Tag: God's grace

June 18th 2023: John Mann

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“10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.” 1 Peter 1:10-12.

Peter wrote to a church very much under persecution. This is summed up in verse 6, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.” These are a people passing through difficult times, suffering for doing good. That’s the kind of world they lived in, and we live in too. In chapter 4 they suffer for being a Christian. We know a little of that, some suffer greatly. Peter’s purpose is to emphasise the greatness of our salvation. What a privilege, what a joy and what a blessing it is to belong to Christ. Peter says it is of greater value than this world has to offer. Nothing in this world comes even close.

Is your heart rejoicing in the knowledge that you know Christ as your personal Saviour? Salvation overrides everything else. It is our priority to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Our life is the opportunity God gives to us to know Christ as our Saviour. Does your relationship with Jesus out-do all earthly pleasures? If we are without knowledge and understanding of God’s saving grace, of the need for forgiveness, then we are missing the whole purpose of what we are here for and we remain in darkness of sins. Peter wants us to rejoice in what the Lord Jesus has done.

Our salvation is all of God’s grace – no merit of our own, no self-achievement. Salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ – faith which is in Christ alone, faith which leans fully on Him. We don’t see Him but it’s the faith that saves. It’s the faith that inspires love, so real it outweighs any adversaries. When we go through difficulties and face opposition, we can always rejoice! It’s a joy the world knows nothing about. We have the joy of knowing we have a Saviour we can turn to. We are wealthy beyond measure. Are you building up heavenly credit? Are you seeking righteousness, storing up treasures in heaven?

Salvation. God planned it from the beginning. He gave us His Word, He gave us the Bible, He gave us prophets. All this leads to His Son, our Saviour and what He did for us on the cross at Calvary. Are you amazed at God’s salvation, what He has done for you, a sinner saved by grace?

The prophets were amazed, even though they were proclaiming something they didn’t fully understand, yet it excited them with great anticipation. The prophets were people who believed the words God gave them. They proclaimed the coming of a Messiah with passion. It was often at great cost to themselves, yet they were excited. They foresaw and understood there was a great salvation coming. Do you search the scriptures as intently as the prophets did?

Does His Word excite us and fill us with a great sense of wonder so we long to know more? The prophets believed there was a Messiah to come in the future. They knew God the future. The full implication what God would do intrigued them and filled them with wonder and amazement. They couldn’t contain their anticipation. They knew it was by grace. They knew God would send His Son and for him there would be sufferings (Isaiah 53). He suffered for the sake and sins of others. Isaiah, who didn’t know the full implication, by the Holy Spirit, presented what the Lord Jesus would do for you and me.

Salvation is God’s doing. He implemented it and completed it (Isaiah 53:10). That is how great this salvation is. It was His will to crush the Lord Jesus Christ and cause Him to suffer in our place. The prophets knew salvation would come through faith in Jesus Christ. They anticipated that great day when the Messiah would come, “It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.” (1 Peter 1:12).

That day has now come. The prophets foresaw these things. The apostles preached these things. In our day, preachers still proclaim the Word of God. We know how the Lord Jesus Christ suffered for our sakes. The gift of salvation is given, it is nothing of ourselves, so we cannot boast. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9). We have this great privilege of hearing the gospel preached week by week. We have God’s gift of faith to believe in Christ. We have glorious hope in Him. Peter wants us to remember the wonder of salvation.

Just like the prophets, we don’t fully understand. We know more than the prophets; we know of the cross of Jesus Christ and His love for sinners. We anticipate that great day when we will know fully, and stand in God’s presence and see our Saviour face to face, and know more and more each day.

It isn’t just the prophets – even the angels long to look into these things. The angels are unable to fully comprehend how it feels for a sinner to be saved by grace. They long to look into this wonderful prospect of sinners being saved by grace. Angels dwelt in the presence of God and understood His holiness and saw His glory (Isaiah 6). They were messengers that God sent (Hebrews 1). They are privileged personal instruments from Him. They are given an awesome presence of their own.

 Angels are perfect beings, free from corruption that blights us. Angels knew the work of Jesus at His incarnation. Angels were involved in the temptation of Jesus (Mark 1). They were involved in His miracles (Mark 5). They were involved in His Resurrection. This is the privilege and blessing of the angels. Angels were involved in His person and glory (Revelation 22). These holy angels, who behold His glory, who carry out His bidding, still cannot fully understand our salvation by grace and long to look into these things. If they are amazed, how much more should we be filled with a sense of joy, a sense of blessing and wonder of the One who saved us? Do we long to know more, to lean forward and marvel?

