GRACE

God extends unmerited favor to us all by imputing His righteousness to us, providing that we accept it and walk in accordance to His ways. 

There is a certain teaching known as "irresistible grace" that portrays God's grace as limited to a certain elect who were saved before the foundation of the world. Evidently, these individuals cannot resist God's grace because it is irresistible; but those who were not saved before the foundation of the world, are not shown this grace, because they resist it. 

God's grace extends to all mankind. The extent to which this grace is experienced differs vastly across the world. Much depends upon whether people respond to God. Although, there is the disposition that abounds, the more evil that is committed the more grace God will bestow upon me. Indeed, the question has been asked why do the evil prosper. Today there seems to be many who are evil and prosper. 

Nothing has changed. Back in the days of Malachi, before our precious Lord and Savior came from Heaven to Earth, before the Word of God became flesh, we learn the people of Israel questioned the value in walking in the ways of the Creator of Heaven and Earth:

You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the good of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts?  Henceforth we deem the arrogant blessed; evildoers not only prosper but when they put God to the test they escape.’” (Malachi 3:14-15)

This observation concerning evildoers causes many people to question the value of calling upon God, even those who read the Bible or go to Church or grow up with Bible-believing parents. In fact, those weak in faith towards God will do what they know to be evil before God, only to eventually feel sorry about what they have done, feel the need to repent, confess to a priest or pastor, pay some form penance (count beads, toss some coins in the indulgence box, put in an appearance at church services, do some maintenance around the church), and then return to their evil ways again. 

A classic example is a Roman Catholic who was staying for a few months at the private hotel that was my abode for some years. He made a point of telling everyone that he believed in God and went to mass. He also had a habit of bringing bottles wrapped in brown paper bags into his room. Some hours later, he would be inebriated and attempt to make out he was sober, as is the custom of most alcoholics. Then there were rumors of money going missing from the rooms of various guests. 

One day this  Roman Catholic came into my spacious room, with lounge settee and chairs, and large desk upon which, next to my computer monitor, was a medium-sized jar stuffed with fake $100 bills that looked very real, except on the inside. The bills were paired so the inside could not be seen. The Roman Catholic's eyes were fixated upon the jar. He left, but made a point of regularly knocking on my door just to say hello.

One evening I put a real $20 note in the jar. The following morning, I went to the upstairs bathroom and returned within 3 minutes. On my way upstairs, I noticed the Roman Catholic in the kitchen. When I returned to my room, the first thing I saw was the $20 was missing. I went to confront the Roman Catholic in the kitchen, but he was nowhere to be seen. I timed how long it would take to go from where I saw him in the kitchen, open my door, walk over to the desk, take out the money, and return. 

Four days later, I ran into the Roman Catholic as he was about to enter the residence outside the main entrance. I asked him why he took my $20. He denied it. With full conviction that he had taken the money, I told him he was in the kitchen and saw me go upstairs to the bathroom. He knew that I would be a few minutes, so he quickly went to my door, found it wasn't locked, entered, went to the jar and took the $20 and went back to the kitchen. In all this took him 20 seconds.

The Roman Catholic stunned me. He blurted out, "Lord Jesus told you what I did!" I could have made myself to be some prophet, but I didn't have time. He continued, "I will repay you ten times." I settled for four times plus the original $20, and together we went to the Western Union office and he sent the money to some impoverished people I knew in the Philippines.  He then went to mass.

One week later, I encountered him again: drunk! He was having an altercation with another guest. After that he left the Hotel. 

Unfortunately for this Roman Catholic, he is under the impression that no matter what sin he commits, all he has to do is make amends, usually by doing penance with rosary beads saying Hail Mary's, and he has paid the price for his sin. One of the reasons for this is that he believes God's grace covers his sin, if he does penance.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  By no means! (Romans 6:1-2a) 

 As for those who frown upon works or abiding by anything that resembles any form of law-abiding, such as Sabbath observance, in order to be forgiven of sins and find salvation, the Apostles goes on to say:

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! (Romans 6:15)

Back in the sixties, a godly Pentecostal theologian, was commenting on his observations of those who claimed they were Calvinists in the small mid-western city that he lived. He stated that they attended church on Sunday and even weekly Bible study, but kept the local prostitutes and republicans in business too. Their belief that they were chosen before the foundation of the world, gave them the right to do as they liked, as they believed they were saved by the grace alone.

The difference between the Roman Catholics and Calvinists is the first believes that there is a need for penance for grace to be extended once more, while the latter simply believes that he is saved no matter what because he identifies with the doctrine of "saved by grace alone" and confesses this, not matter what his iniquity might be, as long as it doesn't bring shame on his family. 

The Talmudists take a slightly different view on this grace caper. They believe that if they absolve their sins on Yom Kippur ( the yearly celebration of the Day of Atonement), they are free to do as much evil as they like for the next twelve months, for they are covered by the grace of God.

The prophet Malachi addressed this Babylonian behavior, when speaking the Jews after they had returned from Babylon, saying:

You have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Every one who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?” (Malachi 2:17)

There is a noticeable difference in the words of Malachi that seem to imply that Babylon Talmudists were among them. These are Satanists, who say they are Jews, but whom the Bible says are of the Synagogue of Satan. It is worth noting that the grace of God extends to everyone, in the hope that all repent and come to the knowledge of salvation by expressing faith in the Lord of Creation; not by asking where is the God of justice?  Note the following Proverb:

He who misleads the upright into an evil way will fall into his own pit; but the blameless will have a goodly inheritance. (Proverbs 28:10)

God's unmerited favor extends to all men; in particular, the blameless, those who are deceived by trickery and misled into doing wicked deeds, but once they realize their mistake they readily repent and turn away from evil practices. Often this occurs when they are taught from birth that by addressing statues and making sacrifices before them is how one finds favor with God, so that grace may be further extended to them. The wicked are those who deceitfully lead the innocent down such pathways.

