Jun 16
4
GRACE AND TRUTH CAME BY JESUS CHRIST
Grace and truth are fitly and inseparably joined together. We cannot have grace without truth, nor truth without grace. Those who reject grace, reject truth; and those who reject truth, reject grace. “Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:2l). The grace which saves the sinner is not mere pity and sentiment such as we find in the creature. The grace which saves sinners is established on the principles of an honored law and a satisfied justice (Rom. 3:23-26). Grace does not ignore the law nor set aside its requirements. No! It establishes the law (Rom. 3:3l). Grace establishes the law because it has a Substitute who perfectly fulfilled the law and endured the death penalty for all who believe, in order that God may be both just and justifier.
Law manifests what is in men–sin!
Grace manifests what is in God–love!
Law demands righteousness from men!
Grace brings righteousness to men!
Law sentences men to death!
Grace brings dead men to life!
Law speaks of what I must do!
Grace tells what Christ has done!
Law gives a knowledge of sin!
Grace puts away sin!
“Oh, to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be.” Pastor Henry Mahan.
PURE AND FREE GRACE
Everyone likes purity. They also like free things. If you are someone who enjoys pure and free things, listen carefully, and I will tell you of the purest, freest thing I know of.
The Grace of God, it is PURE and FREE! What do I mean? That God’s grace is born in the heart of God Himself, that it is given to sinners in Christ Jesus without condition. God’s Grace is like Himself – eternal. There is never any reason found in the recipient of it. It comes unasked, unsought, and undeserved. If it is ever deserved it is not grace. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).
To show us how pure and free the Grace of God is, the scriptures tell us it was given to God’s elect on purpose and before the world began. Listen, “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Timothy 1:9). How free, how pure is the Grace of God in Christ? “But when it pleased God who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace…” (Galatians 1:15).
What do I mean that Grace is Free? First, that there are no conditions required by God. If there were that, then it would not be grace. If you had to meet some condition before God would give you his grace it would be a debt he owed you for meeting the condition, and then it would cease to be grace.
I can hear the freewill work monger say, “You must repent and believe before you can be saved!” That is true – but what the scriptures teaches is that repentance and faith are the gifts of God’ grace. They are the results of the new birth; life must precede any spiritual acts. Christ has “ascended up on high, led captivity captive (all that held sinner’s captive, sin and death) and gave gifts unto men” (Ephesians 4:7-8).
God requires perfection and we, as sinners cannot give it. God is just – he cannot lower his requirements. How then can he give his grace and salvation to imperfect sinners? By Christ, who was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” God’s justice demands death for sin, “He made Him to be sin for us” (God demands righteousness from sinners), “that we might be made the righteousness of God IN HIM” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Because of the doing and dying of Jesus Christ, God can justly give us repentance and faith through Him.
Christ as a sinless perfect man met all the conditions required by God. He gave us grace in Christ on purpose before the world began; it was not according to our works. If it was given us before the world began and on purpose, what did we have to do with it? “Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:9). If you boast of any work before God, you fly in the face of God, the work of Christ, and God’s holy word. If you are saved by anything YOU DO, then you “frustrate the grace of God, and Christ is dead in vain” (Galatians 2:21). Salvation is “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:4-6). Folks read your Bibles.
Donald Bell.
‘If You Be Circumcised’
Joe Terrell
Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. (Galatians 5:2)
It is a man’s guilt that makes Christ necessary for Him; but it is a man’s righteousness that will render Christ ineffective for him. The blood of Christ is the remedy for a man’s sin, but what shall avail for a remedy for a man’s righteousness? Only the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit of God is able to overcome a man’s resistance to the grace of the blood and to make him despair of even his righteousness. But, to refine the point even more, it is the Holy Spirit’s work in revealing the testimony of the blood of Christ that breaks the self-righteous will of man and makes him submit to Christ as his only righteousness before God. So it is the blood poured out by Christ that remedies the sin of a man, and it is that same blood revealed by the Holy Spirit that remedies the righteousness of man.
The believer’s path
The believer’s path is indeed a mysterious one—full of harmonious contradictions and heavenly paradoxes. He is never easy when at ease—nor without a burden when he has none. He is never satisfied without doing something—and yet is never satisfied with anything that he does. He is never so strong as when he sits still—never so fruitful as when he does nothing—and never so active as when he makes the least haste. He wins—pardon through guilt—hope through despair—deliverance through temptation—comfort through affliction—and a robe of righteousness through filthy rags. Though a worm and no man—he overcomes Omnipotence itself through violence. And though less than vanity and nothing—he takes heaven itself by force. Thus amid the strange contradictions which meet in a believing heart, he is—never so prayerful as when he says nothing—never so wise as when he is the greatest fool—never so much alone as when most in company—and never so much under the power of an inward religion as when most separated from an outward one. J.C.Philpot
Sanctification in Abraham
Genesis 17: 1-8
Sanctification is the work of God’s grace whereby God sets apart and makes his children consecrated unto him. It is accomplished by God the Father in divine election in Christ, by the circumcision of Christ made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the sacrifice of himself and by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.
Sanctification of God (Genesis 12: 1-5.)
