Return to Archive | Return to WebGrace.net | Return to e-Grace.net

Christian Chronicles, November 2002 - Volume 6, Issue 83

| The Editor's Pen | Perspectives | Mid-East Update | Fruit of the Vine |  Both Mercy & Justice for Sinners |
| The Call to Believe | Grace to Help in Time of Need | Does God Hear the Prayers of the Unsaved? | The Difference Grace Makes |

The Editor's Pen

    There is no doctrine in Christianity more important than the doctrine of the grace of God. While every issue of Christian Chronicles touches on grace in one form or another, we believe that it is important to devote one or more full issues each year to this doctrine. We observe this practice, not because we believe that you, our readers, do not understand grace in the context of salvation, but because we hope to impart some new insight that will aid you in your personal ministries. There is not an unsaved person in all the world who does not need, first of all, to understand God’s grace. Lost sinners are uniformly afraid of the judgment of God, and it is increasingly impossible for them to go into a church and hear the gospel of God’s grace preached clearly. Yet, it is the goodness, not the severity, of God that leads men to repentance. It is not the job of the preacher to convict. The Holy Spirit does that in every case in which a lost person is saved. The task of the Christian is to alleviate the fear of judgment, replacing it with an understanding of God’s love as expressed at Calvary and in the epistles. The sinner does not need conviction, but mercy. If the Holy Spirit has not convicted the lost person, he will neither respond to a message of grace nor be reconciled to God through any message of condemnation. Such a message will serve only to drive the sinner farther from the arms of a loving God and increase his fear. An evangelist is one who brings a message of Good News.

Perspectives

And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.

(Rom 11:6)

    The professing church has more difficulty with this verse than any other in the New Testament. There are many others that are troubling to some, but if this one were properly understood, most other doctrinal problems would simply disappear. There are many verses that support the doctrine stated here, but none state it as succinctly or as well. The “Scripture Says:” box on the back page of this issue quotes Eph 2:8-9, which states that we are saved by grace, and not by works. All of Paul’s writings are consistent with this message; yet, so very many churches and, indeed, so very many entire denominations teach otherwise. Some add baptism. Others say that if you are saved, you can no longer dance or use instruments in church. Some say that you are saved by your good behavior. Others teach that you are saved by grace, but that if you sin, you can “fall from grace.” Let us examine this doctrine of grace versus works.

Mid-East Update

    One wonders whether Yasser Arafat sincerely condemns the suicide bombers of Hamas and the other radical groups among the Palestinians, or if maybe he speaks great swelling words of vanity for the sake of the international press, while behind the scenes he is directing the operations of the murderers. Actually, he has been caught instigating on one hand while talking peace on the other so many times that there is little wonder left. Whatever the case may be, if he lacks the political authority to put a stop to the killing, then the Palestinians who desire peace must place in authroity one who will take the steps necessary to ensure it.

    There are those critics of Israel who say that if Israel would stop the retaliation, the killings would stop, or that if Israel would withdraw from the “occupied” territories, the bombings would cease. Those who continue to spout such arguments must have their eyes and ears closed to the truth. Israel has repeatedly done those very things, only to see the terrorists move back into the villages that she has withdrawn from. When she has not retaliated, the bombings have been larger and more deadly than when she does retaliate. The Passover Massacre comes to mind.

    At the end of the day, there will not be peace in the Holy Land under Gentile rule. The governments may sign all the treaties that pen and ink can produce, but it will not change the hearts of those committed to the destruction of Israel. No matter what the governments do, the peoples of that region will continue to hate one another. Even if Arafat was sincere in his efforts to stop the killing (if only to save his job and his authority), he would be unable to do so.

