GROWING IN THE GRACE OF GOD
These are notes taken from a bible class. I hope that they will indeed help you to "grow" in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ!
The greatest theme of the Word of God; is Jesus Christ, and the greatest theme of our Lord is Grace! When our Lord and his disciples were having the last supper, it is recorded in (Luke 22:20) that our Savior said "This is the cup of the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you."
This page is very long, but it is an awesome study on the "Grace" of God, Grace that is intended for our growth, and also for service. These things are the very heart of the ‘fullness' of the new covenant.
There are three key words here. They are growing, serving and grace. The book of second Peter tells us a lot about "growth." As Christians, growth is a vital part of our walk in and with Christ. Our Lord told us to be ‘transformed'. (Romans 12:2) says "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds." He said "be transformed", not just cope. (2 peter 3:18) says "Grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord And Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen." One of the vital dynamics of Gods growth; is that we get to know Him better and better. To grow in grace and knowledge of Him, we need to stay plugged in to Him through study, fellowship and praise!
The next key word here is "serving." It is absolutely Gods will that we are "servants" in His vineyard. As we are transformed by the renewing of our minds, and are growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord, we will be more equipped to minister to others.
"Grace" is the vital factor in growth and service. Unfortunately though, the grace of our Lord is widely underestimated and underused. To be able to fully draw upon this ‘Grace', we need to take a look at; and be able to understand the NEW COVENANT. (With God)
A few synonyms for the new covenant are; Christian discipleship, Spirit filled living, and the abundant life. As for Christian discipleship, (Luke 9:23) says; "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." True Christian discipleship means that we need to identify with Christ, no matter what the cost may be, and to stay in fellowship with Him. When the apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he told them in (Eph.5:18) "do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit." We should not be concerned with how much of the Holy Spirit we have; rather, we should be concerned with how much of us He has!! When we are filled with the Spirit, we can taste of the lasting joy that our Lord provides.
As for "the abundant life", in (John 10:10) Jesus said; "I have come that they may have life; and that they may have it more abundantly." The original word in the Greek for abundant means ‘beyond measure'. Just think...Jesus wants each one of us to have life greater than our wildest dreams!!!!! Paul summarized this in (Ephesians 3:8) when he said "...the unsearchable riches of Christ."
The word "covenant" means a contract, or an agreement. It is Gods arrangement for relating to Him. The new covenant was promised by God, and recorded by the prophet Jeremiah, in (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
"Behold, the days are coming says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a Husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put My law on their minds; and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God; and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor; and every man his brother saying ‘know the Lord'; for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." Forgiveness at its finest! God said that He would remember our sins no more...completely forgotten. Wiped clean. Gone. Just as if they had never happened! Once again I stand in absolute awe of a Righteous, Mighty, Merciful, Loving and Holy God!!!
When we turn our lives over to God, we are born again, and by His Holy Spirit, He plants in us; the desire to please Him. (Hebrews 8:13) says "In that when He says ‘a new covenant,' He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old, is ready to vanish away."
This new covenant God has made with us, is indeed; about newness. (Hebrews 10:19-20) says: "Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter in the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a NEW and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil that is, His flesh,"...... It is here that we see how our Lord opened, initiated and inaugurated this new covenant by His great sacrifice, His shed blood, and sealed that promise by the finished work of the cross. Praise God for the empty tomb!! Lamentations 3:22-23 says "through the Lords mercies we are not consumed, because His compassion does not fail! They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness!!!!!!!!!!
Fortunately, the old covenant drives us to the new covenant. The old, the law, written upon tablets of stone, shows each and every one us that we cannot possibly keep every aspect of the law. We are sinners. Condemned to death by our sin. Driven to the new covenant, it is there that we find forgiveness from all of our sin....completely cleansed. White. Pure. Blameless. Clean. Innocent. !!!!!
It is there, In the new covenant; that we find a personal relationship; and intimacy with God. In this wonderful relationship, we find abundant, bounteous and generous provisions lavished on us by our Lord. . Provisions that were not possible in the old. We find an internal working of God. God writes His will and His law on our hearts, changing us from the inside out. This is a critical working of the new covenant!!
