#abounding grace

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death,…

Today we go back to the beginning to look at the description of the nature to grace as it has been recorded in the Hebrew text.  Charis is the Greek term that in the New Testament is defined as grace and yet its definition is different from the Hebrew word of “chên” which is often listed as grace in the Old Testament.  Some would say that if there is going to be any teaching on grace that you should start with the definition from the Hebrew since it was first given to them through the Law of Moses.  I respect this position and yet it is the Greek writings in the New Testament that clearly state that grace existed before the foundations of the world (2 Tim. 1:9; Eph. 1:4-6).  I agree that both need to be addressed if not for their differences alone, at least for their similarities, but that is for a latter post. What I believe is important is to be able to take what we have learned from the Greek text and see if we can identify similar signposts as they appear in another language.  If I was to ask you to describe the concept of light, an important factor throughout the entire bible, you would have to make mention of not only its property of brilliance and radiance it possesses but you would also have to contrast that property against darkness and shadows.  The same topic would still not be complete if you neglect to mention the nature of color and how it is produced by the interplay of light and the cellular structure of an object.  The manifold nature of Grace requires similar treatment when you begin looking at it from the perspective of the Kingdom of God and I’ve touched on some of this previously, but today I going to be focusing more on the patterns found in the Hebrew text.  But to establish a pattern we need to know what we’re looking for.

(31) But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. (32)  Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Luke 12:31-32

(9) Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: Ephesians 1:9

Our pattern is the Father’s good pleasure and how that is displayed in the creation events.  Recall that charis has a root meaning which encompasses all the facets of joy.  I don’t ever recall a time in my life when joy was not pleasurable, do you?  I also don’t recall when something that I felt pleasure with wasn’t good, do you?  So if we can find “pleasure,” we’ll probably find “good” and conversely if we find “good” we’ll find “pleasure.” I recognize that this concept is simple to articulate – most of the Kingdom is that way - but you’d be amazed at how many people have never thought this through for themselves and unfortunately miss so much of what the narrative is speaking to us about.  I think that the enemy has kept us so bound up in our “past sin nature” that we’re fearful of what God really has prepared for us.  We’re afraid that God is going to smack us with a heavenly baseball bat any time that we do anything that might be the least bit “unholy” (a definition that runs the gambit from drinking to wearing makeup).  This keeps us in “check” with the enemy but out of the vast wealth that the Father has laid up for us to inherit.  So today I’m going to set you free from the restrictions that you’ve allowed the enemy to place upon you.

Your Father’s Good Pleasure

The first two chapters of the Genesis account of creation is, along with the last chapter of Revelation, are best part of the Bible since only these chapters declare the intent of the Father for all of us.  Everything in between is how mankind messed it up and God fixed it.  So if you truly understand just these three chapters of the bible you know the intent of God for your life.  (I’m going to catch a lot of flack from certain people for that statement, so please don’t write me about it because I told you before hand and I won’t respond to what you have to say.) In the first chapter we find the creative work of God being expressed through His words and how they fashion the universe and all of its contents.  It is here that we’re going to find if our pattern exists as I’ve established it.

Genesis 1:1-5(1)  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  (2)  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (3)  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. (4)  And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. (5)  And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Here are the opening verses from Genesis that most of us are familiar with.  In these we find a number of things but I’m focusing on the creation of light on the first day.  Even though this is originally Hebrew text we’re peering into you still can see that it has many of the same characteristics that every language has in trying to convey a message.  The signpost that we’re looking for in this text has to do with pleasure, so the question is do you see where that may be located?  If you did, how did you locate this pleasure of the Father? For those of you that still are having some difficulty here allow me to open your eyes for understanding here.  The pleasure that the Father is having here is located in verse four, “God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.” The word that signifies that He is having pleasure is the word “good.”  (I said that this is simple!) In English term the word “good” is an adjective when associated with the word “pleasure” as shown in our passages out of the New Testament.  That means that “good” modifies, or intensifies, the nature of “pleasure”.  Yet here in the Hebrew text it is an adverb, modifying the nature of an action.  I make mention of this for one simple reason: The Hebrew language is very active in its construction.  Greek, and subsequently English, follows the pattern of noun/verb while the Hebrew text often follows the pattern of verb/noun.  So just what does this word mean in the Hebrew?  The adverb definition in the Strong’s Concordance says,

beautiful, best, better, bountiful, cheerful, at ease, fair, favour, fine, glad, good (deed, -lier, liest, -ly, -ness, -s), graciously, joyful, kindly, kindness, like (best), loving, merry, most, pleasant, pleaseth, pleasure, precious, prosperity, ready, sweet, wealth, welfare, well favoured.

