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GRACE
GRACE by Paul J Rico paulrico@hotmail.com
The problem with the doctrine of grace is that people miss-define grace as MERELY “undeserved mercy” and “unmerited favor”. Therefore, many misunderstand grace because of a faulty incomplete definition. While grace has these above definitions and aspects, those definitions are a gross over simplification. Grace should be defined as “The super natural power of God freely given to us to accomplish those things that we are incapable of accomplishing by the power of our sinful human nature.”
We are saved by grace (Eph 2:8-9) and we find grace to help in our time of need (Heb 4:16) neither of which we could accomplish without God’s empowerment. And it’s when we receive that empowerment to accomplish what we are incapable on our own, that we have the grace of God. It’s by grace that we are empowered to be saved and afterwards to live a holy life.
With the wrong definition of grace people misunderstand grace and think they have permission to sin simply because God will forgive them. Grace is never permission to sin. When a person sins there is always a negative consequence even if we are forgiven. God has to judge sin in our lives, even when we are forgiven. He has to discipline and chasten us for disobedience (Heb 12:5-11). This is for every person who has become His child by faith in the sacrifice of Messiah (John 1:12). Therefore when we choose to sin, we choose to suffer, first because of the natural consequences of sin and secondly because of the discipline by God for those who have been born into His family. God is a good father who does not allow His children to go down a destructive path. Write a note in your Bible at Gal 6:7 “WHEN WE CHOOSE TO SIN, WE ARE CHOOSING TO SUFFER.”
Grace didn’t start in the NT as some suppose. The idea that the Torah is Law but now Messiah has given us grace is totally in error. Grace is first mentioned in Gen 6:8 and is the focus and goal of the Torah (Ex 34:6-7, Ps 103:6-8). People who think that the NT brought grace instead of Law understand neither grace nor the Law.
In Torah Exodus 34:6-7 HaShem (the LORD, YHVH) presents Himself before Moses to reveal to Moses His attributes. In Judaism this is called by Rabbis the “13 Attributes Of Grace”. Ex 34:6-7 (The Stone Edition, The Chumash) “HaShem passed before him and proclained: HaShem , HaShem, God, Compassionate and Gracious, Slow to Anger, and Abundant in Kindness and Truth: 7 Preserver of Kindness for thousands of generations, Fogiver of Iniquity, Willful Sin and Error and Who Cleanses — But does not cleanse completely, recalling the iniquity of parents upon children and grand childrento the third and fourth generations.”
In Psalm 103 King David explains that he understands that what HaShem revealed specifically to Moses and the Children of Israel is that HaShem is a loving father who is gracious and compassionate to His children. This happens to be one of the most beautiful Psalms that exists with popularity on par with Psalms 1, 19, 23, 51 and 119. The point here and in the previous two paragraphs is that grace existed from the begining in Torah, the Prophets and the Writings. It was nothing new in the so called NT.
On the other hand you have people who also misunderstand grace and salvation in a different way, who think that a person must live a holy sanctified life in order to be justified. Justification by grace through faith has to come first, then you get the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to empower you to live a holy life. Justification is the beginning of sanctification, not the other way around. Sanctification can not come first before justification. Just because we state that according to the Holy Scriptures that a person is justified by grace without the works of the Law, doesn’t mean that we are saying you can just be saved and go out and sin. Recently a sister in Messiah, said I believed in “greasy grace” thinking that somehow we are teaching permission to sin if we say you are saved by grace without the works of the Law. Nothing could be further from the truth. God saves us by grace to empower us to be obedient by grace.
Why do so many people get the cart before the horse? You can’t live a holy life without the Ruach HaKodesh which we receive when we trust in Messiah to save us. We can not be saved by our good works or obedience to Torah. Obedience to Torah comes after the salvation experience not before.
For everyone who thinks that Yahshua fulfilling the Law means they can ignore it, you need to keep reading don’t just stop at Matt 5:17-18, read the next verse 5:19 also. Yahshua has every expectation that we will not only obey every commandment that applies to us, but teach others to be obedient also. My impression is that we are to follow Messiah’s example, NOT contradict it by ignoring the Torah and teaching others to ignore it. If Yahshua fulfilled the Law, then we are to fulfill those commandments that apply to us also, but this isn’t about earning salvation by works but rather rewards in heaven. Going on to verse 5:20 the only way for our righteousness to surpass the scribes and Pharisees is to have righteousness imputed by faith in the sacrifice of Messiah. We can’t acheive it by our works. But in context just because we can’t earn salvation by works doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do good works to show our appreciation for the salvation which we have freely received.
Therefore Beloved, I implore each of you to read your Bibles cover to cover, when you finish start over again and again, prayerfully asking the Ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit) to guide you while you read as to what God wants you to believe and how He wants you to live. Yes, Some of the commandments are indeed for only certain sets of people like the priests and ONLY the priests can fulfill them, but most of the 613 commandments in the Torah and the 1050+ in the NT do apply to all of us. Ask the Ruach to guide you and if you do so in honest submission to God, it will change your life. It will change your life for the best most abundant life that is possible for you to have.