God sanctified Abraham in the operation of grace when Abraham was 75 in a land of idolatry. Abraham was not seeking God but God sought Abraham because he was a chosen child of God. God separated Abraham from the land of idolatry to God: through the Spirit of regeneration through the gospel of promise (John 3: 3.) The result was Abraham believed God and went out (Hebrews 11: 8).
Sanctification by the Gospel of Christ (Genesis 15: 1-6)
Growth in grace is accomplished, not through the works of our hands, but through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God separated Abraham from the land of idolatry through the gospel of God’s promised salvation. God grew Abraham in the knowledge of Christ declaring more clearly that Abraham’s salvation was in the promised Seed, God’s own Son, who would come from Abraham’s lineage to crush the serpent’s head and redeem God’s elect (Galatians 3:16). This promise to Abraham was ordered and sure because this covenant work was entrusted to the Son of God by God the Father. Christ said of his covenant to the Father, “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” (John 17:4). From the cross, Christ said, “It is finished.” The righteousness of Christ was imputed to Abraham through faith (Romans 4: 1-8.)
Sanctification by the Grace of God (Genesis 16: 1-16; 17: 1)
We see that sanctification is by the grace of God when we consider the error Abraham made in this chapter. Abraham and Sara in great error tried to fulfill God’s promise by their wisdom, will and work. Sara gave Abraham her handmaid, Hagar, to wife. Abraham produced a son from her (Commentary on this passage is found in Galatians 4: 21-31.) These two women represent the two covenants—Hagar, the bondmaid, represents the covenant of works which genders to bondage; Sara, the freewoman, represents the everlasting covenant of grace fulfilled by God alone through the blood and righteousness of Christ. In turning to Hagar, Abraham turned from the grace of God to the works of his own hand. It was by the grace of God alone that God did not cast Abraham away, nor allow Abraham’s sin to have dominion over him. Instead God turned Abraham back to God, keeping Abraham separated unto himself. God will not allow sin to have dominion over his children because those born of his Spirit are not under the law but under the power and dominion of the grace of God (Romans 6: 14.) Sanctification is by the grace of God.
Sanctification by the Power of God (Genesis 17: 1)
Abraham was separated unto God by the revelation of God (Romans 1: 16-17.) God declared to Abraham that the Almighty God is all powerful to fulfill his own promised salvation in Christ, apart from any help from our impotent hands. Therefore God said to Abraham, “Walk before me and be thou perfect.” First, this is a declaration of fact because through faith in Christ, Abraham was perfect (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 10: 14). Secondly, this is a statement of promise because since Abraham was made the righteousness of God in Christ his Surety, nothing would be able to separate Abraham from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8: 32-39). Thirdly, this an effectual command by which God strengthened Abraham’s faith not to turn from the promised salvation in Christ back to works of his hand (Galatians 5: 1-6). By the power of El Shaddi revealing his glory in the face of Christ Jesus through the gospel the believer is sanctified to walk by faith, not by sight.
Sanctification by Circumcision without Hands (Genesis 17: 2-11)
Each time the Lord spoke to Abraham, the LORD God renewed his covenant to Abraham. Here again God renews his promise saying, “Abraham, I will fulfill the covenant I have made to you without your help.” The everlasting covenant of God is the unchanging, unchangeable, everlasting, yes and amen written on our hearts when Christ Jesus is formed in us, given for a Covenant (2 Corinthians 1: 20; Isaiah 42: 6; Romans 13: 14; Colossians 3: 10-11.) Fleshly circumcision was a temporary, outward symbol of this inward, sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit (Romans 2: 29; 4: 11; 2 Corinthians 1: 22; Ephesians 1: 13: 4: 30.) whereby believers are made to behold that by the death of Christ Jesus we have been circumcised from all sin (Colossians 2: 10-15).
Sanctification Makes Saints (Genesis 17: 3, 5)
The fruit of God’s sanctifying work is always the same: “Abraham fell on his face and God talked with him.” This communion with God creates within the believer a new man, typified by God giving Abraham a new name. Sanctified by these promises, through the Holy Spirit, the saint repents from our former idolatry, waits for the hope of righteousness through faith which works by love and has no more confidence in the flesh (2 Corinthians 6: 17-18–7: 1; Galatians 5: 4-6; Philippians 3: 3.)Clay Curtis.
The least religion of their own
They are the wisest—in whom creature wisdom has most ceased. They are the strongest—who have learned most experimentally their own weakness. They are the holiest—who have known most of their own filthiness. They are the most spiritual in a true sense—who have the least religion of their own. J.C.Philpot
CHRIST MUST BE ALL!
We cannot keep our eye too exclusively or too intently fixed on Jesus. All salvation is in Him. All salvation proceeds from Him. All salvation leads to Him. And for the assurance and comfort of our salvation we are to repose believingly and entirely on Him. Christ must be all! Christ the beginning—Christ the centre—and Christ the end.
Oh sweet truth to you who are sensible of your poverty, vileness, and insufficiency, and of the ten thousand flaws and failures of which, perhaps, no one is cognizant but God and your own soul! Oh, to turn and rest in Christ—a full Christ—a loving Christ—a tender Christ, whose heart’s love never chills, from whose eye darts no reproof, from whose lips breathes no sentence of condemnation! Christ must be all! Octavius Winslow