When we partake of communion; we make a confession of the new covenant as recorded in (Luke 22:20). What an amazing and effective price to pay to purchase the new covenant!! Christs blood! We see this truth in (Ephesians 1:7) which says "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" So many Christians underestimate the richness of His grace. How little have we drawn upon those riches!! There was a wise preacher that once said "it is like buying a very powerful car, and pushing it everywhere you go."
Forgiveness is just the barest and mere beginning! The ongoing grace of God is the inner development of His children. Another work is the inner enabling of the power of His grace!! (Hebrews 13:9) says "....for it is good that the heart be established by grace......" The original word ‘established' in the Greek means; ‘strengthened, made stable, immoveable and steady.'
When Paul told Timothy to "Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus", he was talking about sanctification. Sanctification comes only from grace. What is grace? It is almost to big, to deep, and to wide to fully understand. It is unmerited favor, Gods riches at Christs expense. It is God freely providing for us; through the person, and work of his Son as we depend on Him; and trust in Him for all that we need and yearn for. It is something that we are commanded to walk in; and become; and it is something that we could never earn, deserve or produce; even on the best of all of our efforts. The root of the word ‘grace' is beauty!! (Ephesians 2:4-10) is one of the fullest and most beautiful passages I know on the grace of God. It says; "But God who is rich in mercy,because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of his grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works lest any man boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."
Awesome!!
It is a undeniable fact that the God who loved, and still loves us, as undeserving as we are, wants us to grow. By His sovereign will and awesome might and power, and by His wonderful grace, He is developing us; and causing us to grow as we walk with Him. !!! praise His Holy name!
The law as it is written in the Bible; demands that we be as Holy as God. To be as Holy as the father. To be as loving as Christ. Literally, to be perfect. That is the only righteousness that God will allow into heaven. God did say " be perfect, even as I AM perfect."(Matthew 5:48) The standard of Gods perfection is absolutely impossible for me, you, or anyone else to achieve, by any of our works. We have all fallen short. To see what God says about the law, we can turn to (Hebrews 7:18-19) "For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God." We see here that ‘the law made nothing perfect'...that is its weakness. The law demands perfection, yet it cannot provide it. Not only does the Bible tell us that the law cannot justify, it also tells us that no-one can be justified by the law.
What about sanctification? Lets look at (Galatians 3:2-3)
"This only I want to learn from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh??" Again, we see here that it is by FAITH. Verse 2 is a justification verse. Verse 3, starts as a justification verse, but ends as a sanctification verse!! Trash the legalism! Trash our efforts! We are made perfect by Grace, and Grace alone! (Romans 4:16) says "Therefore, it is of faith, that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure....." Positive! Secured! Stable! Firm! Steadfast! undeniable! unmoveable!
The ability of the law of God is that it is designed to tell us what God demands. It reveals Gods character, His will for us, what is pleasing to Him, what honors Him,,,,and (Romans 3:19) says that it is so............... "........ALL the world may become guilty before Him." The law makes us accountable to God!! It gives us an undeniable knowledge of SIN. (Romans 7:5) says "for when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions that were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death" this is before we knew the Lord. Verse 7 tells us that we would not even know that we had a sinful nature, or that we were sinners if it were not for the law. More than that, verses 12-13 says "therefore the law is Holy, and the Commandment Holy is Just and Good. Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful." Praise God for that!! Indeed, through the power of the Almighty, sin, even the tiniest of sin is brutally ugly to me! I despise it in myself. Even though it is still there; on one hand; it sickens me. On the other hand, it is Great and Mighty .....look at (Galatians 3:24) and you will see what I mean.....that verse says "Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be Justified by faith." That is one of the coolest verses about the law that I know! The law gives us an undeniable awareness of our desperate need for Christ!!! Like one of my favorite worship songs that declares; "Lord, look upon my need; I need You! I need You!
