And They Call It Grace

“Have mercy upon me, 0 God, according to Your loving kindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.” (from Psalm 51)

 “Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain his anger forever because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which You have sworn to our fathers from days of old.” (from Micah 7:18-20)

“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” (from Ephesians 2:4-8)

“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the LORD, “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (from Isaiah 1:18)

“Moreover the law entered that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” (from Roman, 5:20)

There will be no seeking for grace and mercy until a person is conscious, sensitive and strongly aware of their own personal guilt of sin. Until the conscience hurts there is no seeking for relief found within forgiveness.  You will not ask for grace until there is a sense and awareness of sin guilt before God. You will not long for mercy until you plead guilty of sin and violation of the law of God, because you know with certainty that you have indeed sinned against the Lord of heaven and earth, and know within the heart and conscience that you are unworthy because of that sin, and as you plead guilty (at least within your own mind if nowhere else) you know you can go nowhere else but to GOD for mercy and grace.

People are not receptive to the idea of grace and mercy until they know the inner burden of sin guilt. Why should a person be interested in receiving something that is of no interest to them? Why should you be interested in a gift when you think you have everything you already want and need?

On the other side … once you know of your guilt, once you know of your unworthiness, once you know what you deserve as punishment … then all of a sudden you know the cry for mercy and grace even though you may feel you don’t even deserve any grace or mercy. If you condemn yourself, plead guilty before God, and have an inner awareness of the need to be pardoned and reconciled to God, know you need what God’s forgiveness offers, and fear God’s wrath and justice, then Divine pardon can become a reality, at least you can see how it is available to you personally. Self- abhorrence and acknowledgment of sin guilt have to be in place before the door to grace and mercy can be unlocked.

When you read the law of Christ, you can see what sin is, and what things are sinful. What you paid little attention to might in reality be an abomination to God. What you thought was just a bad thing might in reality be something very evil and wicked in the eyes of God. What you considered something to be a little wrong might in truth be a horribly filthy act of willful sin as far as God is concerned. The law of Christ displays, exposes, reveals what sin is as far as God sees it. In the presence of the perfect standard of holiness all your imperfections can be seen for what they really are.

The words of Christ and His inspired writers of the New Testament make you realize there is no excuse for sinning. Jesus said, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin; but now they have no excuse for their silt” (John 15:22). Sin carries, produces, and involves major guilt before the Lord, and then, you add to that the fact that when you committed sin you knew it was sin before you did it. And then when the words of Jesus are really evaluated it makes clear the comparison between the will of God and the will of Satan. The law strips away every excuse we make for sinning, every alibi we give for enjoying it, every love we have for what God hates. Sin is indeed a rebellion against the authority of God, the authority of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and the authority of the Bible.

So often what God commands, people refuse; what God forbids, people desire; what God warns against becomes an attraction to indulge in. So many times the mind has an enmity toward God that causes people delight in what actually provokes the anger of God because of their desire for freedom from the restraints of God. Self-will rejects God’s will. The unspiritual mind, the sinful pleasure filled head is not drawn to holiness, righteousness and godly activity. And the heart addicted to sins, in servitude to sin, is not easily attracted to submission in the areas where God demands self-discipline, self-control and subduing the sinful desires of the heart.

The Lord God of heaven demonstrated the majesty of His holy justice yet at the same time demonstrated the full beauty and glory of grace and mercy … at the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross reveals more about the holy love of God than can be seen anywhere else in all of creation, in all of God’s other acts or works of dealing with human beings or in all the manifestations of His attributes and nature which are discussed in Bible Scripture.

How wretched is an unforgiven sinner! Uncorrected behavior from within the heart, allowed to do anything a person wants to do, can invent everything that will satisfy the sin pleasure longings … just how far will people go? What will people become without God a part of their lives? But, on the other hand, what can a person become through the grace of God? Do you need grace and mercy? Let me rephrase that … Do you know how much you need grace and mercy?

Isn’t it true … Sometimes when you pray harder it seems temptation is stronger? While you are reading the Bible horrible thoughts can come from somewhere into your mind? When you had said to God you would not sin that way again the longing for the sin intensified? When you thought you finally figured out a way to stop that sin, and hoping you had matured past it, only to discover that the temptation now has a stronger grip on you than before? Have you not known times when you thought you were living closer to God than ever before, the Lord’s fellowship seemed so rich, only to wake up one day to discover a whole legion of demons had arrived at the door step of your heart? Do you see the need for grace?

The scripture says, “But God commended His love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us … when we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.” (from Romans 5:6,8) We have come face to face with two very strong forces, powers, mental entities … sin (and temptation) and grace (when it is grasped and understood with its emotional awakening and motivating gratitude). The scriptures talk about “Whoever commits sin is servant of sin …  the law of sin in my members I do the very thing I will myself not to do … the heart is deceitful above all things … for the imagination of man heart is evil from his youth … the power of darkness … the power of Satan” — So, it becomes obvious that the scriptures acknowledge what we already know in our own selves.

