His Grace Abundantly Works

God will eventually destroy sin and sinners. It is greatly necessary for Christians to grasp this truth. Many spent and have been spending their time by dwelling on speaking of the love and grace of God. Though this might always seem good, in doing so, the consequences of misunderstanding and misrepresenting them must not be neglected. In other words, both love and grace must not be abused. Is God full of love and grace? Absolutely! Yet, He will not allow them to be misunderstood and misrepresented. God’s love and grace fully exists where He is clearly understood. For this reason, He compelled Himself to exercise patience toward all men. That God loved the world and therefore sent His Son is understood only by those who received His love. On these His grace abundantly works. Never mind those who do not believe in the word of God or in His Son Jesus. Nonetheless, it is the present status of the church that has come under examination; and it will always be, as it has been, because of the God who is holy and righteous. He is not a God who begets and neglects His begotten, but He is a God who begets and is able to separate them from those He did not beget. He does not forget the begotten, since He does not desire to regret whom He has begotten. Therefore, God always examines the church that those who are not begotten should become visible.

For there are many associated with the name of the Lord that are actually not begotten by God, and for this reason, His examination is all the more pertinent. It is widely known and believed in the Christian world that God examines all by His word. Then, it appears that many, who call themselves Christians, are going to the depths of not being able to return. One thing is certain that God examines men and women to such an extent until they themselves leave no opportunity to receive His love and grace. It is because of the extent of this examination of God that their nature is being revealed from time to time. The longer God examines them with the hope that they might understand and return, the farther they are moving away from Him. The farther they go away from God the closer they come to their end and His examination of them complete. “Then He cried out in my hearing with a loud voice saying, ‘Draw near, O executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand’” (Ezek. 9:1). Referring to these words of God will be difficult for some to swallow. Nonetheless, there shall certainly be a day when God will execute His anger upon all those who did not believe in Him, His authority, intent and the manner in which He marvelously works. For even in the days of Abel God did not allow His love and grace to be abused. During the days of the Law none who did not execute His ordinances escaped; none who spoke from their inspiration survived; none who denied His exhortation lived. There were also instances that caused fear and godliness during the days of the early church. Even then the present day church has not understood the substance of God’s constant examination. However, considering that the day of destruction has not yet appeared, it must be said that God is still full of love of grace toward all who return.

God wants all believers to utilize His love and grace to the fullest. He who has seen the end knows the great need for them in the believers. Therefore, it would be well on our part to grab them with both hands. There is a way to grab them and it requires certain ethics on our part. The godly have done it and Christians are no exception. “I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’; And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah. Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him” (Ps. 32:5-6). Yes, this will certainly save us. Yet, herein is the wisdom that we must realize the nature of our sins. How can one confess unless he or she first recognizes the nature of their sins? And, David knew the nature of His sin. Confessing our sins before God becomes instinctive when we are able to recognize the nature of our sin. Well, I say it is instinctive, only in the case of the godly. The reason Israel was stubborn before God was not due to their rejection to confess, but because of their unwillingness to recognize their sins. Since they were unwilling, they found no reason to confess. On the contrary, David, who by faith allowed the Law and the word from God to work in him has recognized his iniquity and therefore, humbly confessed it. Similarly, when the word of God works in us, by faith we will recognize our sin and confess it. But, when one is unwilling to execute the ordinances of Christ, he will not recognize his sins and though he confesses to being a sinner, his confession actually becomes useless; then, belief too was never formed.

The result of unwillingness to execute the word of Christ is the sole reason for the ungodliness of many modern day churches. You are only as godly as your willingness to recognize the nature of your sins to confess them. While a godly Christian is able to immediately purge his sin by praying to God, an ungodly Christian or one who speaks and performs from his own inspiration does not have the godliness to approach God. Therefore, the sin of the ungodly man remains. However, in this is the love and grace of God that he too can escape sin, if he approaches the word of God by abandoning his inspiration to believe just as God has intended for him. For the Lord God has said, “For I the LORD will speak, and whatever word I speak will be performed. It will no longer be delayed, for in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak the word and perform it, declares the Lord GOD” (Ezek. 12:25). So, both the godly Christian who confessed and the ungodly Christian who learned to believe and confessed will be saved at a time when a flood of great troubles approach. When the God of heaven and earth has determined for Himself to perform His word, is there a man who can speak on the contrary? Even if there is one, his words will not stand, because of the God who is working. Such a man has only gone to the depths of no return.