    The two sons of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael, were enemies before Isaac was born. Hagar saw to that with her taunting of Sarah over her barren womb. When Sarah became pregnant, Hagar must have sobbed into her pillow, knowing that her child would never receive the inheritance that the first-born customarily received. She must have bitterly regretted her earlier taunts, and known that she had been the cause of her child’s ouster, even before Isaac was born. When he was born, and Sarah demanded that Abraham throw Hagar out, with her child, there began a rivalry and bitter feud that has lasted for millennia. The struggle that we see unfolding in the Middle East today is the same struggle that began when the two half-brothers became alienated because of the jealousy of their mothers. Ishmael still wants to slay his half-brother, and is as committed to righting what he perceives as a grievous wrong as he was, lo, those many centuries ago. It is a long time to carry a grudge, and a heavy stone in the hearts of both sides in that struggle. Despite the best efforts of Gentile and Jew, it will not be lifted until a Jew lifts it, and His name is Jesus Christ. He will destroy Gentile dominion and establish His own throne.

    Until then, we will see movement toward a false peace, but real peace cannot be achieved in the region until God Himself establishes it.

    Israel has always had a volatile government, and that continues even today. At the time of this writing, the Labor Party has withdrawn from the Sharon administration. As of the date of this writing (Nov. 5), elections are said to take place between late January and early February, though no official date has been established. The departure of the Labor Party leaves only a minority of hawks in the ruling coalition. When the National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu faction refused to join the Sharon government, the Prime Minister was left with only 55 legislators in a 120 member parliament, six shy of a majority.

    As the Likud prepares for the early elections, there is an internal struggle for contorl of the conservative party. At this point, it appears that Benjamin Netanyahu will oust Sharon as head of the Likud, and will be the conservatives’ candidate for the post of Prime Minister. In his rhetoric, Netanyahu is far more hawkish than even Sharon was, and that does not bode well for Israeli/Palestinian relations.

    The editors foresee greater bloodshed than we have yet seen, perhaps by means of the long-feared “mega-attack” that the press has been warning of for months. We expect that, even with the hawks firmly entrenched in control of the government, the clamor for peace will become strident indeed, until Satan enters into the Antichrist and give him a peace plan that all sides will be desperate enough to embrace. The peace plan that will follow the rapture will not be a negotiated treaty, but will be accepted by all sides shortly after it is offered by the nation of the beast. All the daily watching of the ups and downs of the peace process really have little meaning in the context of the prophecies, for it will be received by acclamation, not by negotiation.

Fruit of the Vine

    Amazing grace, how sweet the sound! Can you recall the days before your eyes were opened to the wonderful grace of God, or the terrible process in which your heart was convicted by the Holy Spirit? Surely, you had committed some sin that weighed heavily on your mind and spirit, causing you to suffer a sense of shame and an awful loss of self respect. One cannot truly appreciate God’s amazing grace without first recognizing how truly sinful he is. The Holy Spirit creates fertile soil in the heart of the unbeliever through the conviction process. It is not man’s job to judge or to convict. Rather, Christians are called upon to preach the gospel, to reveal the remedy for the conviction lost souls have already experienced through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. If you would be fruitful in your own ministry, it will not be because you have burdened a lost soul with more weight of sin, but because you have unburdened him with the message of God’s enduring love. It is only the grace of God that saves, and only the word of grace can be fruitful.

Both Mercy & Justice for Sinners

    The first time that the word “grace” is mentioned in the Bible is in Genesis 6:8, where we are told that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. But that is not the first instance of grace found in the Word of God. That would be in chapter three, verse twenty-one of Genesis. There, God made coats of skins for Adam and Eve. Let us begin this discussion by taking a look at the background of that verse so that we can see how the first act of grace occurred.

    On the sixth day of creation, God created man in His own image. He blessed them and told them to be fruitful and multiply, giving them dominion over the whole earth. God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden. We think of that as a very special place on the earth, but it is likely that the entire earth was in the same blessed state as Eden. The earth had not yet been cursed, for man had not yet sinned. It was in the Fall of man that the earth was first cursed (Gen 3:17). In any case, when God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, He gave him perfect liberty, with a single exception. He could not partake of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The penalty for eating that fruit was death. Chapter two, verse seventeen, tells us God told Adam that, in the day he ate of that fruit, he would surely die. It could not possibly have been stated any more clearly. This is very often the case when grace is discussed in the Scriptures. Though God did not mention grace in His stern warning to Adam, certainly, He knew that Adam and Eve’s disobedience to the command would result in the first act of grace by a loving God.

