The Grace of God
A true Christian is a marvellous object to behold. From whichever angle you view him you come eventually to the same conclusion: grace! Look at his outside and observe his walk. He has “grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably” (Heb.12:28). Then listen to his talk. Is it not “alway with grace, seasoned with salt” (Col.4:6)? Ask him about his standing and he will reply humbly, “justified freely by his grace” (Rom.3:24). Then look inside, as far as you are able, at his confidence. You will find that he has “good hope through grace” (2Thess.2:16). Even when you study his faith you discover that it is the gift of God, that he has “believed through grace” (Acts 18:27). And so it is written, “By grace are ye saved” (Eph.2:8). But what is this wonderful grace? And how may it be ours?
Attribute
We must begin with God. His name is revealed to be “gracious” (Exod.33:19; 34:6). There is a sense in which God is gracious in His very being. The New Testament word commonly translated “grace” at its heart means “beauty” or “charm” – that which affords joy, pleasure and delight to the beholder. There is really no beauty like the beauty of God. The purity of His essence, the perfection and harmony of His attributes, the fellowship of the three Persons in the Godhead, these are things which are beautiful in themselves.
How blind we are in our sinful state, that this God should hold no attraction for us and that He is not in all our thoughts! Christ has been sent as the Saviour we need and in the gospel He is freely offered to us as the unspeakable gift of God’s grace. He cries to sinners of mankind: “To you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men” (Prov.8:4). He entreats: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth”. Our guilt becomes very great because God is most sincere in offering Christ to all to whom the gospel comes. Thornwell says: “God is sincere in all the promises of the Gospel, because He will assuredly fulfil them to all who scripturally embrace them – that is, embrace them as yea and amen in Christ, the great Trustee of the Covenant, for no promise is made separate and apart from Him. God is sincere in His invitations and entreaties, because He is only urging the sinner to the faithful discharge of solemn and imperative duty”.
Sadly, to our natural eyes, “there is no beauty that we should desire him” (Isa.53:2). But when a saving change occurs the longing of the converted soul is to draw near and to “behold the beauty of the Lord” (Psa.27:4). We learn that the throne of God is also a throne of grace. And now when we admire and take delight in any of the works of creation – a flower, a bird, a mountain, a sunset – we reflect on the infinite beauty and glory of the One whose hand made all these things. Truly He is the God of all grace (1Pet.5:10).
Attitude
When the Lord’s goodness is revealed to the hearts of those who deserve nothing but punishment, it is then called grace. That God is gracious toward the guilty is something we learn only in the Scriptures. Grace is not to be discerned in the skies above us: there only wrath is revealed because of the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (Rom.1:18). Grace is not to be discovered by our conscience within us: it readily accuses us of sin but cannot show us the remedy (Rom.2:14-16). How we need “the word of his grace” (Acts 14:3, 20:32) in the Bible!
Not only have we no merit before God but we also have positive demerit on account of our sin and rebellion: God would be just to turn away and hide His face from us forever. Abraham Booth defined grace as “the eternal and absolute free favour of God, manifested in the vouchsafement of spiritual and eternal blessings to the guilty and the unworthy”. Herman Bavinck wrote of God’s grace as “his voluntary, unrestrained, unmerited favour toward guilty sinners, granting them justification and life instead of the penalty of death, which they deserved”. The main Old Testament term signifies “to bow down” or “to incline towards”, actions which indicate a favourable attitude from one person to another. What condescension the high and lofty One has shown us in the gospel of His grace, entering into covenant with poor worms of the dust such as we are, through His own dear Son! He shares His secrets with His adopted sons and daughters in the intimacy of His own family circle.
Power
The apostle Paul was a great man but he boasted only in the cross of Christ. His testimony was: “By the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain” (1Cor.15:10). What a power the grace of God must be, that it should visit a man such as Saul of Tarsus, who was “a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious” (1Tim.1:13), and turn him into “Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ” (Tit.1:1)! Oh, to see such conversions again! This is our prayerful desire. The atoning death of our Lord becomes a mighty power as the Holy Spirit applies the redemption of Christ through the preaching of the gospel. He enlightens the mind, melts the heart and conquers the will of the sinner.
The work of grace begins with union with Christ and regeneration, which results in the new birth. From this root spring the shoots of faith and repentance. By faith we lay hold of Christ, the fount of blessing, and by repentance we let go of sin, the source of our curse. Sanctifying grace produces the fruit of true holiness as our will is conformed more and more to the perfect will of God. When grace has completed its work here below, glory shall follow in heaven above. We need grace to be saved, to be sanctified and to “serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (Heb.12:28).
Privilege
The first direct mention of grace in the Bible is before the flood, when Noah “found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen.6:8). If grace is the free favour of God then the objects of grace are those whom the Lord Himself chooses. “I...will be gracious to whom I will be gracious” (Exod.33:19). Grace is His privilege and Noah was His choice. Noah was spared when the rains came. He was delivered from a dreadful death. His soul was saved and He was a child of God. Have we also found grace? Is it not the one thing needful? Salvation is the gift of God: we should all seek it earnestly! Grace cannot be bought but it must be sought. Do we value our souls as we should? Our sins testify against us and the wrath of God is upon us. The end of all things is at hand (1Pet.4:7) and the day of God is coming, the day of reckoning (2Pet.3:12). We need to be saved. “O Lord, be gracious unto us” (Isa.33:2)!
