Stand Fast in Grace

I enjoy illustrations from real life, and these can be found in the scriptures, our own experiences and those of others.  Recently I read an illustration that reminded me of a past experience and caused me to consider the jarring effect grace can have on our lives--in the best way.  I smiled as I came across this story in Not A Fan by Kyle Idleman:

"During my senior year at the Christian high school I attended, Mr. Hollingsworth was my chemistry teacher.  He did something a little unusual for our last final of the year.  He had been reading an article by Charles Stanley on the grace of God and wanted to show us what grace looked like.  He handed out a test to all of us that we knew would be difficult.  We had been preparing for this test for several months.  Before we began to take the test, he told us, "I want you to read through the entire test before you begin to take it."  As we read through the test most of us realized we were in trouble.  We should have studied more.  But then I got to the end of the multiple-page test and read these words at the bottom:  "You can try and get an A by taking this test or you can just put your name on it and automatically receive an A."  This was not a difficult choice.  I immediately signed my name, walked up to the desk, and headed out, thanking Charles Stanley for saving my chemistry grade.  But there was a girl in our class who was the daughter of the biology teacher.  She was quite intelligent and had studied hard.  Apparently she got quite upset because she had spent so much time studying, and it wasn't fair that everyone else was getting an "A" for nothing.  She stayed and took the test on principle.  If she was going to get an "A" she was going to earn it.  And a fan says, "I'm not taking any handouts--I can do this on my own."  They spend their lives carrying around the heavy burden of religion and making sure others carry that weight as well." (Idleman, Kyle. Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus. Zondervan, 2016. pages 80-81)

I had a similar experience with a final exam in university.  I had been doing well in the course, and crammed for hours to ace the final test and secure top marks.  While there were tests I did not look forward to because they were unexpected or challenging I approached with trepidation, I was ready for this one:  bring it on!  As the class commenced my professor started writing a list of names on the board and mine was included among them.  He said, "If your name is on the board, you are free to go.  You have top marks and there is no need to sit the exam."  A bit surprised by this unexpected turn of events, I experienced conflicting feelings.  Like the girl who wanted to take the chemistry exam on principle, I too had spent hours studying and I didn't want to feel like I had wasted my efforts.  But then again I was receiving the grade I had worked for through the term and was free to leave, so I was glad about that.  I even felt a little guilty I was being spared sitting the exam when a hundred others weren't.

I cannot say my experience in university was a life-changing experience, but the grace shown made a lasting impact in my memory.  There are plenty of final exams I do not remember taking at all that I spent hours pouring over them, yet I do remember the exam I never took!  The comparison pastor Idleman made concerning the one who refuses to receive grace rings true in my estimation, for I have sat in that seat many times.  I have identified with the older brother in the parable who was annoyed his father showed more favour to a wayward son than him; I have also seen myself in the vineyard workers who laboured in the heat of the day imagining I deserved more than those who only worked the last hour.  Receiving God's grace changes us and transforms our perspective towards Him and others.  The one who knows they need God's grace is more apt to freely offer it to others, and how great is our need.  Without the grace of God we perish, and by grace through faith we have new life.

When God's wisdom and grace become the principle thing, it exposes how our sense of justice has been distorted by our self-righteousness.  Our frustrations over unfairness reveals our lack of love and compassion towards others.  Jews in the early church struggled with their tendency to justify loading Gentiles with the Law they nor their fathers had been able to bear.  Gentiles received the Gospel by faith in Jesus and then were deluded to imagine the work God begun in the Spirit they could accomplish by efforts of their flesh.  Romans 5:1-2 is good to recall often:  "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."  Let us stand fast and continue in the grace of God (Acts 13:43) and rejoice in the hope of God's glory.