What a great God we serve and worship. Are we filled with a sense of privilege? Freely we have been saved through faith in Jesus Christ. It is all in Him and by Him. Without Him there would be no salvation, we would still be under the condemnation of a holy God. Are we filled with that same sense of wonder at God’s grace and mercy in saving our eternal souls? Do we express our eternal thanksgivings (Psalm 126).

Peter’s challenges exhort us to never under-value our salvation, to never lose sight of the wonder and glory and grace of the gospel. This gospel doesn’t discriminate – it is free to all who will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for forgiveness of sins. Peter is writing to Gentiles and people of all nations. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  (John 14:6). Praise God! Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

June 11th 2023: Gaius Douglas

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Job 42: “There but for the grace of God go I.”

In this chapter we will be focusing on the three daughters of Job: Jemimah, Keziah and Keren-Happuch. When you see someone who is suffering, who is down and out, finding life very difficult, as we look on and try to understand why, we respond in one of two ways: we can say he or she deserves it, or we can say, ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’

These friends of Job who come to comfort him (Job 2:11-13), instead of comforting him they become his worst enemies. They said he deserved what he was getting because he was a hypocrite.

In 1 Corinthians 15 the apostle Paul says he is not wanting to be called an apostle because he persecuted the church. We can empathise with a person experiencing difficulties because we realise those same difficulties could happen to us. God demonstrates His grace, He shows us His grace. Grace is God choosing to bless us rather than curse us as our sins deserve. God is benevolent. God bestows grace on us. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, He has blessed you with His grace, with His compassion, with His kindness. He has given to you what you don’t deserve.

God’s grace is the restoration of Job. God’s constant work is seen in a two-fold aspect: spiritually, He restored Job’s soul and physically He restored him. This is something we see throughout the life of every believer – our spiritual and physical restoration. Even though I’m saved, you may say ‘I’m ailing.’ But my dear friends, very soon our Lord Jesus Christ is coming and He will restore our bodies. We will have a glorified body. We shall be like Him. This is something to look forward to. The restoration of the soul is only possible for those who have been redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Job’s three daughters had wonderful names. Jemimah means ‘day light, as handsome as the day.’ Keziah refers to cassia, a fragrant spice, a beautiful fragrance. Keren-Happuch, the most beautiful of all the daughters, is ‘the horn of paint.’ Eye-liner accentuates the beauty of the eyes. Job saw her beautiful eyes. These girls were the most beautiful in all the East, “In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job,” (Job 42:15a).

There is no doubt, from the time Job came from the dung heap, he is now living with his family. All that he had lost was restored. When we come to the miracles of Jesus Christ, to the lady who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment (Mark 5), Jesus says ‘They faith has made thee well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction.’ Here we see the restoration of the soul and the physical healing. Do you know you’ve been physically healed? If you know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, we will never die. We have been saved for glory. Our souls have been restored. In the eyes of God, He sees Christ in us, who is perfect.

Job had seven sons and three daughters, “He also had seven sons and three daughters.” (Job 42:13). The sons are not named. Job loved them. He offered sacrifices regularly to God for his sons and daughters, just in case they sinned. He names the daughters. Why? Names in scripture hold great significance. The Lord Jesus Christ is given the name Jesus, ‘For He shall save the people from their sins.’ These three daughters were going to be a testimony of God’s grace towards Job. They are part of the blessings of Job’s prosperity. Job sat in the ashes. Here we see a representation of three beautiful women. In Christ you are beautiful. He has given you life, He has given you salvation, He has given you of Himself, He has given you Christ. We also see that Job gave the names to his daughters. This is the only place in scripture where a father gives names to his daughters.

For a long time Job experienced darkness and long nights. He calls his first daughter Jemimah. Day. Job was a man of great faith and patience. There were times when he was so low he only expected death. But there were other times when this wasn’t so (Job 13:15, 19:25, 23:10). Daylight. Job is thinking about the graciousness of God. David describes it in Psalm 23 as living in the shadow of death. Day – the Lord has brought him out of darkness into His glorious light. Now he can see the day. His night has been turned into day.

Then Job had a second daughter, Keziah. Job deemed her as precious as cassia, a fragrant spice. In Hebrew it means ‘bow down the head.’ Perhaps, Job remembered those days and those nights when he was bowed down in ashes, in a dung heap, with no place to rest. He was also being tormented by his friends. Cassia was also used as an anti-inflammatory drug. Perhaps it was part of his cure. This is also a picture of prayer. At the end of chapter 1, when messengers came and gave him the bad news, Job bowed his face down and worshipped the Lord. Here, in chapter 42, he bows. This is repentance. You cannot have forgiveness without repentance.