So in this definition we begin to see the nature of grace with the words of pleasure, good, joyful, favour and of course, graciously, plus a whole wealth of other terms that we haven’t even begun to delve into.  Every occurrence of the word “good” in the Old Testament contains within it these terms, all of which define the word, and conversely one of these terms used in the text would also represent the nature of “good.”

The Cornerstone of Grace

While I’m highlighting these first few verses, I want to draw your attention of a very important aspect of the nature of grace, something that I can say is the cornerstone to how it operates.  Notice in verse 5 (numerically the value of grace!) that called the light day and the darkness night.  Pretty standard stuff, right?  But notice the way that God orders the day in the remaining part of the verse: The evening and the morning were the first day.  In our Western culture our days begin at the crack of dawn where we hustle off to do our business and end at sunset when we collapse from exhaustion, desperately seeking rest.  Grace operates from a place of rest first.  Instead of working to rest, grace rests so that you can work.  This is vital to understanding how the Kingdom operates in your life.  You cannot bring Western processes into this kingdom and expect them to produce.  This is why the writer of the book of Hebrews says in the fourth chapter that there is still a rest for the people of God.  They haven’t yet understood that they were created to operate from a place of rest.  Oops!  That is a later post!

The Serious Side to the Good of Grace

Let’s continue on for one further look at this pattern of pleasure in the Genesis account.

Genesis 1:6-13(6)  And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.  (7)  And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. (8)  And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. (9)  And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. (10)  And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and God saw that it was good. (11)  And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. (12)  And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. (13)  And the evening and the morning were the third day.

Okay picking up where we left off we now have the verses that describe the next two days: The second day for the creation of the heavens and the third day for the creation of the seas, earth and the grasses.  Using the same question, do you see where the pleasure of God is listed? (Hint: good) How often did this pleasure occur for the Father? Here comes the real question: On what day did this pleasure occur on? If you’ve followed along with me so far you’ve should have picked out that the word “good” is found in verses 10 and 12.  Both of these verses fall on the third day of creation and hold a special meaning for those who are Hebrew.  If you were to look into the marriage records of the Hebrew population you would discover that the vast majority of these couples were married on the same day of the week – the third day – because of the belief that there is a double blessing on that day by God and that anyone being married on that day will receive the benefit of this blessing.  Considering all the terms rolled into this blessing of good, it may well be something to keep in mind if you’re of the marrying persuasion. “But what about the second day?” you may be asking.  I can’t tell you why there wasn’t anything good and pleasurable on that day.  But I have my thoughts.  Consider this for a moment: Our opening passage from Luke said that it was the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.  I would conclude from this that if something was not good for me then He would not give it to me.  So what ever was created on the second day is something that I’m not suppose to have, or in kingdom terms, I’m not suppose to have dominion over.  What exactly did The Father keep from us on that second day? The Heavens – His domain.  Let me further this along a bit more.  Again this is just my thought.  If I’m not supposed to have dominion in the heavens, then if I die and go to heaven, I’m in a place that is not pleasing to the Father for me.  Could it be that the reason that the Father gives us the gift of eternal life is so that we wouldn’t have to be in the place that He knew wouldn’t be pleasing to Him for us?  If you think this too far fetched, read the last chapter of Revelation and see where all mankind ends up.  But again, this is just my thought, right?  Not anymore.

Good, like Grace, Abounds

In the opening chapter of Genesis you will find that there are no less than seven uses of the term “good.”  If you’re into the number thing in scriptures this represents completeness.  And what a way that it was completed!

Genesis 1:31  (31)  Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

The word “very” in this passage carries a picture for its meaning of a rake that vehemently stirs up the coals of a fire to keep them burning brightly so that you can stay warm.  In six previous occasions the Father was pleased by the expression of His word’s work.  When the last thing was created and He looked over all that He had done and declared that there was a pleasure that burned deep within Him for what He had just done.  And what was that last thing that capped off His creation?  That is for a future post too!

  Grace and Peace to You

In this study of grace I’ve tried to show the facets of it that we have missed in our religious upbringing in order to prepare us to be able to rule and reign with Christ when the time comes.  That is after all what the Father is looking towards and His plan hasn’t changed since He enacted it before the foundations of the world.  Most people get all excited about the thought of ruling with Christ, but when the rubber meets the road, they don’t have a clue on how that will be done.  And if you don’t know how that will be done, how would you even know what the environment would look like to do it in?  That is the reason for these messages – to describe the environment so that you’ll know where you’ll be operating when that time comes.