Then when it comes to grace, there is the power resident within that activates the tremendous motivation of love, faith, gratitude, awe, reverence and longing to glorify God for the benefits received through grace and mercy “If you love Me you will keep my commandments … the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom … I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me … I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me … by Jesus Christ the world is crucified to me … I count all things but loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord … “ And many more are the verses that explain that inner longing to thank God and glorify God for the grace and mercy that has been brought into our lives, even when we were unworthy to receive them.

The scripture states in Psalm 103;8-18 an amazing addition to our subject “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins nor punished us according to our iniquities.  For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is Hs mercy toward those who fear Him, as far as the east is from the west so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust As for man his days are like grass; as a flower of the field he flourishes. For the wind passes over it and it is gone and its place remembers it no more. But the mercy of the LORD is everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to the children’s children, to such as keep His covenant and to those who remember His commandments to do them.”

Grace — the loving favor of God, the undeserved blessings of the always gracious Almighty LORD (YHWH) GOD that is offended by sin, the God who forgives from the inner nature of love and loving kindness, whose wrath and anger is stimulated by sinfulness is yet ready to pass by transgression, iniquity and sin and to save God’s people from the deserved punishment of sin. WHAT AN AMAZING THOUGHT!

This grace from the holy love of God never changes! It is immutable, and when God purposes to bless someone, that blessing will come, and no one can change God’s mind about it. The grace purposed from God will do more healing that the damage sin caused because it appropriates the life blood of Jesus Christ (His life for the life we forfeited by sin), and the other benefits achieved in the moments of the suffering of Jesus. With God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit united against sin, grace will know its victory!

When the knowledge of the law of Christ enters the mind of the believer fear is created, an awareness of our mental, moral and spiritual condition becomes alarming to us (at least it should). When a person sees the requirements of perfect purity, and that of the necessity that absolute obedience to the commands of Christ is the duty of every person, when sin is seen as the evil that it is in the eyes of God instead of something we consider lightly — then grace is sought after. When you took out your white handkerchief and placed it in the newly fallen snow … when you drew a line, thinking it was straight, only to lay a yard stick by it … only then can we see something of what we thought it was but in reality isn’t … When you read and study the word of God you are made to realize we are not what we once thought we were, and mercy and grace seem far more attractive to us, and gratitude for it is ever so much more beautiful. Only the people who believe they are redeemed will take an honest look in scripture at all the description given of that place of sin’s punishment called “hell” where there will be no mercy or grace.

When the sinner, aware of guilt, contemplates how soon they could be in the punishments of hell, grace and mercy, not justice, becomes the passion of the heart. When pure holiness, with its “consuming fire” is seen, a person is quick to say with Isaiah, “Woe is me for I am undone” and “I need forgiveness”.  When grace is seen a person is quick to say, “I thank God through Jesus Christ” because I am able to become something I could never have become on my own. When the required standard of “be holy for I am holy” is realized one is quick to say “our righteousness is as filthy rags” and self-righteousness melts away into “God be merciful to me a sinner.” ( Peter 1:15,16; I 6S,6; Isaiah 64:6; Luke 18:13)

The more a person examines the Bible scriptures the more one sees sin within one’s self, thus the greater overwhelming need for the grace of God. When you study scripture you have the opportunity to see sin in the attitudes, sin in the affections and lusts, sin in the will, the enjoyable love and pleasure of sin, the pleasurable memory of a past sin that may never have been repented of … In what part of the heart does sin not at times enter?

“The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lust we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” (from Titus 2:11-14)

It appears that a deep conviction of sin, a clear understanding of sin guilt, is essential before a person can grasp the pardoning grace and mercy of God through the cross of Jesus. Jesus said, “He that loves the most is the one who was forgiven the most.” (from Luke 7:36-50)

It is amazing what people will do for the pleasure of sin, where they will go to do it, how much money they will spend to indulge in it, and spend the major part of their lives in sin things which destroy the body and mind you would think that sin promises eternal life in heaven and every wonderful blessing one could imagine now by the way people indulge in it. Which do you spend more of your energy for … sin or grace?

Long has been the battle between God and Satan! Long has been the battle between the devil and God’s human creation! Long has been the battle between sin and righteousness, iniquity and holiness, evil and good, guilt and innocence. And long has stood, in immovable majesty, the holy justice and infinite love of GOD!!!! God, in incomprehensible holiness, hates sin with perfect hatred, and yet loves the sinner with perfect love. God has viewed the horrible guilt of sin only to be filled with compassion for the one caught in its web and clutches. What can measure and grasp the provisions of grace? Who can lay hold mentally what justice within God is? Who can totally understand what forgiveness of sin is?

Understand this fact:  The way you live is based upon your appreciation of the death of Christ, and the grace and mercy which resulted.  A person appreciates grace and mercy in proportion to one’s conviction of one’s own personal sin guilt.

