weekly message

            To understand just how amazing grace is, we need to see that God, His grace, and the absence of time are inseparable.  In seeing God, we must see the truth of grace, and it is within that truth that we see that time is not a factor.  In other words, we do not need a fresh supply of grace come tomorrow, because we already have grace for tomorrow, today.  In Second Timothy 1:9 Paul wrote, (God) who has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace.  This grace was given us in Christ before the beginning of time.  Right now, if that single verse hasn’t filled you with great surprise and sudden wonder, then you need to go back and read it and look at it again and again.  The grace of God, by which you have been saved (Ephesians 2:8-9), was given to you in Christ BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF TIME!  Let it be understood that before you ever sinned, the grace that forgives and saves had already been given to you in Christ.  Before you were ever sick, healing grace was yours.  Before there was ever a need, a problem, a shortage or a lack, there was grace, and it had already been given to you!  This is why it is so important that we do as Second Corinthians 4:18 instructs – So we fix our eyes not on what is seen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 

            Because our lives are regulated by time, we tend to allow our thinking, our emotions, and our hopes for tomorrow to be influenced and ruled by the events of time.  We often allow past problems to become today’s fears, and present adversities become the thief who easily robs us of hope for the future.  This is why it is so important and vital that our hope for peace, security, joy, prosperity and unshakable faith be infused with the revelation of grace, and just how amazing it truly is.  So many within Christ are living day in and day out wondering if and when the circumstances of their lives will ever change.  I have so often listened to people complain that nothing ever changes.  Whenever I hear that complaint, my first thought always is – “Thank God it never does change!”  I am not referring to life’s situations at any given time, but I am speaking of the amazing truth that the power of God’s grace never changes because grace has nothing to do with time.  Before time, there was grace, and this grace has already been given to us for all time.  Hebrews 4:16 says, Let us then approach the Throne of Grace with confidence (boldly), so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.  Hebrews 4:16 tells us that it is grace that sits upon the throne – That’s amazing! It is grace that has all rule, authority, and the final word.  And this grace, which has been given us in Christ before the beginning of time, will be found every time we remove our eyes from the events of time, and begin allowing the truth of the Gospel of Grace to guide us and take us to where we are thinking out beyond the box of time.  Time is like a box because it confines us and places many limitations upon us.  But out beyond that box, there is grace, and it is in the revelation of grace that we are set free and find that all things are possible.  The truth is, things are only impossible when they are viewed within time.  At one time it was thought impossible to sail around the world.  It was seen as impossible for man to fly.  What do you think the consensus was at one time regarding man traveling into space and landing on the moon?  It has been said that time heals all wounds, and that it is time that changes all things.  That is simply not true, because it is grace that has and does do all that, because it is grace that has been given us before the need for a time of change ever arose.

            At Grace Bible Training Center, where I am privileged to be one of the instructors, the students are constantly reminded and reinforced with the truth that grace is God doing for us what we can never do for ourselves.  This is an amazing truth, especially when placed alongside the truth that grace was given us in Christ before the beginning of time.  Before time, God did for us all that needed to be done at any given time in our lives and, therefore, by seeing out beyond the time of need, and setting our eyes upon the timeless of grace, we will always find that all needs have run out of time, and we can boldly and freely begin living out our time as more than conquerors through Christ who loved us (Romans 8:37). 

The Other Word (Part 2 of No Other Word)

          In last week’s weekly message I shared with you a message about grace, and I came from the standpoint that there is no other word for grace but amazing.  Grace is, without a doubt, absolutely amazing.  However, there is another word for grace, and the other word is “Gospel.”  Actually, Grace and Gospel are so intertwined, so intermixed, so united, joined together and one with each other, that unless the message is a message of grace, it is not the gospel.

            In Galatians 1:6-7 the Apostle Paul wrote, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the One who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all…  Here we find that the gospel is not only a message of grace, but if the message is not about grace, then the message is not even about Christ!  The Apostle Paul made it very clear that if the message of grace is removed, then it is a different gospel, which he then said is really no gospel at all!  In other words, whenever it comes to the gospel there is only one message and one truth, and that is “Grace.”

            Last week I made mention that the definition of grace that is drummed into the students of Grace Bible Training Center is – “Grace is God doing for you what you cannot do for yourself.”  Marilyn, my wife, came to me and added to that by saying, “Grace is God doing for you IN CHRIST what you cannot do for yourself.”  One of the recent graduates of GBTC (Juliane Dillon / Massachusetts) emailed me and also added to the definition of grace by saying, “Grace is CHRIST BEING IN YOU who you can never be in yourself.”  Glory be to God!  I just love it when people begin to think outside of the religious box.  If there is one thing that can be said for sure, it is that grace cannot be confined and placed into a box.  Grace is too big, too important, and is everything when it comes to the gospel and the message of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior!

            A good question to ask here concerning the message of grace, is the question that asks, “What do you see?”  Well, when you take into account that grace is the gospel, and grace is synonymous with Christ, it is then seen that grace is so big, so important, and so all encompassing, that it is grace, which is the power, that changes everything.  In other words, grace is the re-creative power of God and, therefore, another word for grace is “Identity.”  Second Corinthians 5:21 says, God made Him (Jesus) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might (this word “might” means – without human effort) become the righteousness of God.  Understand, because we see that it was God Himself who did this, when then know that this was the action of grace.  It was grace that changed the identity of Jesus; grace changed the One who had no sin, and made Him to be sin for us.  And just by the mere fact that this was done for our benefit, we then have another word for grace, and that word is “Love.”  God’s love for us is so incredibly amazing, that by the grace of God, He changed the identity of His sinless Son into sin itself.  By grace, sin was nailed to the cross, by grace sin died on that cross, and by grace sin went into hell!  And by that same Amazing Grace, our identity, in Christ, has been changed and re-created into the righteousness of God.  In other words, by grace, in Christ, we are as righteous as God Himself!  Ephesians 4:24 tells us that we have been created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.  And this brings light to another word for grace, which is “Freedom!”  Grace has set us free from all the pointless and fruitless human effort of trying, working and striving to become what grace has already freely re-created us in Christ to be.

            Too often, in our churches, people are, in many ways, taught that grace alone is not enough.  At first they are correctly taught that we are saved by grace, but then they are burdened and weighed down with tons of rules and regulations; things we must do and don’t do in our own strength in order to be a so-called “Good Christian.”  Personally, I am much too taken up with joy and thanksgiving in the grace of God, which has transformed me into a son of God (John 1:12 & 1^st John 3:1), to waste any time trying to decided what is or is not a so-called good Christian.  Paul said in 1^st Corinthians 15:10, But by the grace of God I am what I am…  Taking all this into sight, there is at least one more word for grace, and that word is – “Period!”  In other words, it is grace and grace alone, and by His grace you shall ever be known as one whom He has called to forever abide at the side of His Throne.