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| The Grace of God
The Divine Remedy
The Apostle Paul began all his letters - by the anointed words "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." In the first three chapters of his letters he explores the amazing grace of God. He unfolds grace as boundless and infinite, and measureless and free. It is Gods only remedy! Just listen to what Paul says - "To the praise of the glory of his grace, which He freely bestows on us in the Beloved... we have redemption... according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight" (Eph.1:6, 7, 8) When Paul prayed for the Ephesians he does not ask that they have a revelation of how corrupt they are, but rather prays that they would see the Lord Himself (Eph. 1:17) and likewise the dynamics of His calling in us, and His great inheritance in us, and His great power in us. Paul reminds the Ephesians from their sinful past of how God came upon their lives in a divine intrusion - "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead..made us alive. BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED - (2:4,5) He reminds them again and again in his letter that by grace they have been saved, and were now being saved, through faith; and that nothing - whether it be the grace or the salvation or the faith - originated out of themselves; but that it was ALL THE FREE GIFT OF GOD,; not as a result of works, lest anyone should boast (Eph. 2:8,9) Since God is sovereign, it is HIS WILL that is being done (in us) on earth as it is in heaven. It is obvious that there are no works of man that can enhance His doing, it is God all the way. When we were separated and excluded, He made us fellow citizens and members of the family of God (Eph. 2:12,19.) Such boundless grace! Such a precious gift! Such undeserved love! Paul's concluding prayer for the Ephesians - before addressing their needs - is simply that they would be inwardly "strengthened with power through His Spirit", that Christ Himself would be fully revealed in their hearts through faith, that they would come "to know the love of God" - it's breadth and length and height and depth, and thereby "be filled up with all the fullness of God" (3:16 -19). Paul had long recognized that what mankind needed was not more law, not more structure, not stronger admonitions, but MORE GRACE. A people living in the abounding grace of God would not be lying, stealing, swearing, drinking etc., for the same grace of God that brings salvation to all men DISCIPLINES US TO DENY UNGODLINESS AND WORLDLY DESIRES AND TO LIVE SENSIBILY, RIGHTEOUSLY AND GODLY IN THIS PRESENT DAY. (Titus 2:11-12) He sovereignly begins the process, as He calls us to holiness. Every part of His calling that rests upon us is holy, which makes it all the more essential that we walk a path that is holy. A life lived by the grace of God, according to His purpose, for He does indeed have a plan for every man, woman and child, as "In Christ shall all be made alive, but every man in his own order." (1 Cor. 15: 22-23) What is needed, then, is grace, more grace, much grace, abounding grace, "Grace upon grace," for grace is simply all that God is - His infinite power and perfectness - freely and abundantly poured into our lives! If grace does not free us from sin - nothing else will. If grace cannot make us pure and holy within - nothing else can. What we need then, is grace, keeping grace, perfecting grace, abounding grace! Grace is never to be feared or mistrusted. The only mistrust we are to have is of those false teachers who would "turn the grace of God into lasciviousness.." (Jude 4) by encouraging men to continue on in sin that grace might abound. Grace, in itself, will never let us live on in sin. The sovereign intent of "the God of grace" is "that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love""that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love", (Eph. 1:4) As the true body of Christ grows by leaps and bounds all across the earth in this generation, it is not more regulations, more structure, more rigid rules -- but simply more grace that is needed. Abounding grace. Infinite grace. Sovereign grace. Grace that fully saves and grace that disciplines. Receive by faith more grace from God, for God is the "God of all grace" (1 Pet. 5:10)
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