God’s grace and love are really like a crashing wave. An ocean-full of surging energy, embracing, gathering, irresistibly pushing forward, and impossible to absorb it all. God is indeed Love, and He sets about to demonstrate who He really is.
God made a way, through Jesus, to restore our relationship with Him in order to empower us with everything we need for a productive life in the Kingdom. God didn’t announce believers as righteous only to have them turn around in unbelief saying that they now have to earn their place with Him or prove their worthiness of inheritance by “good doings” and obedience to Law. The Law (Torah) is no longer in charge. Jesus is, and His Holy Spirit fully equips and enables us.
“To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: 2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” – 2 Peter 1:1-4
This is overwhelmingly good!
- It is all done by the righteousness of Jesus.
- Grace & peace is given in multiplying abundance.
- God’s divine power (Grace) has given us everything we need for a godly life.
- Through His Grace, He has given us very great and precious promises.
- Through His Grace, Peace, and Promises we can participate in the Divine Nature.
If these 5 points were associated with Law, we would have an unassailable reason to place ourselves under Law. However, Law (Torah) cannot achieve even one of these points.
“Clearly no one is justified (made righteous) before God by the Law, because the righteous will live by faith.” Paul – Galatians 3:11
Grace is a long way from needing help or requiring balance from Law to be effective. It all by faith in Jesus. Law is “not of faith” (Gal 3:12) so it cannot be included in our pathway of righteousness. The Law is great for sinners who have no faith (1 Tim 1:8-10) but it was “not made for the righteous.” Those who have faith in Jesus are righteous and as such, they are not under the Law. Jesus is the One Who is the Master and Ruler of believers’ lives. This is awesomely good news. Righteous living is entirely possible with God’s empowering presence (Grace – Holy Spirit) alone.
Author: David Crabtree
David and Narelle have spent more than 30 years in Senior Leadership and were the founding senior pastors of DaySpring Church (Sydney) where they led for 27 years. They are currently living in Celina, Texas where they are teachers, preachers, conference speakers, and authors. They have two children with six grandchildren. Life's good! David and Narelle are also members of the Bethel Leaders Network (BLN) and have a role as BLN Builders.
One Comment
My whole life is based on my grandmothers teachings. My mother was worldly or wanted to be. But not my grandmother. Her simple approach to life and to the way things are and will be always gave me comfort. She explained it to me that is simply what God’s grace is. You don’t earn it, there is no pledge to get it, you certainly can’t buy it. You don’t get it by being “good”. It is always there, and it’s good if you can recognize it, but you don’t have to. As she lay dying on her bed when we came to visit, I started to cry. A grown man I thought of myself. My one year old baby daughter was holding her hand. “I could just eat you up” she said to her. The my grandmother told me something that changed my whole outlook on life. “Don’t cry Davey, I will go on forever. See this little one, someday when she running and playing in the yard, pay attention, you see that’s me, she is me, just like you are me, forever, so don’t cry.” Grace, it lasts forever, and does our love.