1 Timothy 1:8-10 administers not only a rebuke, but accountability to unbelievers. This verse also retutors believers back to Christ. It says "But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for the righteous person, but for the lawless and the insubordinate, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane. For murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the Glorious Gospel of the Blessed God which was committed to my trust." On the other hand, we as believers have many, many verses of hope and encouragement. One of these is found in (Galatians 5:18) "But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law."
It is so very plain and clear that we have a few big choices here. By flesh, or faith; By Works, or Trust (in the Spirit); By law, or Grace. What do you think you would choose?
I'd like to talk now about the laws fulfillment (fill full)
In Matthew 5:17, Jesus said; "Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill."
Jesus came to fulfill the law by taking upon Himself the judgment of the law. He fulfills the daily demands of the law for us. Collossians 3:4 says that "Christ Is our life." When I think about this, I think about the time Jesus said that He was the vine, and that we are the branches. Just as the vine is the very life of the fruit it bears, Jesus is our very life. 2 Peter 1:4 says "By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption; that is in the world through lust." Anyone who truly contemplates and understands this verse; cannot help but be completely awestruck. To think and know that the Holy, Divine, and Perfect law of God is being fulfilled in us!!! WOW!!!!.
Romans 10:4 says "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" This is in general terms; and only the beginning of the new covenant. 1 Corinthians 1:30 says "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God- and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." There are three key terms here that we need to understand. Righteousness; which is Justification; sanctification; and redemption. Romans 3:21-24 tells us about justification. This verse says "But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;" We see here and also in many other verses throughout the Bible that we need to be fully dependant on him, then; and only then can this be fulfilled in us on a day by day basis--day by day, it is more increasingly fulfilled by faith, through Him. This; is the process of sanctification. So we see that the law says "be perfect", but it is unable to do this in us. It can however convict us of sin and show us our need for Him. Faith in Him justifies us; and with a day by day trust in Him; and walking in and after the spirit, leads to sanctification; as we are growing in the grace of our Lord!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We can clearly see that the fulfillment of the law is by Grace. In (John 1:14,16,17) we read "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His Glory, the Glory as the Only Begotten of the Father, Full of Grace and Truth." This says to me that God came to earth, full of Grace, overflowing as a Living Vessel of the Grace of God. I love verse 16.... "and of His fullness we have all received, and GRACE FOR GRACE" Grace upon Grace. Saved. Building us, transforming us, remaking us, using us.....all by grace!! This verse is so profound!! The Christian life is indeed grace upon grace!!
In Acts 20:24, Paul is giving not only his testimony, but an exhortation to all believers. The "Gospel" or ‘Good News', is the basic, initial presentation of the new covenant. "Jesus was sent into this world to complete the redemption of humanity. He came to establish a new covenant whereby man could relate to God in intimacy, and enter into the fulness of his promised blessings." The New Covenant is a covenant of relationship. Intimacy with God, and the privilege of entering into the fulness of all of his blessings!!! all of them! God wants to fill us full of His blessings!!!! The new covenant IS the gospel of Grace!
We are called into this Great Ministry, Living Ministry, Teaching Ministry and a Ministry of Testimony, to testify to the Miraculous and Awesome, Powerful, Life Changing Grace of the Almighty and most Loving, and Holy God. This Grace is found in our Mighty King, Jesus Christ. That; is what our lives are all about. In verse 32 Paul adds "So now brethren, I commend you to God and the word of His Grace, which IS ABLE to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are SANCTIFIED!" Amen and amen! Our God IS ABLE!! The ability of the Word of God! All that His word is profitable for, what His Word is able to do, even to increase our vision for all that His Word is able to do! Letting the wonderful counsel of Jesus speak to us through His Word in EVERY aspect of our lives!
There are two things His word is able to do. One is pretty much universally known to all that are saved. That is our eternal inheritance, heaven our home, co-heirs with Him. This is the Justification truth. The other is commonly misunderstood, neglected or not even known among far to many believers. It is a truth about Spiritual Growth. That; is Sanctification Truth. The Word of His grace is able to do this! Gods Grace is for growing! As we live in it and draw upon it, not only do we mature, but we are edified and given a service ministry, and luscious fruit, and abundant good works.