We are reminded in Corinthians, “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7). God is that cheerful giver and He now lavishes Job with another daughter, Keren-Happuch, ‘horn of paint.’ Keren-Happuch didn’t need this paint to accentuate her eyes, she had such beauty. Job would look at her and see he is now newly-restored, “In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.” (Job 42:15). Job’s three daughters, Jemimah, Keziah and Keren-Happuch, represented God’s graciousness to Job. They represented God’s favour towards Job.

“to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
    to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
    the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
    the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.”

(Isaiah 61:3)

The beauty that God gave to those ladies would speak of His blessing. Men and women around would see these beautiful women, the offspring of Job. Doesn’t this remind you of the Lord Jesus Christ? In the same way these three women spoke of God’s restoration on Job’s life, we see the man Jesus who He sent to become our Saviour, who brought light, who was beautiful in every aspect, who came into a Christ-less, dark world (Matthew 4:16, 1 Thessalonians 5:5).

My dear friends, you are the children of day, not of darkness. You are the children of day. We will never experience darkness. We need to live in light.

“Your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia.
From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad.” (Psalm 45:8)

The garment of the High Priest was sprinkled with this beautiful fragrance as he walked into the Holy of Holies. The fragrance would ascend to the throne of God. Jesus Christ was a sweet-smelling aroma to His God. “Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” (John12:3). He displayed the glories of God’s grace.

Jemimah, Keziah and Keren-Happuch had an outward beauty, but possibly an inward beauty. The Lord Jesus Christ had no beauty to desire Him (Isaiah 53). Yet when He walked this earth, people saw beauty, glory, power and compassion. He displayed a sweet-smelling savour to God. It came from His heart and He displayed it to all around. He still displays it today. His grace and favour is displayed in you.

We look forward to His coming again. Now we can rest in Him, the glory of the Father. We are clothed with garments of salvation, so we can display His glory. “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.” (2 Corinthians 2:14) Through you. That’s me and you. We are to God the fragrance of Christ. Wow!

Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. He is refining our nature. Job was the greatest man in the East. Now it is his daughters who display the glories of Job and are the most beautiful women of the East. When we come to the Lord Jesus Christ we see one who displays the glories of His Father, Now His beauty rests not only upon us, but in us. Now we are beautiful. Do you believe that? God looks upon us and sees beauty in us because He sees Christ. Do we live in that grace? Do we live in a way that displays God’s beauty and His grace?

Let’s pray that the inward beauty and the fragrance of Christ may be seen in us, and that the Spirit of God – who is there transforming us by the renewing of our minds – that as we walk and as we live, we may display the same beauty and remember Jemimah, Keziah and Keren-Happuch. They were there for the glory of God. We are here for God’s glory.

May 21st 2023: Tom Baker

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2 Corinthians 12:9

The Sufficiency of Grace

When Paul pleads for the ‘thorn in his flesh’ to be removed, the Lord’s response is, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9). The grace of God is sufficient. God’s grace and goodness towards His people is enough. The apostle Paul came to one of the climatic points of the grace of God. He is understanding and expressing something of the grace of God. In chapter 8 he shows the generosity of the Lord Jesus. He goes on to describe this, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

The Lord Jesus, who is rich in glory, comes to people like us, who are destined for destruction because of our sins. He comes like one of us and lives a perfect life amongst us. He bears our greatest poverty; He bears our sin, goes to the cross for us so we can be exalted and lifted up to God.

Here, Paul tells us about the grace of God in Jesus Christ and how immense it is. He does it in the context of his own weakness and the trials he has faced. Against the backdrop of human weakness, the grace of God shines ever brighter. Paul gives his example – he’s a well-known character in Corinth but others have come in and tried to push him aside. Theses ‘super’ apostles have false ministry. The apostle Paul looks so weak. He speaks far less eloquently. He comes and speaks about a man who died on a cross in weakness for the sins of His people. Though the ‘super’ apostles comes with so much more, he would rather make a big deal about his weakness, so he’s seen less and Jesus Christ is seen more. Against the dark background, the grace of God shines far brighter.

Paul has a weakness which he pleads three time of the Lord to take away from him. We may have prayed for things to be taken away. Paul prayed and pleaded with God. As he pleads with God, he gets an answer which might seem quite surprising. It teaches about Christian weakness and the greatness of God’s grace.