The Apostle Paul made this known when preaching at Lystra and the people wanted to makes sacrifices to him and Barnabas:

Men, why are you doing this? We also are men, of like nature with you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.  In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways; yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness (Acts 14:15-17)

While the writer of Acts doesn't explicitly state this, the priest of Zeus, who probably had a comfortable lifestyle in Lystra, knowing that the sacrifices to the statue of Zeus were really his livelihood, could not afford to not have any men be anything other than his gods; especially, when real miracles were being performed. He named Paul and Barnabas, Zeus and Hermes, and brought out sacrifices for them.

God's unmerited favor, His grace has extended to every generation in the hope people might recognize that life is futile, if Creation wasn't created with a purpose and there is no reason for a baby being born on planet Earth, other than to suffer and die. When the Apostle Paul was in Athens, without mentioning the grace of God, we can perceive that this unmerited divine favor underlined his message to the Athenians, just as it does to us today:

He made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us,  for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; even as some your poets have said: For we are indeed his offspring Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent, (Acts 17:26-30)

Individually, each one of us suffers from ignorance. Who among us is omniscient? Who has the knowledge that God has of who has lived, who is alive today, and who will be born tomorrow? We are told that the Heavenly Father is aware of how many hairs are growing from each person's head. Our ignorance is beyond what the most knowledgeable person among us may realize. 

 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Luke 12:7)

Human beings might despise other human beings, and be taken for a ride when showing kindness and generosity, but God extends his unmerited favor to us all, in the hope that we might just happen to feel after Him and find Him. Grace is extended to us so that God's righteousness may be established  in our lives (Romans 3:24-26; 8:4), not because we belong to a chosen race, as some think, and we can challenge God's grace without consequence.

How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the man who has spurned the Son of God, and profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:29)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is famous for his writing about "cheap grace" as opposed to "costly grace". Cheap grace is a reference to people claiming they are saved merely because Jesus died for them and they accept this fact, and willingly acknowledge this to other people. Costly grace is where people count the cost of the grace extended to them and heed the warning of what it means to exercise faith towards God, that more grace may be extended to accomplish a life fulfilled in the plan and purpose of the God's omniscience.   

What is known as cheap grace is believed to be based upon what is found in the book of Romans, chapter five, which reads:

Law came in, to increase the trespass; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. (Romans 5:20)

 This Scripture is often cited with the following Scriptures:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only (begotten) Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:13)

Because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved. (Romans 10:9-10)

 The problem is that element of conviction or, to put it another way, the degree of believing in the resurrection of the Son of God people living the cheap grace possess. For to outrage the Spirit of Grace is the same as committing apostacy or committing blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, the sin from which there is no return, when it comes to God. 

When Moses was interceding at Mount Sinai on behalf of the people who had come out of Egypt, he suggested that the Lord could blot his name out of the book of life as atonement for the sin of the people (Exodus 32:30-32) God replied:

Whoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. But now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. (Exodus 32:33-34)

The grace of God was evidenced here when God said that in a future day He would visit the sin of the people upon them. While Moses was thinking that the people had committed sufficient sin to be blotted out of the Book of Life, this clearly wasn't the case. God was overlooking the people's ignorance. Had the people willfully sinned by directly challenging God, then they would have outraged the Spirit of Grace and no more grace would be extended to them. The unpardonable sin would have been committed. 

Essentially, there are two types of sin. One type is covered by God's grace. The other is not. The Apostle John pointed this out when he wrote:

If any one sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin which is mortal; I do not say that one is to pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not mortal. (1 John 5:16-17)

The sin that leads to being blotted out of the Book of Life is the one which is unpardonable, for this is the rejection of God's unmerited favor. To commit the unpardonable sin, one has to knowingly oppose God or reject Him. One is open rebellion, the other is complete dismissal, committed after having come to know of God, even experience a relationship that was as close as the one the prophet Balaam had. 

We read of Balaam (Numbers chapters 22-24) that he heard God's voice, prophesied in His name and even saw His Spirit coming down, having had his eyes opened. Yet Balaam took it upon himself to dismiss God's righteous as being worthy to keep. Instead he taught how it was possible to cause others to sin and attempt to pervert the plan of God. In doing this, Balaam was burning what grace God had extended to him. Since the grace of God was his ticket to Heaven, he compromised this for the riches offered to him by the king of Moab . We have this further confirmed when we read in the New Testament:

Woe to them! For they walk in the way of Cain, and abandon themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error, and perish in Korah’s rebellion. (Jude 1:11)

But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice immorality. (Revelation 2:14)

Three different ways of spurning God are displayed in the lives of Cain, Balaam and Korah. Walking in the way of Cain is to think one can dismiss God's grace and survive. Balaam thought that he could burn God's grace by teaching another person how to put a stumbling block in the way of those who had initially heeded the call of God and still maintain his relationship with God. Korah challenged God's authority, as recorded in the book of Numbers, chapter sixteen. 

The writer of the book of Hebrews gives the following exhortation:

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.  (Hebrews 4:16).

 The unmerited favor of God is extended to all. God's grace covers a multitude of wrongdoings, except when it comes to what is a mortal sin. Hence, the grace of God has been established through the death and resurrection of His Son, Lord Jesus Christ. How we avail ourselves of it, this is another matter. If we consider the divine grace a cheap offering, then we may find ourselves dismissing what is the bridge over the chasm that exists between God and Man.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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