The God of Life

Recently images were released that were captured by the James Webb Space Telescope which cost about 10 billion dollars over two decades.  Superior to the Hubble telescope, the hope of scientists is images it collects from deep in space will lead to new insights and discoveries.  The NASA website puts it this way:  "Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it."  On an ABC radio program yesterday during a news segment a reader said the telescope will provide the "explanation for life itself."  These sound like grand ambitions indeed.  I'm no astronomer or astrophysicist, but I have the sneaking suspicion the more we discover the more unanswered questions we will have.  And how many scientific discoveries were the means of overturning what we previously thought we knew to be true?

Wouldn't it be ironic if answers and revelations people invest decades and billions of dollars hope to discover beyond unseen reaches of the galaxy have already been provided?  There is no doubt value to what scientists will observe with the Webb telescope, but God has already revealed Himself as the Creator of all living things.  Many have heard this report yet do not agree with it; they do not like it and thus look for other explanations.  God has spoken in the quiet of our conscience and we will tune our frequencies to decipher static from space in a search for "intelligent life."  We will look beyond the miraculous abundance of life on earth to the distant galaxies, thinking there is something way out there to teach us when God's word we can hold in our hands and read in our own languages holds the key to everlasting life.

Before we who believe in the existence of God begin to foolishly feel smug over our knowledge of God who created the universe, the reality is God's people are notorious for not listening to Him.  Those who know God do not necessarily trust Him, and those who know God speaks truth do not always listen to or obey Him.  God has drawn near to us yet we drift from Him in ignorance.  Isaiah 48:16-19 says, "Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, I was there. and now the Lord GOD and His Spirit Have sent Me." ¹⁷ Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go. ¹⁸ Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. ¹⁹ Your descendants also would have been like the sand, and the offspring of your body like the grains of sand; his name would not have been cut off nor destroyed from before Me."

We desire unbelieving people who do not know God to come to faith in Him, to acknowledge and trust in Him:  in this passage God expresses fervent desire for His people to draw near to Him, walk in His ways and experience His perfect peace.  Anyone can be guilty of admiring creation over the Creator, ascribing greatness to what was made rather than the Maker.  We can make our questions an idol even God must bow down before rather than receiving His revelation we can only know in part--and we can ask the wrong questions anyway.  It is remarkable:  one person sees the amazing pictures taken from the Webb telescope and marvels over how they are seeing "the place where a lot of the atoms inside your body were formed," and others marvel over the glory of God who made the heavens, earth and us.

The answers to life are not in distant galaxies only discernible through time-lapse photography:  God has spoken to us and provided us life by His grace because He loves us.  We ought to come near to God and hear Him, for He is our Redeemer and the LORD our God.  He is the living God and thus speaks today.  God is not a impossible puzzle to be deciphered but the almighty Creator who reveals Himself to us as all-knowing, all-powerful and perfectly good.  James 4:8 exhorts us, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded."  Let us not be as the children who do not like the answer Dad gave us so we seek out an answer from Mum, turning from God in the hope science or anything else will give us the answer we are looking for or are more comfortable with.  God is the God of all comfort, and if you want to know anything about life it is found in Him.  The observable universe has much to consider and marvel over, and in our glorying let us glory in our Saviour who IS our life.

By His Side

Years ago I heard an illustration in a sermon that made me smile because it agreed with my experience.  He talked about taking his dog for a walk and how the dog pulled on the lead, eager to smell everything and explore everywhere.  "I've got plans!" the dog was saying in his head.  The pastor said this can resemble us at times, thinking much of our plans when going on a walk was God's plan all along.  It is the person walking the dog who knows their route and destination.  Even if the dog is a reason to go on a walk it is the walker's decision to bring them along for the journey.

We can have all sorts of plans, ambitions and dreams, and these are not bad in themselves.  What the child of God is wise to realise is God has plans and purposes for us we never imagined, and sometimes if we were told the circumstances or trials due to lack of faith we would face we would dread and seek to avoid them!  Peter wrote to beloved believers in 1 Peter 4:12-13, "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; ¹³ but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy."  Fiery trials are not to be viewed as unwelcome guests by us because we know God has ordained them to exercise our faith.  In being partakers with Christ's suffering for following Him, we are also partakers of His glory and joy.

