Blessings and peace
Blessings and peace.
I am making a change at this point. The following verses, Romans 3:20-28 contain several expressions of what the Apostle Paul meant by "grace." What we are looking for here is to see if there is any suggestion that grace is an alternative to growth in righteous behavior, a new kind of covenant that, unlike all the previous covenants of God, does not require godly behavior.
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:20)
All fine so far. Paul is saying that people are not justified by keeping the Law. The purpose of the Law is to make us know what sin is. This is surprising, coming from a former Pharisee!
Obedience to the Law of Moses at that time resulted in forgiveness.
The priest shall then offer the other as a burnt offering in the prescribed way and make atonement for him for the sin he has committed, and he will be forgiven. (Leviticus 5:10)
This was not because the burnt offering brought the forgiveness, but because of obedience.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; (Romans 3:21)
Now we can be righteous without keeping the Law. A point of view hotly contested by some of the Jews.
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: (Romans 3:22)
Fine so far. God desires that we place our faith in Christ, and will count all who do so as being righteous.
However, right here there is a problem of understanding. Is Paul saying that there is no further need of righteous behavior on our part? His writing in His letters to the churches show that this certainly is not what Paul is implying.
If Christian people desire to continue in sin, they can "prove" they are righteous from verse 22 (above). But much of the New Testament speaks strongly against this point of view. So does our conscience.
I have read the Bible for many years. I believe God has left some passages in His Word for the purpose of allowing those who desire to believe a lie, scriptural grounds for their assertions. Romans 3:22 would be one such verse. The people who claim that grace covers willful sinning appear to deliberately ignore the multitude of verses that show that their point of view is against the Word of God.
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. (Hebrews 10:26,27)
When we wilfully continue to sin, knowing we are sinning, we are a servant of Satan, not a servant of God.
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
This certainly is a universal truth. However, Christian preaching carries this too far when the claim is made that there has been no righteous person on the earth. Many people in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, are described as righteous.
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (Romans 3:24)
Again this verse can be twisted to mean that God refers to the sinning Christian as righteous, even though he or she is living in known sin. We should know better than this.
However, Paul is not saying that. He is arguing that a Jew can leave Moses, place his faith in Christ, and be fully justified. This is infinitely different from claiming that a Christian living in known sin is freely justified because he claims to believe in Jesus.
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; (Romans 3:25)
When we place our faith in the blood atonement made by the Lord Jesus, all of our sins of the past are forgiven. Thus we can come to God with a clear conscience.
To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:26)
God's own righteousness as compared with ours. God is just; and if He wants to justify the person who believes in Jesus, that is His business alone.
It may be true that the Jewish people were so enamored with the Law that they forgot that God can declare anyone righteous, with or without the Law of Moses. This would be an important concept in terms of Paul's argument.
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. (Romans 3:27)
Since it is God alone who determines whether or not someone is righteous, no believer has a basis for boasting. It can be seen that faith in God is true righteousness; and so all the boasting of people is misdirected. Please remember that if our faith in God does not result in our obeying the commandments of Christ and His Apostles, our faith is not true faith.
When we obey the commandments of Christ and His Apostles we are not trying to earn righteousness by our works. Rather, we are being obedient to Christ. Christ Himself stated more than once that if we love Him we will keep His commands.
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. (Romans 3:28)
Can you see from the above that when Paul was contrasting faith and works he was not contrasting faith and godly behavior (the mammoth mistake of our time) but faith and the works of the Law of Moses?
Because of the fact that God alone determines who is righteous, our conclusion is that an individual can be righteous apart from the works of the Law, if righteousness apart from the Law is what God is emphasizing at the time.
Remember, in our discussion of grace we are seeking to determine if the Bible supports the view that because of grace, belief in Jesus Christ is an alternative to godly behavior. So far this has not been shown to be the case. Rather Paul is saying that it is possible to be righteous apart from the works of the Law, if that is what God wants.
Since all true righteousness resides in our righteous God, He can refer to anyone He chooses as righteous, with the Law of Moses; without the Law of Moses; or on any other basis He desires to employ.
Please keep in mind that righteousness is not a fixed standard of behavior. Righteousness means approved of God—nothing more than this and nothing less than this. Thus when the Lord said to the thief, "This day you will be in Paradise," no one is in a position to say to the Lord you cannot do this because he did not keep the Sabbath, or anything else of the kind.
Where Christian people fall into error is by proving from this incident that it does not matter how we behave. We will go to Paradise anyhow. The reason they fall into the error is that they want this to be true. But it decidedly is contrary to the Scriptures!
Also, these misguided people know nothing at all about the history of the thief in question. He may have been a righteous individual who stole a loaf of bread to feed his starving child. Christ may have overlooked this one sin because all his life the man had obeyed the commandments of Moses.
But whether the man had been thoroughly wicked or not, his statement to the Lord Jesus revealed the kind of repentance that God requires.
I think some people believe that they can lead and sinful life, and at the last moment repent, like the thief of the cross. (They are playing games with God, and God always wins!)
If our heart is wrong, we are going to misunderstand the Bible. That is all there is to that!
Let me tell you why a last minute repentance usually will not work. Repentance is a gift. We might think we can repent whenever we wish, but that is not true. There are some terrifying testimonies of people who waited until the last minute to repent. When their friends urged them to make their peace with Christ, their reply was, "I can't."
One man in another country went into a house of prostitution. He told Jesus to wait for him outside. When he came back out, Jesus was gone.
There was a young girl who kept disobeying Jesus. Finally she realized she had sinned away her day of grace. Jesus was tired of her disobedience, her unwillingness to accept what He was offering in love.
