligence),
And in [exercising] knowledge [develop] self-control, and in exercising self-control [develop] steadfastness (patience and endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop] godliness (piety),
And in [exercising] godliness [develop] brotherly affection, and in [exercising] brotherly affection [develop] *Christian love.
*This Christian Love is the agape love that was shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. We need to see that this ties what we are in at this time in Peter, to where we were moments ago in Romans (5:5), because this love is that which is declared to be in us as the fruit of the production of the hope that never disappoints, deludes or shames us. We need an acute awareness that includes all of what God speaks to us through His word.
For as these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you (by development), they will keep [you] from being idle or unfruitful unto the [full personal] knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
For whoever lacks these qualities is blind [spiritually] shortsighted, seeing only what is near to him, and has become oblivious [to the fact] that he was cleansed from his old sins.
Note: We have already heard twice in this lesson that we have been acquitted of our past, so do not become oblivious to that, staying in bondage to your past.
Because of this, brethren, be all the more solicitous and eager to make sure (to ratify, to strengthen, to make steadfast) your calling and election; for if you do this, you will never stumble or fall.
Thus you will be richly and abundantly provided for you entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So I intend always to remind you about these things, although indeed you know them and are firm in the truth that [you] now [hold].”
Note: Remember, the word emphasized here is ‘development’, which is an ongoing process.
Do you know what we have just come through? This is the most exciting thing that you can get established in your spirit, and that is that God has provided, through Jesus and His anointing, grace that empowers us in the conformation development. I just want to jump up and run. This is the divine power at work in us, and on call, every moment of our born again lives, and you need to have a loud Hallelujah rising up in you every time it comes to mind. [Read Hebrews 4:16 in the Amplified Bible.]
Note: This may be a side line, but I know that Paul’s flesh was aching to get rid of a “splinter or thorn” in the flesh, and most say it was the activities of some of the Judaizers following Paul and tampering with his ministry. He prayed God to deliver him, but God said, Paul, My grace is more than sufficient against any danger or any test that you encounter, and enables you to manage and bear the trouble manfully. My flesh too aches sometimes at a lot less than what Paul was experiencing, but grace is still sufficient.
Let me share with you what Paul was saying to them and to us; Through Jesus, our status with God was changed. Sinners though we were, we were put into a right relationship with God. But, Paul saw that this is a beginning, but it is just that, a beginning. Not only our status must be changed, but also our state. The saved sinner cannot go on being a sinner; he must become Christ-like. Christ’s death changed our status; His resurrection changed our state. He is now with us always to help us and guide us, to fill us with His strength so as to overcome temptation, to clothe our lives with something of His glory. He does all this, by His grace, to enable us to quit the sin and be changed into His likeness. The change of our status is justification; that is where the whole saving process begins. The change of our state is sanctification; that is where the saving process goes on, and never ends, until we see Him face to face and are like Him (from glory to glory).
What we are experiencing is what Paul was crying out in Gal. 4:19, “My little children, for whom I am again suffering birth pangs until Christ is completely and permanently formed (molded) within you.” This is an ongoing process, and it is empowered by grace that you have had your introduction into by faith. That is the reason why our faith is constantly being tested and proved. It is also why James could write the words, “Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trial of any sort or fall into various temptations. Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience. But let endurance and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.” [Jam. 1: 2-4]
Or
[“You should] be exceedingly glad on this account, though now for a little while you may be distressed by trials and suffer temptations,
so that [the genuineness] of your faith may be tested..” 1 Peter 1
What we see here is that what James and Peter are writing is exactly in line with all that we have seen written by Paul and again Peter, and there is great importance given to our understanding of these principles in our development. When we really understand, then we will begin to exercise one virtue on another in order to complete what God has established from before the foundation of the world. I know that all His thoughts and plans are established to form in us the image of Christ, and this is the good that He is pointing to in Jer. 29:11. The plan of salvation includes this in every aspect. Grace then is God’s power working unto our salvation as Paul wrote of the gospel in Romans 1:16-17. The gospel is based on the grace of God, coming into our lives by faith wherein we had our introduction.
This grace is truly amazing and it is in place as God’s favor resting on each of us. I am sure that there is no way to finish any teaching like this but there are several other portions that I want to bring up before we quit today. Lets look at Zech. 4:6b-7 and we will not go into it deeply, but just a surface glance. We have all heard and used the Words of God, when He spoke, saying, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord.”
Note: This is a wonderful place to insert a most fitting Psalm and we can read it in Ps. 67:1-2;
“God be merciful and gracious to us and bless us and cause His face* to shine upon us and among us. (face sometimes is spoken as glory). [See Exodus 33:20-22]