    Eve had not been created when Adam was placed in the garden and instructed concerning the fruit of the forbidden tree. The creation of Eve is narrated immediately following God’s warning to Adam (vv 18-25). She had not heard the warning directly from God, but Adam surely had warned her of the prohibition, so that she was wholly without excuse when she ate that fruit. She had been told that she would die if she ate that fruit, but she was deceived by the serpent, so that she thought she might become like God if she ate it, and that God was attempting to hold her down in some mean way by not allowing her to eat it. Just as Lucifer’s pride had (Ezek 28:1-19), Eve’s pride became the catalyst of a great tragedy.

    Chapter three of Genesis is the story of the Fall of man. It begins with a brief statement about Satan (3:1), and goes on immediately thereafter to narrate Eve’s disobedience. The first question mark in the Bible shows Satan questioning the Word of God (3:2). The succeeding five verses tell us of the conversation that took place between Eve and the serpent. It concludes with Eve giving the fruit to Adam, who partook of it with her. While we know that Eve was deceived, we know that Adam was not (see 1 Tim 2:14). Many questions might arise as to how Adam could have been persuaded to eat that fruit, knowing that he must die that very day if he did so. Probably, the best response is that he saw Eve dying right before his eyes, having gone from immortality to mortality. He loved her and did not wish to live without her, and so, he took the fruit himself and ate it. Adam freely chose the things of the flesh over the things of the Spirit. Eve’s action in giving Adam the fruit was an act of extreme selfishness; for, by then she knew that she was killing him. It shows how far she fell when she ate that fruit. Adam’s action in taking and eating the fruit was an act of love, although it involved a rebellion against God of such magnitude as we cannot fully comprehend today.

    The first thing that happened after they ate the fruit was that they realized suddenly that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together in order to cover their nakedness (3:7). Before they ate the fruit, they did not even know what nakedness was (2:25). They now supposed that if they hid their nakedness behind fig leaves, God might not realize they’d eaten the fruit. They immediately began lying to themselves. Notice that there was no man there to convict them of their sin. They simply knew that they had become sinners. They heard God walking in the garden and they hid themselves. Why did they do that? They had covered their nakedness, hadn’t they? What did they fear? The Holy Spirit had convicted them, and they were suddenly afraid of the God whom they had earlier loved.

    God immediately pronounced curses upon the serpent, the woman and the man (vv 14-19). He cursed the serpent by making it crawl upon its belly thereafter, eating dust forever. He cursed the woman with the pain of childbirth and submission to her husband. Childbirth before the Fall probably would have been an extremely exquisite experience. God cursed the man by cursing the whole earth, from which he was condemned to eke out whatever difficult living he could. No longer was the earth abundant, but it was filled with weeds and biting things. Adam’s former friend, the lion, would now try to eat him. It must have been a horrifying moment when he realized that he was being cast into a world for which he was woefully unprepared, and that he must somehow learn to survive while living in the caves and hollows of the earth in fear of every carnivorous beast, not knowing which berry was poisonous or where the terrible jungle screams at night might lead.

    But what of God’s earlier warning that Adam and Eve would die if they ate of that fruit? Was that not supposed to happen that very day? That’s what God said, isn’t it? Satan had accused God of lying (3:4). Had God actually done so? Not on your life! A day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day (2 Pet 3:8). The oldest man ever to have lived, Methuselah, lived to be nine hundred sixty-nine years old. Thus, every man dies in the same day in which he is born. But, taken literally, should God not have killed Adam in the very twenty-four hour period in which he ate that fruit? Wouldn’t that have been what Adam expected? Yes. God would have been perfectly justified in striking both Adam and Eve dead the very instant that fruit touched their lips. But Adam was emboldened because Eve had not died after she ate the fruit.