And too, remember Esau, who despised his birthright because he wanted some lentil soup.
See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears. (Hebrews 12:16,17)
I have to be careful when writing about sinning away our day of grace. Satan will accuse some weak Christian, frightening him by telling him he has sinned away his day of grace. This usually is not the case. I tell such people to go to church every chance they get whether they feel anything or not, and see what God will do for them. It may take a while.
I'll tell you it is a sobering experience to see someone at the altar who is crying out to God to restore to him the joy of his salvation.
Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. (Romans 4:16)
The promise of righteousness comes by faith in the Lord Jesus. This promise proceeding from the grace (goodness) of God guarantees that all people, not just those under the Law of Moses, may benefit and know God as their Father. The reference to Abraham is to the faith of obedience to that which God speaks to us, without regard to the works of the Law of Moses.
Through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:2)
It is difficult for us Gentiles to appreciate what a load was lifted from Paul when he understood that he could be completely righteous without obeying the statutes and ordinances of the Law of Moses.
In spite of the clarity of Paul's position, there are Christians today who still are wavering over the Sabbath commandment, not realizing that the Sabbath is fulfilled when we are serving Christ and living by His Life every hour of every day. So it is true that all of the Law of Moses is fulfilled in us when we follow Jesus. The Law is a servant who brings us to the school of Christ.
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! (Romans 5:15)
"Grace" here meaning God's willingness to count us righteous apart from the works of the Law of Moses, whether we are Jews or Gentiles.
For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:17)
Grace—the gift of righteousness apart from the works of the Law of Moses.
The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, (Romans 5:20)
The giving of the Law of Moses gave us an increased awareness of the sin in our behavior. As the sin increased, so must God's willingness to count us righteous apart from the Law increase.
Those whose hearts were not right toward God deduced from this verse that we should sin so grace would increase. So blind and evil are our hearts!
So that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:21)
Eternal life always follows righteousness. God's grace assigns righteousness to those who turn from the Law of Moses and place their trust for salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. By assigning righteousness to us, God assigned eternal life to us. We see this illustrated in the following verse:
But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. (Romans 8:10)
Our inward nature possesses eternal life because of the righteousness freely given to us. Our body is dead because of the sin dwelling in it and practiced by it.
Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? (Romans 6:1)
Paul realized that people would conclude this from his argument about faith in Christ supplanting the Law of Moses.
For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. (Romans 6:14)
While we are under the Law of Moses. we are informed that we are sinning; but no help is offered other than to sacrifice an animal. In this manner sin has mastery over us, condemning us all the time. "Who shall deliver us from this body of death?"
But under grace there is a continual forgiveness such that we not have to go back and crucify Christ again. But—and right here is the deadly misunderstanding of our day— this continual forgiveness operates only as we keep following and obeying the Spirit of God!
The Spirit of God continually is directing us to confess our sins and stop committing them. The Spirit helps us do this. The sons of God are lead by the Spirit to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.
If Divine grace were a gift of eternal righteousness, so that our behavior did not matter, then much of the New Testament is in error.
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
Does the above sound to you like a gift of eternal righteousness independent of our behavior? We of today have been grossly deceived!
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! (Romans 6:15)
"Grace" meaning the gift of righteousness apart from obedience to the works of the Law of Moses.
So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. (Romans 11:5)
"Grace" referring to God's elect, His saints, who were not chosen because they were more righteous than other people.
Who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. (II Timothy 1:9)
I believe we have here a full meaning of "grace." It is not a special "dispensation" given to the Christian Church but an outflowing of God's inscrutable purposes in Christ.
There is a definition of "grace" that is fairly common: "Unmerited favor." This may have a limited application. The truth is, everything we have been given is unmerited. "His own purpose and grace." These are unmerited. The point is, once we have receive them we have to justify God's wisdom in trusting us with our unmerited opportunities in His Kingdom.
All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. (II Thessalonians 1:5)
After we have been called out from the world by God's grace, we have to live in such a manner that we are worthy of the Kingdom of God. Did you ever hear that preached? It is a blind spot in today's Christian teaching.
Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, (II Peter 1:10)
We do not earn our salvation. But if it is to profit us we must respond to it. We have to work out our salvation.
And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace. (Romans 11:6)
We do not earn salvation by any kind of works, religious or otherwise. But once righteousness is assigned to us by grace, and eternal life along with it, we have to respond to it.
Remember, in the parable of the sower there were two kinds of ground in which the Divine Seed germinated and then died without bearing fruit. Only one of four kinds of ground on which the Seed fell bore the lasting fruit of the Kingdom, and that in three levels.
Which reminds me: The Bible teaches clearly that there are ranks in the Kingdom of God. The same grace that saves us also appoints ranks in the Kingdom. If we are appointed to a high rank, more is required of us in faith, obedience, and diligence than is true of those chosen for a lesser rank. "To whom much is given shall much be required."
But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. (Luke 12:48)
We can see readily from the above that new-covenant grace is much more than a gift of righteousness given to us so we can go to Heaven and recline on our couch in our mansion. This impression is fairly common. It comes from making Heaven our goal rather than the Kingdom of God.
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. (Romans 12:3)
"Grace" here may refer to the commission, and the ability to carry out that commission, given to the Apostle Paul by the Lord Jesus.
We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. (Romans 12:6)
The ministries and gifts of the Spirit of God are examples of Divine grace.
I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me (Romans 15:15)
"Grace" meaning the commission, and the ability to carry out that commission, given to Paul by the Lord.
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. (Romans 16:20)