To understand “grace” you must understand “sin”. Sin creates a problem:

The result of sin is:

Do you understand?

Grace brings an emotional wakening called: gratitude.

  • Grace is the free favor of God, the undeserved bounty of the ever-gracious Creator Father against whom we have sinned, rebelled and the One whom we have rejected.
  • Grace is the generous pardon, the infinite spontaneous (yet planned) loving kindness of the God who has been provoked and angered by sin.

It is God’s delight, in mercy and grace, to be ever ready to pass by transgression, iniquity and sin, desiring to save and rescue people from all the evil consequences of their guilt, and to give Divine assistance to help a person overcome the power of temptation, sin and the devil.

The underlying principle of grace is this:  Someone to do for me what I cannot do for myself.

The need for grace is seen here:

  • The #1 need of grace is reconciliation, to be reconciled to God
  • The #2 need for grace is redemption, someone to pay the price (punishment) that the justice of God demands for violated law.
  • And the #3 need for grace is that something must replace what sin has taken away.

Sin takes away love for God grace creates more Intense love for God. Sin wars against the soul, grace brings victory to the soul. Sin eliminates obedience, grace creates a greater motivation to obey God. Sin shuts one out of the “Garden of Eden” grace restores paradise. Sin ruins the soul … grace restores and heals the soul.  Do you understand that?

Do you understand what sin does to you?

It is vitally important to see how grace is connected to the cross of Jesus. Jesus was [is] the perfectly qualified Savior able to appropriate grace to the sinners.

With this before us then we can look at how the cross relates to Jesus —

Now you need to see how the cross relates to God the Father, the source of grace —

  • Jesus was crucified as a propitiation (involving: satisfaction of justice so wrath is appeased) directed toward God and His holy justice (Romans 3:23-26);
  • Jesus offered Himself to God the Father (Ephesians 5:2);
  • Jesus was accepted by the Father as the sin offering (Isaiah 53); and
  • Jesus was proof of God’s love (John 3:16- 21).

It is also important to see how the cross relates to Jesus  —

The cross is also directly connected to the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of grace” (Hebrews 10:29).

  • Jesus offered Himself to God the Father through the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 9:14);
  • the Holy Spirit witnessed through the apostles (Acts 1:8);
  • the Holy Spirit confirmed the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 2); and
  • the Holy Spirit inspired and revealed the word about It all (John 14:26; Ephesians &17).

 If have received the beginning of grace, take care that you do more for grace than ever did for sin

Salvation through grace is:

  • release of the penalty of sin and continual forgiveness;
  • power to assist against Satan, temptation and sin;
  • establishes a relationship with God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son of God and the Holy Spirit of God; and
  • furnishes everlasting life.

It is important to know that grace has nothing to do with releasing responsibility for obedience to the Lord, grace is not a license to sin and grace does not set aside commandments, doctrine, the law of Christ or truth in some other area.

Grace is more than a person’s observation can gasp … more than can be expressed, it is beyond understanding, it is incomprehensible is greater than all sin … is greater than any of God’s children have yet to receive … it will never end … and it is more than what you need at any particular point in time. A person cannot sin more than God can forgive, and when God forgives through grace and mercy there is no sin guilt remaining. (But remember; “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”) (from Romans &1,2)

Any person who will be saved through forgiveness and receiving eternal life from GOD … that salvation will be based upon grace and mercy through the cross of Jesus Christ! No one who is saved has their salvation based upon what someone else did other than Jesus Christ. You cannot be saved without Jesus and you cannot be saved in self-righteousness.

The wisdom of God devised the plan, the power of God executed the plan, and the immutability of God guarantees the plan can be yours. Your sin does not hinder grace, but is the occasion for you to receive it. Your unworthiness is not a barrier to receiving grace, but is the reason it is available to you. The greatness of your sin, the amount of your sins, do not hide you from grace, but is the illustration of the greatness of grace. Your lack of merit only calls attention to the fact that grace is not based upon personal merit.

Now are you ready for it??

It is up to you to read for yourself what the Bible says is the way to have grace and mercy through the death of Jesus Christ as explained in the verses listed on the next page. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all the verses on the subject, just sufficient for you to know where to begin.

 Hebrews 10:16,17

“This Is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,” says the LORD, “I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.” Then He adds, Their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more.”

Psalm 32

 Psalm 91

 Psalm 103

 Acts 2:33-37

 Romans 6

 Ephesians 2

 Hebrews 11:1,6 & John 3:24

 Acts 3:19

 Matthew 10:32 & Romans 10:3-10

 Matthew 2&I3-20 & Mark 16:1S16

 2 Peter 1:1-Il

 Deuteronomy 7:9,10

 Exodus 34:9-3

 1 John 1:5-2:6

Blessed be the LORD (YHWH) God, of Israel from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people Say. “Amen!” Praise the LORD (YHWH)

(from Psalm 106:48)

Some of the reasons for the death of Jesus:

Opening the door to Grace by the Cross

 Faith is essential — Hebrews 11:1,6