    And so, we come to a problem. If God is just, and if He must execute the judgment upon sin that His righteousness demands (and He must, else He would not be just), how is it possible that He did not kill Adam and Eve? Ah, here is where grace comes into play. God here establishes a principle that is sustained all the way through the Scriptures. The principle is the substitutionary shedding of blood. Without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sins (Heb 9:22). Therefore, if God were to remain just, He must shed blood. Yet, He did not do so and still remained just. Adam and Eve lived to ripe old ages.

    Let us jump ahead in time now to the slaying of Abel by Cain (Gen 4:1-8). Why did that happen? In the first place, both had fallen natures. Both were sinners. Hadn’t their mother slain their father by offering him that forbidden fruit? Indeed. As fallen creatures, there is no sin that any of us is not capable of committing. We think of ourselves as not quite as bad as most people, and as far better than the worst of mankind, but the bald fact is that not one of us is incapable of the most heinous of sins, given the right circumstances. In fact, if you tell a little white lie, you are guilty of mass murder. What did James say? “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is become guilty of all” (Jas 2:10). That is the real reason that Cain killed his brother Abel, but let us examine the details briefly. Abel was a shepherd and Cain was a row-crop farmer. No doubt their parents had instructed them carefully in making atonement for their sins. They had followed God’s example, well, religiously. Periodically, they would offer blood sacrifices to atone for their sins. This, Abel did. Cain, however, did not raise animals, but vegetables. He offered what he had, thinking that God would just have to be satisifed with that. Oh, but God was not satisfied. Not at all. Remember, without shedding of blood there can be no remission of sins. God accepted Abel’s sacrifice, but He rejected Cain’s. Cain became jealous and killed Abel. God had established the principle Himself in the Garden of Eden, and that is the only way in which His justice could be executed. Cain wanted to serve God, but he wanted to serve in his own way, and not in the way prescribed by God. It is the way of the world today. In effect, he was taking sovereignty from God and assuming it as his own. Had he traded some of his vegetables for one of Abel’s sheep, no doubt his sacrifice would’ve been accepted and that murder would not have taken place.

    While the Jews were wandering in the wilderness for forty years after Moses led them out of Egypt, they received the Law. Now, there were more than ten commandments, though only ten were engraved onto stone tablets. There were a total of six hundred thirteen individual precepts given by God to Moses, and in turn given to the Jews. Those laws governed every aspect of Jewish life, from civil law to economic law to criminal law to religious and ritual law. God knew that the Jews would not and could not keep the Law perfectly, being fallen creatures, and so, He included in the Law the ritual sacrifice of animals as substitutes for the sinners under the Law. Every year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would carry the sacrificial blood into a chamber in the tabernacle, and later into the same chamber in the Temple, and he would sprinkle it over the mercy seat. Under that mercy seat (which was the lid of the ark of the covenant—the vessel sought by the Germans in the movie, “Raiders of the Lost Ark) were the stone tablets of the Law, the golden pot that held the manna, and the rod that Aaron had used in Pharoah’s court to challenge the magicians of Pharoah. When the blood was sprinkled over the mercy seat, it covered the tables of the Law, so that the sins of the Jews were not charged to their account. Every year, on the Day of Atonement, that ritual was performed, pushing the sins of the Jews ahead in time one year, to the next Day of Atonement. Year after year, decade after decade, century after century, thousands and hundreds of thousands and millions of animals were slain in order to effect atonement for the sins of the Jews. The blood would literally flow down the Mount of Olives. This was the wages of their sins. By rights, it should have been their own blood, but God mercifully provided a substitute, by grace refraining from executing His justice upon the sinner, but executing it instead upon the sacrificial animals. Every family had to have its sacrificial animal. All the day long the priests would stand in the Temple slitting the throats of the sacrificial animals, covered with blood themselves, until one day John the Baptist was baptizing in the River Jordan. He looked up and saw Jesus and said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn 1:29).

