on 5 July 2023
Dear all at IPC,
Grace is one of those terms with which we are so familiar, that we lose sight of what it is. The children’s acronym of
God’s
Riches
At
Christ’s
Expense
is very helpful, but there is more.
In the Benediction we hear each Sunday night – The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Cor 13:14), grace is particularly attributed to the Son. It is not that the Father isn’t gracious or the Son isn’t loving, but the order I think is important. It is not until we have understood the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that we can experience the Father’s love and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
We can easily fall into the trap of thinking that grace is some commodity that we need from God: a substance or stuff that God gives us apart from himself. But the grace of God that he gives is himself. In John’s prologue, Jesus is described as being “full of grace and truth”.
John Bunyan wonderfully expresses this….
“Thou Son of the Blessed
What grace was manifested in Thy condescension.
Grace brought Thee down from Heaven;
Grace stripped Thee of Thy glory
Grace made Thee poor and despised;
Grace made Thee bear such burdens of sin, such burdens of sorrow, such burdens of God’s curse as are unspeakable.
O Son of God!
Grace was in all Thy tears;
Grace came out of Thy side with Thy blood;
Grace came forth with every word of Thy sweet mouth;
Grace came out where the whip smote Thee,
where the thorn pricked Thee,
and where the nails pierced Thee
Here is grace indeed!
Grace to make angels wonder
Grace to make sinners happy
Grace to astonish devils.”
It’s important for us to think through and mediate on how the grace of the Lord Jesus shows itself in our lives.
There is saving grace.
It is by grace you have been saved through faith, it is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). In the coming of Jesus Christ – the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people (Titus 2:11). If you are reading this and you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, it is because God’s grace has been at work in you. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace (Ephesians 1:7).
There is a danger that we can stop at this point and not realise that the Christian life is one of ongoing grace. Paul in his teaching in Romans 6, shows us wonderfully that where sin has abounded, grace has much more abounded (Romans 5:20). The believer’s life is one of growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour (2 Peter 3:18). One of the reasons scripture gives that we are to pray is because as we come to the throne of grace, we receive mercy and grace (Hebrews 4:18). You never get past that need of God’s grace, not a day passes in your life where you have not received from God the grace of his Son.
In our struggles and trials we see the need for sustaining grace.
Paul knew what that was like. He had a thorn in the flesh, and three times he pleads for it be taken away. He would have preferred that his circumstances were different. In Paul’s view he thought he could better serve the Lord if this thorn was removed. But the Lord didn’t agree and the apostle gives us this magnificent truth as God speaks to him and says: “My grace, my sustaining grace, is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). God is saying to Paul, I the living, eternal and unchanging God am enough for you. Each one of us will pass through different, painful times in this life and this promise is a timeless truth in the midst of difficulties – his grace is enough even when you wish life was different.
The Christian life is one of daily dependence upon God. We don’t store up grace. God’s grace is something like the manna in the desert was for the people of Israel. Each day they had to go out in trust and expectation that the Lord would provide for them, feed them, get them through each day. They had to know and experience the truth that the Lord’s mercies would be new every morning. They weren’t given two weeks worth of manna in advance, it was daily grace they needed and so with us. We are sons of God living in dependence on our generous father. Give us today our daily bread doesn’t just apply to food.
Sometimes in the midst of stress we need to know that God will give us grace to get through this day and when we get up tomorrow there will be fresh grace given by our Father.
This is most clearly seen when it comes to dying grace.
Sometimes people will say to me ‘I’m not ready to die’, and I think that is understandable. We as Christians trusting in Christ’s resurrection are not afraid of death but the act of dying often does fill us with fear. Death is an unnatural intruder into our world. What we do know is that God will give us grace when we need it and not before. He doesn’t give us his grace in advance. We can trust him that we will be given grace to die just like we have been given grace to live. When it comes to our death we can can rest confidently knowing that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ will be with us
Your Minister and Friend,
Paul