Grace As Defined by the Scriptures

Let us think for a moment about the scriptural concept of "grace."

It is the writer's point of view that the Divine grace given to us through the Lord Jesus is not a waiving of God's expectations concerning the nature and conduct of man on the earth. Rather, grace is the Virtue of God, in fact, the very Presence of God, given to man through Christ to enable him to meet completely and perfectly every one of God's requirements and expectations.

Both concepts of Divine grace are not correct. Either grace is a waiving of God's expectations or else Divine grace is the power to meet those expectations.

Either Divine grace is a waiving of God's standard concerning man so that sinful, rebellious man may be received into the spirit Paradise on his physical death, or else Divine grace is an impartation of God's Virtue with the end in view of restoring righteousness, holiness, and meekness to man so he may find rest in God and God in him, on the earth, in Heaven, and everywhere else.

Either we receive eternal life on the basis of a legal maneuver of God or else God has offered to us the ability through Christ to overcome sin so we lawfully may regain access to the tree of life.

Either grace sets aside the Kingdom principles of cause and effect, of sowing and reaping, or else grace forever establishes those principles and changes man so that what man is and does results in the blessing of God and fellowship with God.

Either God has fellowship with an individual according to the person's religious beliefs concerning the atonement, the resurrection, the virgin birth, the nature of the Trinity, and the other tenets of the Christian religion, or else God has fellowship with an individual according to what the individual is and how he behaves.

Throughout history religious men have emphasized the beliefs of their own group. It is the writer's point of view that God and His Christ care little for our knowledge of theology. They have fellowship with us in terms of what we are as a person.

God is delighted with a joyfully righteous individual who fears God, who trusts God, who deals with God straightforwardly and respectfully, whether or not his understanding of theology is accurate. We notice in the four Gospels that when the Lord spoke of His coming He never mentioned our doctrinal position but He did warn us concerning our conduct.

But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:48-51)

God takes no pleasure in a smug, arrogant, presumptuous, deceitful, overconfident person no matter how perfect his beliefs may be. God does not have fellowship with us according to our religion but according to what we are as a person. The Kingdom of God does not consist of theologians and religiously ambitious and "correct" people but of saints who are joined together in the Spirit of God.

To be continued.