    And when He did come, the Jews, long apostate, had Him crucified by the Romans. They stumbled at the prospect of being unable to attain righteousness under the Law. What the Jews failed to comprehend is that the Law was not given as a means by which they might earn eternal life, but it was given to reveal the sin that is inherent in all men (Rom 3:19). The law was not given to justify, but to condemn. The Jews did not know that they were accomplishing God’s purposes when they crucified their Messiah. It was necessary for a kinsman of man to bear the burden of the Law in substitution for the rest of mankind. Since there was no man who was not a sinner, there was no one who could bear anyone else’s judgment but his own. Thus, Christ came to the earth and lived a sinless life. He was thereby qualified to bear the sins of others. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins (Heb 10:4), but a sinless Man could do so. When Christ’s blood was shed, the Law was fully propitiated. Christ became the Lamb of God, taking upon Himself the full burden of the sins of everyone who had ever lived or who ever would live, from Adam until the end of the Kingdom Age. The sins of the Jews had been pushed ahead, one year at a time, on the Day of Atonement, until that one Lamb was offered that could satisfy the righteous demand of a just God for punishment for sin forever. He bore the curse of the Law, fulfilling it completely.

    Paul tells us that the Law was given in order to condemn, but he also tells us that it was given to provide an understanding of the significance of Christ’s death on the cross. All of those animal sacrifices pointed ahead in time to the Day when Christ would Himself become our Substitute. The ritual sacrifices under the Law were given, and performed down through all the millennia, so that when Christ would shed His blood, we could fully understand the significance of that sacrifice. It really is a very simple truth, but one apprehended by very few. The Law was our schoolmaster, to bring us to Christ (Gal 3:24). Since Calvary, all the races of man again can be saved, by appropriating for themselves individually the benefit of the sacrifice of the Son of God. The ram that Abraham slew in place of Isaac portrayed Christ as our Substitute. The unspotted lamb whose blood was smeared on the doorpost and on the lintel of the huts of the Jews in Egypt on the long ago first Passover represented Christ being slain for us. The animals in the Garden of Eden portrayed our Savior being slain for us. Abel’s sacrifice was acceptable and Cain’s was not because the offering of vegetables could not portray the shedding of Christ’s blood for us. The scarlet cord Rahab hung in the window that saved her from death portrays that scarlet thread of redemption that runs from Genesis to Revelation in the Scriptures. It portrays that river of blood that has flowed down through the history of man, effecting his salvation when that Blood flowed that capitalized the word Sacrifice.

    What is grace? It is the provision that a loving God has made in order to preserve His perfect justice in the face of the sinfulness of a lost race. Grace is that which propitiates, or that which provides the propitiation of the Law. Grace is that system under which Christians live and operate, with no fear of God, but with perfect liberty, in fellowship with the God who did not wish to condemn but to love. All of the providence that God made for the Jews throughout the centuries, all the providence He will yet make for them in His kingdom and throughout all of eternity would not be possible had He not first allowed His Son to be nailed to that cross. What is grace? It is the provision of both mercy and justice for sinners. “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God; how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!”    

The Call to Believe

    There has been a considerable shift today away from the call to the unbeliever presented to us by the risen Lord through the Apostle Paul, and thus a shift away from the pure message of the gospel. We will be looking at some of the various “calls” made to the unsaved in the world today, taken from the pulpit and various gospel tracts, and then holding them up to light of Scripture in order to see if they are in accordance with truth. It will also be shown that in bringing the gospel message to the lost, it is of utmost importance to keep that good news precisely as God has presented it to us, not adding to or taking away from it. It is this task, to which each and every believer has been called, and it should never be taken lightly or carried out with careless words. God’s Word equips us to be able ministers of the gospel of reconciliation and it is from that Word alone that we are to obtain instruction on how to do so.

