I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Psalm 27:13
Grace – the free and lavish expression of the goodness of the LORD is the most glorious doctrine/truth in the Bible other than the doctrine of God himself. Apart from grace there are no men or women after God’s own heart, no land of the living for which to set our hope and heart upon, as there would be no salvation from the judgement of God on our sin, which is by grace alone (Ephesians 2:8-9).
The term grace as used in the Bible describes how the eternal God freely and joyfully displays His goodness, wisdom and power in His creation for the eternal joy, pleasure and satisfaction of mankind in intimate relationship with Him.
Creation was God’s initial communication of the glory of His grace. Compelled only by the desire to display the glory of His goodness and love, He created a majestic universe and a world of lavish beauty and wonder to be enjoyed by beings, male and female, made in His image and likeness who would share in His glorious existence, enjoy His abundant goodness and live in His presence knowing only fulness of joy and pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11).
Mankind, beginning with Adam and Eve, would rule over God’s good and perfect creation, where everything was created for man to freely enjoy under the loving authority of the triune God, who blessed them with everything necessary for their and our enjoyment of Him and His enjoyment of us enjoying Him. (Genesis 1:26-28) (Psalm 8:4-9) (Philippians 4:4) (Zephaniah 3:17).
However, the Bible reveals that mankind, beginning with Adam, pridefully spurned God’s gracious gift, rejecting God’s purpose for and rule over our lives, opposing His order and design for human flourishing and our individual happiness in Him and replacing it with our own (Ecclesiastes 7:29) (Proverbs 21:2). All of this is what the Bible refers to as sin, the wages or consequences of which is death – being cut off, exiled from the gracious and glorious life with God for which we were created and now subject to His wrath and judgement which will have its ultimate expression in Hell (Romans 5:12) (Romans 1:18).
This is the present condition of all mankind upon being born into what the Bible refers to as this present evil world. Instead of living in the glory and blessings inherent in the original creation, we are born into a world that has been cursed by God, controlled by the devil, destined for destruction and wherein we now have to earn a living to survive in the midst of the misery, sorrow, conflict, futility, physical suffering and death inherent in such a world (Genesis 3:17-19) (1 John 5:19) (2 Peter 3:10).
The whole of creation, meant to be a blessing to man, would now oppose man’s pursuit of the joy and gladness, the peace and happiness we were created to know in God, which in our sinful pride we now pursue independently of God and in opposition to God (Jeremiah 17:5) (Isaiah 53:6) (Judges 21:25).
Yet despite our Hell-deserving sin and rebellion against a holy and just God, the Bible reveals that God planned from the foundation of the world to demonstrate and exalt the glory of His grace, first in the day to day providences of life in a sin-cursed world, and ultimately in His salvation of a people out of this world and the curse that is upon it, and granting them the gift of eternal life, the restoration to the glorious life with God for which man was created (2 Corinthians 6:2) (Romans 6:23) (Ephesians 1:3-8)
While in this world, every meal we enjoy, every legitimate pleasure we experience, every moment of health and safety, every prized possession we have ever owned, every marriage, every job, every talent that secured us that job and every paycheck that came to us by that job, everything that sustains and enriches our life in this world, and every sin we commit against a holy God for which He does not immediately kill us and confine us to Hell is a gracious gift (James 1:17) (1 Corinthians 4:7). They are gifts given by God to lead us to repentance; to turn from our sinful, self-centered, self-worshiping, God-dishonoring lives, to a life centered on God, acknowledging, pursuing and worshiping Him alone as the object of our deepest love and source of all that will satisfy the deepest needs and desires of our heart and fulfill the most noble longings of our soul (Acts 17:30). To not do so leaves us subject to His wrath and judgement (Romans 2:4-5).
Yet such repentance is impossible in our sin-corrupted condition in which we have neither the desire nor ability to know, obey and worship the LORD as the ultimate source of our good (Romans 1:25) (Romans 3:9-18). Jesus himself confirms this impossibility in Mark 10:26-27.
In Ephesians 2:1-3, the Apostle Paul presents to us exactly why this is impossible as here he reveals the desperate, helpless condition of all mankind, describing us as dead in our trespasses and sins – spiritually lifeless, having no desire or inclination to truly know God nor to submit our lives to Him. We have the rebellious nature of our spiritual father the devil (John 8:44), who has blinded men’s hearts to the glory of God and our need for him (2 Corinthians 4:4), having hearts filled with sinful lusts – disordered desires contrary to God’s person and purposes, and thus we are destined for exclusion from the gracious presence of the LORD, forever the objects of His wrath (2 Thessalonians 1:5-9).
Thankfully, however, this indictment is followed in Ephesians 2:4-9 by the most God glorifying, grace magnifying, joy producing truth in the Bible wherein we read:
“BUT GOD, , who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
In my next post I hope to look at how this wonderous grace is received and displayed in the lives of those who do repent and turn from their Hell deserving sin and rebellion to joyful obedience to the LORD as the object of their deepest love whom they look forward to being with one day, enjoying His goodness in the land of the living, forever!
Grace and Peace ×