Suffering is a part of life on earth for every person.  The difference between the unbeliever and the believer is Christians have a balm for our wounds, rest for our souls and consolation that is infinitely greater than our pains.  If we balk at the idea that God's plans and purposes for us involve suffering, we only need to look to Christ's sufferings on Calvary.  He was an innocent and righteous man who was betrayed, condemned and crucified for the sins of the world.  Considering Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice we can receive 1 Peter 4:19:  "Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator."  The suffering we face for the sake of Christ is according to the will of God, and faith in Him enable us to receive this and commit our souls to Him in doing good.

We can content ourselves with thinking God is able to bring good things out of bad situations we might only know about in the eternal state in heaven.  But Peter laid out in the beginning of this epistle very clear purposes we can plainly know today in 1 Peter 1:6-9:  "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷ that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honour, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, ⁸ whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, ⁹ receiving the end of your faith--the salvation of your souls."  Unless our faith in Christ is able to endure trials, it is not genuine and thus unable to save.  Being brought through trials with love and joy in Jesus brings praise and honour to Christ and is evidence of our eternal salvation and redemption.

God sent Jesus Christ to seek and save the lost.  God's will is that Jesus Christ would be glorified, and when we endure fiery trials with love of Jesus His purposes are accomplished.  With faith in Christ we have fellowship with God and find comfort and rest for our souls.  Aren't God's plans higher and better than ours?  We would choose to avoid the trial completely, yet God would have us right by His side in the thick of it as He leads us safely to glory.

God Is Creator

"I have made the earth, and created man on it. I--My hands--stretched out the heavens, and all their host I have commanded."

Isaiah 45:12

Many times God identifies Himself in scripture as the God who created all things, and thus He has supremacy over all things that were, are and will ever be.  It is strange to me, bizarre even, when professing believers deny this foundational and simple fact of God's character by ascribing to Darwinian evolution as an explanation for the origin of man, the earth or the universe.  God says He is the Creator also says He is the LORD, a Saviour and King.  In allowing His status as Creator to be undermined, all the rest can tumble along with it.  Either God created the feathers and behaviours of ducks, geese and eagles to be different from one another, or we must credit the blind, dumb chance of evolution.

God often told His people to remember what He had done, and in remembering His work in creating the world and birthing the nation Israel from slavery in Egypt was a boon to their faith in present trials.  Since God is able to say, "Let there be light!" and there was light, He can shed light on the darkest circumstances we may face.  Hear the word of the LORD in Isaiah 45:5-8:  "I am the LORD, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, ⁶ that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; ⁷ I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.' ⁸ "Rain down, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together. I, the LORD, have created it."

During our lives on earth we will encounter many ideas and notions that vie for rule over our lives.  God is the LORD in truth, yet man can be content to serve lesser gods--even himself.  Men have given themselves over to the praise of men; some have committed themselves fully to an art form, sold out for money or the pursuit of various pleasures and power.  Many bow down before the god of evolution as the cause of the diversity in living things, glorifying the creature over the Creator.  God gives every person, based on considering the evidence with rational minds He has provided us, the opportunity to decide He is indeed the Creator who does these things, or He is not really the LORD He claims to be.

Since God has stretched out and commands the host of heaven, how humbling it is He would reveal Himself to us as our Creator, the God unlike any other:  He forms the light and creates darkness, makes peace and creates calamity.  He does all these things and accomplishes His divine purposes which are glorious, resulting in salvation and righteousness.  God sent His only begotten Son Jesus for the express purpose of redeeming mankind and giving us eternal life Darwinian evolutionary processes cannot observe, provide or promise.  If you believe God is the LORD of all, why deny He created all things like He said?