It is for this reason that God sent His only Son i.e. to perform every word He has spoken. And Christ did fulfill every word of God; this is attested by the Spirit’s saying, “and they were amazed at His teaching, for His message was with authority” (Luke 4:32). It is only in the power of Christ to perform everything that God intended for man. Therefore, all who believed in Jesus and confessed His name were saved and amply provided. These are the ones whom God has begotten, and He did not neglect them. God has separated them from whom He has not begotten, since they have renounced their inspiration and man made doctrines; they have kept and are striving to keep the ordinances of Christ just as God intended for them. Their belief is in His Son, Jesus and not on the teachings of men that oppose His word. These also are equipped with wisdom, power and the Spirit to harmonize the teachings of Christ with the teachings of the apostles rather than demarcating them. They have been transformed by Christ to such an extent that their thoughts and words are of the Spirit. Ah, the authority in the message and teaching of Jesus! Let a man or church now come forward to refute His teaching and they shall never see the salvation leading to life. All those who boast in the teachings of Paul and yet, do not recognize the Christ in Paul, hear this: “explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ’” (Acts 17:3). The power of the Anointed (Christ) is the ability to perform or accomplish everything He speaks or has spoken. Is this the Christ, of whom Paul attested in the Spirit, you proclaim? Then, He is the one with authority from God the Father and who spoke every word the Father vowed to achieve. Those who conceal or suppress the teachings of Christ through the writings of Paul are the ones without belief. Paul too proved Christ giving evidence not only from the Law, but also through the works of the Spirit. So, as those who boast in the writings of Paul, have they proclaimed Christ even as Paul? Yet, do they speak from his writings so as to nullify the promises of God that come through Christ? But, Paul was a bond-servant, a prisoner, of Jesus Christ. It will surely not be Jesus who will charge them on the Day of Judgment, but Paul himself will.

There is a strong reason for many churches to neglect the message of Christ whom the apostles proclaimed. It is that the message of Jesus does not amaze them. It does not amaze them, because they did not consider it to the point of deeply believing it and do not consider its truthfulness. They do not consider, because each time they read the gospels they are unable to harmonize them with their understanding of the rest of the Scripture. Though the letters of the apostles clearly proceed from the teachings of Christ, these churches which brought forth doctrines by their inspiration clearly could not correspond with the teachings of Christ. Therefore, wittingly they placed a demarcation between deeply believing in the Son of God and the teachings of the apostles. As oblique as this their nature appears, it is the truth about many churches. Their intent of being in Christ has become purposeless. They constantly avoid the truth by questioning unintelligibly. They have failed to realize that it is belief in God’s Christ that produces works in men and not unreasonable thinking. Yet, they take pride in calling such thinking as ‘critical.’ Their critical thinking has only resulted in abusing the love and grace of God. As much as they demarcate between the Christ of the gospels and the Christ of the apostles’ writings, they reproduce the work of the devil. “And the devil said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread’” (Luke 4:3). There the devil with unreasonable thinking tempted Jesus and these through unbelief and unintelligible questioning are misrepresenting Him.

If the message of Christ does not amaze you, then it is sensible for you to begin with the saying ‘if you are the Son of God.’ But then, this does not indicate belief. If this is the case, the status of many present day churches is the same, if not worse than the condition of Israel. And when God determined to punish Israel, He explained saying, “I have also spoken to the prophets, And I gave numerous visions, And through the prophets I gave parables” (Hos. 12:10). He did not intend for His grace and love to be misunderstood and misrepresented. Has there been anything which God did not offer the church to believe in His Son? What God has given to Israel He has in fact also given to the church, but in a better and greater measure through Jesus Christ. God did not send His Son for those who do not desire to believe. Everyone that believes in Him will in Him receive accordingly. For their sake His grace abundantly works.

Posted in 2010, Archives.