The Power of Grace

Our study of Romans at Calvary Chapel Sydney has thrown us into the deep end of God's grace, and we are blessed for it.  "Grace" is one of the many words in Scripture that we often sell short by stunted or cliche definitions that are true but inadequate to convey the immense importance and impact of truth.  Have you ever had the situation where you are trying to take a picture of a breathtaking landscape or scene but the hi-tech camera you hold in your hands cannot contain or translate the beauty right before your eyes even in landscape mode?  Language, being limited, can sometimes be inadequate to explain all the wonder and impact of a small word that means more than the world to us.

God's grace is like that.  Our struggle to comprehend God's grace springs from the reality it is of God Whose ways and thoughts are higher than ours and is not of this world.  I have heard grace described as unmerited favour, and this is true--yet it only begins to scratch the surface of what grace is.  It is love that stoops, the glorious God out of His goodness choosing to reveal Himself to people dead in sins and dying in our place because He would have us saved to live with Him forever.  Grace is also God's power and influence that saves, strengthens and helps us in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).  God's grace is also the good standing we have before God, for by faith in Jesus "we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand" (Romans 5:2).  The most basic description of grace I can conceive of that conveys these three points (at this moment) is undeserved favour from God, God's power and strength that helps us, and good standing before God given out of His goodness alone.

All God's dealings with us are all of grace, for we cannot deserve or do anything to rightly earn His attention, affection or assistance.  We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus, and even when He points out our sin it is by His grace.  As born-again receivers of God's grace, we are enabled and called to extend grace to one another.  Today I had a lovely (and no so lovely!) object lesson of God's grace in an unexpected way.  At some point, I coughed or blew my nose, and somehow missed the tissue and left a deposit of phelgm on my shirt.  Gross, right?  I washed my hands and thought I was all clean and sanitised--but I wasn't.  A loving brother discreetly pointed out my defilement, and I was glad to be able to address the issue and could clean up before continuing in conversation with people.  Instead of distancing us from one another, knowing someone cares enough to inform us of our faults for our benefit draws us closer and frees us from shame because we realise we need grace.

When God points out our sin, it is not to humiliate or ridicule us:  it is all of His grace.  Because God is gracious, He genuinely cares about us and involves Himself in our lives.  He is not embarrassed to be around us though we fail and have countless faults.  We are a source of sin that is disgusting even to us, yet He continues to be gracious toward us and declares us righteous by the power of the Gospel.  There is not one thing we need to do or try to change about ourselves for Him to freely extend His love and grace to us.  All His instruction, correction and revelation about Him and ourselves is all of grace:  freely given out of His goodness and freely received by totally undeserving people.  Oh, the wonder of God's grace!  May God open our eyes to see the depths of His amazing grace and follow His lead to walk in holiness always.

Same Passage, Unexpected Flavour

I'm often amazed when I read familiar passages and the LORD helps me see them from a fresh perspective.  As one who cycles through familiar recipes for dinner or baking, my family grows accustomed to textures and flavours.  Many times over the years I have had comments--not that the food was good or bad--but that the flavour was different.  It has come to the point if I realise there is a difference than the usual offering, I will notify my family beforehand that I am aware of a difference because I did not have the usual ingredients on hand or made a substitution to spice things up.

Having read through the Bible numerous times and studied it in depth, a familiarity can grow with passages in God's word, our daily bread.  Today was a day when a familiar passage hit me differently, similar to a unexpected twist of flavour in a favourite dish.  I read the chapter when God spoke with Abram in Genesis 15 and said, "Do not fear, Abram.  I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward."  In response, Abram expressed concern God had not given him a son, so he lacked an heir.  Genesis 15:5-6 reads, "Then He brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be." ⁶ And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness."

As the passage unfolds, God promised to give Abram the land who wondered by what means he would know he would inherit it.  God told him to prepare a heifer, ram, goat, turtledove and pigeon to cut a covenant with Abram.  Verse 12 begins by saying, "And when the sun was going down...".  The flow of the passage during my reading suggested this chapter took place on the same day, and if that was the case God told Abram to look to heaven and count the stars when they were not even visible due to sunlight.  Now it is entirely possible these events happened on different days when stars were visible, for the Bible is not an exhaustive account of everything that happened every day:  God in His wisdom simply tells us all we need to know.

Some might say, "It's ridiculous to say God told Abram to count the stars when they weren't even visible.  That's impossible!"  Yes, it is.  It was also impossible for Abram to count the stars in the dead of night, for that was the whole purpose of this divine exercise.  Whether it was day or night it is of small consequence, for Abram was prompted by God to do the impossible and believe God would do the impossible by His miraculous power:  to cause barren Sarai to give birth in due time.  There was no physical evidence Sarai would give birth because she was not pregnant, and it would not be until her menstrual cycle ceased and Abram was impotent that God would cause Isaac miraculously to be conceived and born.  Abram believed God, and God accounted his faith in Him for righteousness.

Reading the Bible and thinking it through works to clear away assumptions and preconceived ideas we did not realise we had.  God opens our eyes with a fresh perspective to see things we never saw before and grow in faith and appreciation of the Most High God who does the impossible and accounts faith in Him as righteousness.  God can use a familiar passage to hold forth the same everlasting truth with an unexpected flavour that really hits the spot.

Kings of Salem and Sodom

Back in school we used to write compare and contrast essays, and this approach was an effective technique to dig deeper into a subject.  This is also a viable technique to apply as we read the word of God, for it is easy to gloss over details as we carry on to the next verse or chapter without thinking things through.  While we need the assistance of the Holy Spirit to have understanding and fruitful application of God's word, the Bible remains the greatest literary work ever written.  We do well to ready slowly, thoughtfully and meditate on the words analytically.  With so much truth right on the surface, we also know God continues to reveal fresh insights that take more effort to gather and feed our souls with His wisdom.