When you understand the intention of the Father to see that you rule with Jesus, you’re going to have to recognize what it means to be “in Christ.” Yes, this is an identification issue that every believer must secure for themselves but it is also the manner by which all of your actions will be acknowledged both for and from the Kingdom.  Since Jesus is our pattern we need to look to him and see what the Father sees in Him that He also sees in us.

John 1:14-17 

(14)  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

(15)  John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.

(16)  And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.

(17)  For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

In a previous post I spoke about the Word, or logos in the Greek.  This passage is the identification of the manifestation of God’s spoken word in the bodily form that we recognize as Jesus.  What is unique about this identity is the connection of “full of grace and truth.”  No where is the bible do we have a description of what Jesus looks like but only the characteristics that he displayed.  I think that we need to look at the connection of “full of grace and truth” and how these influenced his actions both with people and the Father.

Notice in verse 14 we have what is called a parenthetical statement: A remark that is contained within parenthesis that can be viewed as independent of the main content or, for clarification purposes, added as a descriptor.  For the moment I want to remove it from the context of this matter and in doing so the verse would subsequently read, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.”

While I’m in a grammatical mode, let me briefly review the meaning of the word “and.”  This word is known as a conjunction with the purpose of joining two or more simple sentences together in order to make them flow better for the reader.  It also performs the function of joining elements together to provide a fuller description of the whole.  I mention this since I know that some one is going to take issue with my removing the parenthetical statement in order to advance the next element.

Two Graces

“Full of grace and truth” is a conjunctive description of grace, meaning that “full of grace” indicates quantity while “and truth” indicates the quality of the grace.  This means that the grace that Jesus demonstrated in his life was always full and of the purest form.  The notion of a grace that isn’t pure may seem odd but that is what verse 16 is indicating.  The phrase “grace for grace” indicates that there was a form of grace present that was replaced by the grace that Jesus possessed.

Understand that when man fell in the garden he fell from the eternal kingdom of grace into a worldly time-based grace that he would control.  The grace of this world operates in the fashion of “I’ll give to you as long as it suits my needs and satisfaction,” or “I’ll be joyful as long as you don’t do something that offends me.”  Jesus came to give us the kingdom back and the grace that operates from it.  Hence, grace of this world for the true grace of the kingdom.  John even indicates the difference at the beginning of the verse with, “. . . his fullness have all we received,” speaking of the abundance that is produced from the kingdom of grace which is lacking in a worldly time-based system.

The Picture of Grace

In the entire gospel of John these opening verses are the only places where the word “grace”, or charis in the Greek, is used.  What we have here is an overall depiction of Jesus which John will through the remaining chapters unfold bit by bit until we reach the end where John admits that he only wrote those things which would lead you to believe that Jesus is the son of God and have life in his name.

What is interesting in these verses that we have been examining is the picture that they create when brought all together.  In verse 14 the word “dwelt” represents a tent, or in Hebrew it would be called a tabernacle.  So when you look at the entire sentence, including the parenthetical statement, there is an amazing picture that John, by way of Holy Spirit is creating.  It harkens back to a time when Israel wandered in the wilderness and God communed with them everyday from the presence of His tabernacle which dwelt in their midst.  Everyone in the camp knew when God was in His tabernacle by the glory cloud that hovered over the tent of meeting.  In this tent Moses would speak to God and come back to the children of Israel and repeat what God had told him, conversations that would become known as the Law.

John tells us in these few verses that as great as it was for the children of Israel in the wilderness with God, Jesus provided something far greater – a tangible presence available to all, and with that presence, access to the kingdom of God that the children of Israel never knew.  Yes, the Law was important because it established the protocol of how to enter into the presence of God but it lacked the ability to instill the life essence that abounds in a kingdom established on grace.  All of the rituals and sacrifices point to the one who would give life rather than take it and this is the truth that God wanted all men to know.

This is the pattern that we seek to represent to the world: One that displays the fullness of grace and truth in our daily activities.  It is not a grace that many have deemed unmerited favor but a grace that is joyous and giving in all aspect of life.  It is abundant in its very nature and overwhelms the needs and lack that parade it.  This is our heritage.  This is where we reign from in Christ.  Are you up to the challenge?

Grace and Peace to You