by Bright Benson
Whenever I think about the grace of God, I am simply overwhelmed by God’s amazing love for mankind. That’s what grace is all about. The goodness of God that cannot be earned is now freely extended to man by faith.
You see, in order to understand the foundation of God’s grace, you must understand the state of separation and hopelessness mankind was thrown into after the fall of Adam.
Man was created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 126), and there is a reason for that. First of all it was to create an equality of fellowship between God and man. God is a Spirit (John 424), and He created Adam essentially a spirit being.
It is impossible for a man to have fellowship with a cow, regardless of any emotional attachment there might be between the man and his cow. Equality of life is required if there must be any level of understandable communication and functional relationship between two living beings.
God made Adam god on earth (Genesis 126-28), as He is God in heaven, He made Adam (or man) a spirit, as He is Spirit. And because man shared the divine nature of God, it was possible to commune with God, as it was to walk in the love, wisdom, power and holiness of God.
However, the introduction of sin to humanity through Adam’s disobedience changed everything. God said to Adam, you shall surely die the day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 216-17), and when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, that same moment they died! It wasn’t a physical death but it was a spiritual separation. That vital God-life was replaced with a sinful nature, the dreadful principle of evil, originating from the devil.
Man retained his soul and body in that corrupt state, but his spirit was completely disconnected from God—the source and very essence of his existence. Although he still remained a man, he became man without God, destitute of the divine nature of God in holiness, love, wisdom, power, love, he lost everything.
You see, that act of separation led man into the slavery of sin and death; it brought us to the place of total hopelessness because Satan as a result of Adam’s treason had absolute mastery over man through sin. And because we all came out of Adam’s loins, we were all formed in that nature of sin, and born into its dominion over our souls (Psalm 515).
Friends, every act of sin or proceeds from the nature of sin; it is impossible to walk with God and be like God with a nature of sin that is alien to the life of God! God Who is love (1st John 416) and full of mercy, yet holy and just (Exodus 347), was torn between extending His love and goodness to man yet by no means overlooking his sins. In an act of grace, God introduced animal sacrifices to provide a temporal atonement (or covering) for sin, in order to bless man.
The law was also given to bring man into the full awareness of his sins, reveal God’s standard of holiness and judgment against anyone who transgressed against it (Romans 319). No man, not one, can meet the required standard of God’s holiness. Not even the most religious man or group, who observe the law can. The sin problem is a problem of nature; it can only be solved by a change of nature. This is why Jesus said, “You must be born again” (John 35-7). Being born again is not a form of religious identity, it your ticket to liberty from sin and death.
The law has a compound hold on humanity which is why no man can be justified by its works (Romans 320). What that simply means is that you may keep all the laws yet if guilty of one, you will be guilty of all (James 210)! You may never have killed anyone, stole anything that isn’t yours, dishonoured your parents, or committed adultery, yet do you know that God commands us to love others as ourselves (which is something we have all failed at), and if you haven’t done so, the law finds you guilty of killing, stealing etc. You become guilty of all. No man can fulfill God’s standard of holiness, this is why righteousness (right standing with God) is a gift, and can only be received by faith.
This is why grace was established by God friends.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God came down to earth as man, to identify with our nature though He wasn’t contaminated by it, otherwise He wouldn’t have been a perfect sacrifice for our sins. He obeyed God in everything, He was perfect, and it pleased God to make Him the punishment for our transgressions (Isaiah 535-6). This is an act of grace because our efforts did not contribute to what Jesus did for us by His death, burial and resurrection.
Adam’s sin required a man-sacrifice that would be perfect, one who would live without a personal sin of his own, fulfill God’s laws perfectly and be willing to take the place of all humanity in judgement and death. Jesus was that man, and not only did He die for our sins, but after three days in hell, after all of God’s wrath against our sins was satisfied, Jesus rose from the grave to declare us righteous, halleluiah!
Grace is the goodness of God in placing our sins on His innocent Son in order to judge and punish Him in our place, thereby declaring us guiltless and righteous with a new and sinless nature (2nd Corinthians 517) to make us free from the dominion of sin. We are therefore no more under condemnation (Romans 81), we are no more separated from God and without hope (Ephesians 212-16), and all that we lost in Adam has been restored (Romans 517).
Jesus didn’t do it for Himself, it wasn’t to earn for Himself fame, He did all for you and me. Why did He do it and do we really deserve it? We deserved nothing but punishment for our own willful acts of disobedience, but instead we were freely justified by God’s love (Romans 324-26). That’s grace.
Let's look forward to the third part teaching on this series. I encourage you to read the first part also(http://www.timelessgospel.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-gospel-of-grace-series-you-should.html) in order to fully comprehend the teaching.
Dear Reader,
Lord Jesus, I acknowledge you as the Son of God who died for my sins, and on the third day you were raised again for my justification. I ask you to come into my heart, even as you cleanse me from my sins with your precious blood. Thank you Lord, Amen.
If you prayed that prayer with faith, then you have received right standing with God, locate a Bible-based Church that will help you grow in Christ. You can also share with me your praise report of how the gospel of Jesus has changed your life via e-mail (brightsings@gmail.com), Facebook (www.facebook.com/brightsings) or twitter (@brightbenson7)
Remain kept by God’s grace.