    The call to repent – The word repentance, translated from the Greek word metanoia, means a change of mind. It does not mean, as so many have been conditioned to believe, anguish and sorrow for sin, although this certainly may and often does accompany repentance. This is clear from 2 Corinthians where Paul says, “Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance.” This isnn obvious distinction between sorrow and repentance otherwise it might be paraphrased, “...not that you were made sorry but that your sorrow led to sorrow.” That to which their sorrow did lead was a change of mind, and for this, Paul rejoiced, because it resulted in the Corinthian believer’s deliverance from the consequences of unfruitfulness. When one hears the message of the gospel and believes, repentance is wrapped up within that act for that one has changed his mind concerning sin, the Savior and salvation. Repentance is, therefore, included in believing and is in no way separate from it. To divide repentance and faith is to add confusion to the simplicity of the gospel, and it does something else as well: The idea behind sorrow and anguish for sin in order for one to be saved is a subtle error that supposes God not to be propitious. The idea is, in essence, that our tearful pleading must soften the heart of a reluctant God. How far removed this is from the One “who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all!” We confuse sorrow with piety, and add emotional feelings as a condition of salvation. This is, in truth, at best, irreverence.

    The call to walk the aisle – We’ve all heard from the pulpit a call to believe in the Lord Jesus and then an additional call to “come forward” in order to accept Him. But where in Scripture does it say that, in order to accept Christ and His finished work, one must publicly come forward to receive Him? John equates believing with receiving, saying, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (Jn. 1:12). Instead of telling the lost that, once they believe in Him, they are the children of God, many preachers confuse the new believers, leading them to believe that some outward show of the flesh (such as walking an aisle) must first be performed. This is sometimes the result of carelessness on the part of the one who issues the invitation, but often it is understood by unbelievers that a public confession of Christ is essential to salvation. They base this erroneous belief on Romans 10:9-10 which says, “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

It is interesting to note that no other verse on salvation in the entire Bible calls men to this supposed public confession. The error lies in the interpretation of this confession as being before men. This confession is an expression to God alone, our Savior, and is akin to Abraham’s “Amen” to the promises of God. But Abraham’s “Amen” did not result in righteousness being charged to his account, but rather, the faith that produced it bore the fruit of that “Amen.”

An invitation to come forward to share the joy of new-found faith with the congregation is always a blessing, but an invitation to walk the aisle and be saved is wrong. An invitation to come forward for spiritual counsel, or to arrange an appointment for it, is also appropriate, but not an invitation to come forward to receive the Holy Spirit or other such nonsense.

    The call to ask for salvation – This is probably the most frequent error in the call of the lost to salvation. At times it is couched in the term, “Ask Jesus into your heart” but the whole point of asking remains central to it. Why must one ask God to provide something He has already provided, and that at the infinite cost of His own Son? The lost are never saved by asking God to save them, but by believing in the fact that He already has! God alone convicts the sinner. He supplies and applies the Word through His servants, and He imparts the Holy Spirit when the seed falls on good ground and germinates.

    The call to believe – The responsibilities that follow salvation are fit for a child of God, but certainly not for those who, as yet, have not received His Son, and thus have not His Spirit. Therefore, according to the abundant testimony of Scripture, all that the lost are called upon to do is believe. It has been said that believing is the only thing we can do without doing anything at all, and rightly so for the Apostle Paul has written, “It is of faith that it might be by grace.” To add anything to this one requirement is to attempt to add to the cross-work of the Lord Jesus Christ and must, of necessity, fall under the anathema of Galatians 1:8. Men and women are saved by believing that Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself at Calvary paid their sin debt and reconciled them to God, and it is through this belief alone that God will accomplish in them His mighty work of salvation.

    We must take extreme care that we do not mislead those whom we wish to lead to the Savior. It is always and ever by grace alone, through faith alone, that the lost are brought into a right relationship with God for all eternity. Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? (Rom 2:4)

Grace to Help in Time of Need

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb 4:12-16)

    It is not because we have resisted sin that we have this grace to help. It is because we have not resisted it, but begun to walk in the darkness of the flesh. It is grace that has already been given, and grace that is given in the moment, that turns our hearts to God. We do not resist sin by grace, except tangentially, but by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, whom we have by grace. The only thing in all of God’s creation, and that, only by His supply, which can help any Christian in his need of grace is grace itself. In the sense that everything undeserved is, by definition, unmerited, everything that we receive of God is grace, from salvation to providence to the eventual redemption of our body. But this context speaks of forgiveness, not strength to avoid that for which we need grace. We come to the throne of grace.    