How does God respond to Paul’s plea? 14 years preciously, Paul had an unspeakably glorious vision. He was forbidden from telling what it was about. He was lifted up into the third heaven and saw amazing things. How have the past 14 years been for the apostle after this experience? Has life been easy after this wonderful experience? No! He had 14 years of great difficulty. He had been given a ‘thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan.’ It’s always there, he is always aware of it. It hurts. It has been given to him to keep him grounded. He pleads three times for it to go, but the answer is no.

Why does the Lord not take the ‘thorn’ away from Paul? The Lord graciously gives Paul a reason. It is because of the grace of God. The Christian can know that the answer, whether it’s a yes or no, it is always gracious. He always deals kindly with His people. Everything He gives to His people, even trials and difficulties, are gifts from the hand of a gracious God. The thorn is because of God’s grace. Spurgeon suffered persistent troubles and reflected, “The greatest earthly blessing that God can give to any of us is health, with the exception of sickness.” There can be great blessings in the hardships of life.

We have to assume that the Lord Jesus means the same thing as He did in when He said, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Paul is being taught, in the midst of the trial he is facing, the gospel of Jesus Christ is enough. The Lord tells Paul that His grace is sufficient. The grace found in the gospel is all that the Christian needs. We need that grace more than we need our trials to go away.

How does the Christian measure the gift from the Lord? We measure the goodness of a gift by which it makes us love the Lord Jesus more. It is a good gift, no matter how painful it is, if it makes you love the Lord Jesus more. Have you seen the preciousness of Jesus Christ in His gospel? Have you come to understand just how wonderful He is? Have you begun to see beyond the trials and the difficulties, He’s worth much more than anything else?

Who is it who can know the sufficiency of God’s grace? “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9). In the first instance it is the apostle Paul. We don’t know what his ‘thorn in the flesh’ was, whether it was a physical illness, false apostles (11:13), or a spiritual struggle from the churches. Some suggest it could be a possible sin he struggles with, but I don’t think so. My surprise is that Paul only struggled with one trial. The truth is, we don’t know, it is left open.

The apostle Paul is an example of someone who is weak. The words are spoken to any who come in weakness who walk with the Lord. In your weaknesses what do you need? The grace of Christ. Christ died for the ungodly. The grace of God is sufficient for any weakness. There’s enough vagueness here to realise God’s grace is enough for any of us. It is sufficient in every area of life – in redemption, in dealing with our sin. The most gracious act of God is seen in the Lord Jesus Christ dying on the cross for our sins. It is finished! It is sufficient for the work of redemption. It’s sufficient in every circumstance of life. You can lose every comfort but if you have the grace of God, if you can know that Jesus Christ is yours, then you have enough, you have all you’ll ever need.

In the end, as we stand before God in judgement, in His presence, what can we offer? Nothing. Even in the best aspects of your life, you can’t deal with the problem of sin. We come and we have Jesus. Nothing but Jesus. God says, ‘Enter in,’ you’re righteous in the sight of God. Can you say, ‘God’s grace is enough for me?’

How is it that God’s grace is sufficient for us? “My grace is for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9). God is all-powerful, awesome and mighty. He sustains the universe. He sent His Son into the world and raised Him from the dead as a new creation.

Where do we see most clearly the wondrous grace found in God made perfect? When, out of our weakness, God powerfully displays the glory of His grace, when God works in the weakest of situations. We see it in the wonderful things Jesus says and does in His ministry, in His miracles. But it is most powerful as Jesus Christ laid in a tomb and was then raised from the dead – power out of weakness. When God saves you, He takes you lout of death and sin and brings you to life and uses us in our weakness. This shows the sufficiency of God’s grace. Do your hardships of life draw you nearer to Christ? Christian trials draw you nearer to Christ.

What effect should it have? “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9b). That’s how Paul sees the right response. He is not a professional victim. He boasts in his weakness as a vehicle for displaying the power of Christ. When our weakness is our characterising feature, then we see how great the Lord is. Without grasping the grace and goodness of God towards sinners, this doesn’t make sense. Apart from the grace of God, we seek the need to cover our faults. You don’t need to do that. The God of heaven show grace to all sinners. He knows how weak we are and He loves to deal kindly with us. He doesn’t exploit us in our weakness. He saves us from our sin and uses our frailty to display His glory in all the world. We need to stop, step back and see the big picture. There is a God in heaven who shows His grace towards sinners. In our weakness we must magnify the greatness of God by being totally satisfied in the grace of God.

Let your legacy not be some façade of strength, but let it be the strength of Christ. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9).