I was struck after reading of Abram's victory by the grace of God over the 4 northern kings with their armies that sacked Sodom and took his nephew Lot captive.  After Abram and his 318 trained servants passed through Salem (which would later be called Jerusalem), he was met by Melchizedek, king of Salem and high priest of the Most High God.  He was also met by Bera king of Sodom whose people and goods Abram had delivered from the hand of their enemies.  The kings of Salem and Sodom were both royal rulers, but their interactions with Abram were markedly different--as was Abram's response to them.

Melchizedek met Abram with bread and wine to celebrate the victory given him by God and to refresh and strengthen him and his weary men.  Melchizedek gave more than victuals, for he was full of blessing and praise as Genesis 14:19-20 shows:  "And he blessed him and said: "Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; ²⁰ And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand." And he gave him a tithe of all."  Melchizedek blessed Abram in light of the Most High God he served, and he blessed God as well for delivering Abram's enemies into his hand.  It is remarkable Abram is said to be "of God Most High," for in English the pronoun "of" connects people with being a son or daughter of a person.  A man of God is one who trusts in God, and the New Testament expounds on what spiritually occurs when we trust in Jesus:  we are born again and made children of God.  It is written in John 1:12-13, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: ¹³ who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."  Abram responded to the greatness of Melchizedek by giving him a tenth of the spoils.

Bera the king of Sodom approached and spoke to Abram in a very different manner.  He brought no gift, blessing, thanksgiving or praise of the Most High God.  He came to Abram with a demand as Genesis 14:21 tells us:  "Now the king of Sodom said to Abram, "Give me the persons, and take the goods for yourself."  The king of Sodom demanded Abram give him his people, though ironically he was not able to deliver his own subjects from defeat and capture.  While Abram had the right of ownership of all he had taken, he refused to keep anything.  He gave the people and all the reclaimed goods from the battle to Bera, for Abram had raised his hand before the Most High God in an oath he would not give opportunity for Bera to claim he made Abram rich.  It was God Who made Abram successful in battle and in business; it was the Most High God he treasured who gave Abram everything he possessed.  Abram received the bread, wine and blessing from Melchizedek, but he would not keep the persons or goods of Sodom.

The demand of Bera king of Sodom was transactional, but the generosity of Melchizedek was all of grace.  Melchizedek made no demands upon Abram as he freely provided for his needs, refreshed his heart and spoke blessing, while Bera was willing to pay Abram off if he complied with his directive.  Praise the Most High God we catch a glimpse of His generosity, grace and goodness foreshadowed by Melchizedek we find in our relationship with Jesus Christ our LORD.  What joy, gladness and perfect peace blesses our hearts when we trust our Saviour Who loves us and gave Himself to deliver us.  Like Abram, we too can be people of God Most High by faith in Him, truly a people most blessed.

Our Reasonable Service

This morning I read Genesis 12, the passage of scripture where God spoke to Abram to leave his country and his father's house and to go to the land God would show him.  After Abram obeyed God and went to Canaan, God appeared to Abram and made a promise to give the land to his children.  Most people would be glad to see an inheritance of land that was coming to us, yet God did far greater in revealing Himself.  Abram recognised this and responded in worship.

Genesis 12:7 reads, "Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him."  In response to God's revelation of Himself, Abram's response was to build an altar to the LORD who appeared to him.  In ancient times people worshipped the sun, moon and stars and celebrated their appearance in the heavens, but God's revelation was vastly different:  He spoke with Abram, appeared to him, made promises to him and was with him.  This building of an altar was a clear shift of allegiance from all other gods to the true God Who created all things, the God who speaks, reveals Himself and makes covenants with mankind.

In Abram's day, altars were made for the primary purpose of offering sacrifices to a deity.  This act of devotion came at a personal cost because the animals sacrificed were valuable personal property.  An animal offered as a burnt offering could not be sold, no longer breed or produce milk, and even the meat and hide used for clothing was a total loss.  But offering sacrifice was not a loss, for it was a privilege to give a sacrifice unto the worthy God.  In this day of grace, it is possible this natural response of worship by sacrifice to God can be seen as unnecessary or outdated.  Christians are not under Law because Jesus gave Himself as a sacrifice for our sins and God knows our hearts:  so why should we be required to sacrifice anything?

This sort of thinking misses the whole point of sacrifice:  it is not to get something but a fitting response to God and all He has given.  Paul explained to believers it is most rational to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God in Romans 12:1:  "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."  It is by God's mercy we are saved, and thus we ought to rejoice at the opportunity and privilege it is to serve God as living sacrifices.  We are willing to sacrifice more than ourselves for what we love, whether it be people, pursuits or pleasure.  Sacrifice is not like making a deposit in the bank we can draw upon later, for that is akin to a bribe.  Real sacrifice is giving without demanding anything in return from God, for we delight in the opportunity to show our love for Who He is and all He has already provided us by His grace.

If we are proud of our sacrifices and think them as worthy of any mention at all, it may be we think more of our sacrifice for God than His gracious gifts to us, His word that guides us or His promises spoken to us.  It is utterly unreasonable for Christians saved by grace to be miserly when it comes for sacrifice to God, yet at our most generous we often think of ourselves and what we have in reserve.  In offering ourselves as living sacrifices, everything we have, all we earn, our time, what we do and desire are offered too, for God will not be bought off.  He does not desire the fat of rams or a heap of gold:  God desires souls who love Him, give themselves to Him, who sacrifice all and think nothing of it because they value Him over all.