Does God Hear the Prayers of the Unsaved?

    Often does one hear the statement, “His prayers get no higher than the roof of his mouth.” That statement is frequently made by Christians in reference to the prayers of non-Christians. It is always a presumptuous statement. God is never obliged to answer the prayers of the lost, but He certainly hears them. A sovereign and omnipotent God is not incapable of answering anyone’s prayer. The fact is, God does sometimes respond when a lost person reaches out to Him. Theologians refer to this phenomenon as “common grace.”

    God is good, and He is love. If it suits His purposes to respond to the prayers of an unbeliever, He does so. Often, it is the case that the lost soul will be saved at some later point in his life, but it is not necessarily so. It may be that God chooses that method of revealing Himself to a lost person, knowing that the person will respond to the call of the Holy Spirit later, remembering that answered prayer. Or He may simply be determined to remind that person of the interaction he had with God when the time comes for him to be judged. Whatever the reason, God is not bound by our understanding, and He can and does sometimes respond when lost people pray.

    What is unusual about common grace is that, when God answers the prayers of the lost, there is often an immediacy in the answer, and the one who prays is left without a scintilla of doubt that God heard him, and that his prayer was answered, normally in rather dramatic fashion. What is truly remarkable is that the unbeliever who prays very often turns his back on God again, even though his prayer was answered. It speaks to the total depravity of unsaved man and the hardness of his heart toward a God who loves him. Such things magnify the grace of God.

The Difference Grace Makes

    Too many Christians in the church today preach and teach messages that belittle the work that Christ accomplished on the cross. They take an aggressive stance against those who teach otherwise. Both sides need to be examined, with the prayerful guidance of the Holy Spirit to discern which is true.

    The question concerns our salvation: whether a Christian can have assurance of that salvation in this lifetime; and, if this salvation can ever be lost for any reason.

    Many today believe that salvation can be lost for a variety of reasons, the biggest being that we may fall back into sin and become disqualified in God's eyes. When you examine this argument closely, you find that what is being said is that God does His part in our salvation and then we must do the rest. But how are we saved in the first place? Do we not come to Christ just as we are accepting His forgiveness and grace? Does our salvation depend upon our good works or our living a perfect life without sin? Romans 5:8 says, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

    If a Christian can lose his salvation for whatever reason, then it must follow that there is no hope for assurance of our salvation in this lifetime. We would have to wait until we die to learn our fate. This would make for a very uneasy time here on earth. Such a doctrine as that can only produce “nervous” Christians.

    We are not saved, nor do we maintain our salvation, by our good deeds and a sinless life. We are saved by God's unmerited love. We do not have a part in it except to receive it from God through what Jesus Christ did for us at Calvary. And the wonderful Grace of God accomplishes all this! "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved," (John 3:17).

    One of the most important passages on grace is Ephesians 2:8,9: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." These verses are important because they make us rest on what God has done for us. Our salvation is based on these words, our assurance, and our certainty that we will never lose this salvation because God Himself has given it.

    Christian leaders who condemn their congregations by saying that penitents must come down to the altar and beg for forgiveness of their sins and recommit their lives to God, or face eternal damnation, are doing a horrible disservice to God. There are so many Christians who need to be freed from the bondage of incorrect doctrine. May they discover the wonderful message of Grace!

    An illustration may be in order. If you were told that you must do certain things and not do other things or a stern judge would be very displeased with you and punish you, would you not try to do as you were told because of fear and not from any sense of love? If another judge told you that you are accepted and loved because of the work of Jesus Christ, would you not want to do what He wished because of your love for what He has done for you? This is the difference that Grace makes. God does not require His children to change the things that they do. Instead, He changes the things that His children want to do, and He does it gradually, over the course of a Christian’s entire lifetime, through the progressive sanctification that is the experience and the hallmark of the maturing Christian. Let us not be judges, but brethren.

Return to Archive | Return to WebGrace.net | Return to e-Grace.net