You see, in order to understand the foundation of God’s grace, you must understand the state of separation and hopelessness mankind was thrown into after the fall of Adam.
Man was created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 126), and there is a reason for that. First of all it was to create an equality of fellowship between God and man. God is a Spirit (John 424), and He created Adam essentially a spirit being.
It is impossible for a man to have fellowship with a cow, regardless of any emotional attachment there might be between the man and his cow. Equality of life is required if there must be any level of understandable communication and functional relationship between two living beings.
God made Adam god on earth (Genesis 126-28), as He is God in heaven, He made Adam (or man) a spirit, as He is Spirit. And because man shared the divine nature of God, it was possible to commune with God, as it was to walk in the love, wisdom, power and holiness of God.
However, the introduction of sin to humanity through Adam’s disobedience changed everything. God said to Adam, you shall surely die the day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 216-17), and when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, that same moment they died! It wasn’t a physical death but it was a spiritual separation. That vital God-life was replaced with a sinful nature, the dreadful principle of evil, originating from the devil.
Man retained his soul and body in that corrupt state, but his spirit was completely disconnected from God—the source and very essence of his existence. Although he still remained a man, he became man without God, destitute of the divine nature of God in holiness, love, wisdom, power, love, he lost everything.
You see, that act of separation led man into the slavery of sin and death; it brought us to the place of total hopelessness because Satan as a result of Adam’s treason had absolute mastery over man through sin. And because we all came out of Adam’s loins, we were all formed in that nature of sin, and born into its dominion over our souls (Psalm 515).
Friends, every act of sin or proceeds from the nature of sin; it is impossible to walk with God and be like God with a nature of sin that is alien to the life of God! God Who is love (1st John 416) and full of mercy, yet holy and just (Exodus 347), was torn between extending His love and goodness to man yet by no means overlooking his sins. In an act of grace, God introduced animal sacrifices to provide a temporal atonement (or covering) for sin, in order to bless man.
The law was also given to bring man into the full awareness of his sins, reveal God’s standard of holiness and judgment against anyone who transgressed against it (Romans 319). No man, not one, can meet the required standard of God’s holiness. Not even the most religious man or group, who observe the law can. The sin problem is a problem of nature; it can only be solved by a change of nature. This is why Jesus said, “You must be born again” (John 35-7). Being born again is not a form of religious identity, it your ticket to liberty from sin and death.
The law has a compound hold on humanity which is why no man can be justified by its works (Romans 320). What that simply means is that you may keep all the laws yet if guilty of one, you will be guilty of all (James 210)! You may never have killed anyone, stole anything that isn’t yours, dishonoured your parents, or committed adultery, yet do you know that God commands us to love others as ourselves (which is something we have all failed at), and if you haven’t done so, the law finds you guilty of killing, stealing etc. You become guilty of all. No man can fulfill God’s standard of holiness, this is why righteousness (right standing with God) is a gift, and can only be received by faith.
This is why grace was established by God friends.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God came down to earth as man, to identify with our nature though He wasn’t contaminated by it, otherwise He wouldn’t have been a perfect sacrifice for our sins. He obeyed God in everything, He was perfect, and it pleased God to make Him the punishment for our transgressions (Isaiah 535-6). This is an act of grace because our efforts did not contribute to what Jesus did for us by His death, burial and resurrection.
Adam’s sin required a man-sacrifice that would be perfect, one who would live without a personal sin of his own, fulfill God’s laws perfectly and be willing to take the place of all humanity in judgement and death. Jesus was that man, and not only did He die for our sins, but after three days in hell, after all of God’s wrath against our sins was satisfied, Jesus rose from the grave to declare us righteous, halleluiah!
Grace is the goodness of God in placing our sins on His innocent Son in order to judge and punish Him in our place, thereby declaring us guiltless and righteous with a new and sinless nature (2nd Corinthians 517) to make us free from the dominion of sin. We are therefore no more under condemnation (Romans 81), we are no more separated from God and without hope (Ephesians 212-16), and all that we lost in Adam has been restored (Romans 517).
Jesus didn’t do it for Himself, it wasn’t to earn for Himself fame, He did all for you and me. Why did He do it and do we really deserve it? We deserved nothing but punishment for our own willful acts of disobedience, but instead we were freely justified by God’s love (Romans 324-26). That’s grace.
Let's look forward to the third part teaching on this series. I encourage you to read the first part also(http://www.timelessgospel.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-gospel-of-grace-series-you-should.html) in order to fully comprehend the teaching.
Dear Reader,
If you want to come into right standing and have peace and an intimate relationship with God, Jesus Christ paid the price. All you have to do is make this confession with faith in your heart:
Lord Jesus, I acknowledge you as the Son of God who died for my sins, and on the third day you were raised again for my justification. I ask you to come into my heart, even as you cleanse me from my sins with your precious blood. Thank you Lord, Amen.
If you prayed that prayer with faith, then you have received right standing with God, locate a Bible-based Church that will help you grow in Christ. You can also share with me your praise report of how the gospel of Jesus has changed your life via e-mail (brightsings@gmail.com), Facebook (www.facebook.com/brightsings) or twitter (@brightbenson7)
Remain kept by God’s grace.
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