Grace

by R.T.H. HORNE | Category: General | Feb 1962

A hymn-writer has said:

Grace is the sweet sound

That ever reached our ears,

Whenconscience charged, and justice frowned,

Twas grace removed our fears.

We are thankful for the words of Titus 2.11-14, "the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men ... " The law of God had been given by Moses, and in Romans 4.15 we read, "the law worketh wrath." Consequently we might have expected judgement to appear, but no. Titus 3.4, 5 says it was "the kindness of God our Saviour, and His love towards man" that appeared, and "according to His mercy He saved us."

Had we known the experience of those who were living under the law, to whom the Lord Jesus spoke in Matthew 11.28, and who were labouring and carrying heavy burdens in their endeavour to obtain God's favour, we would perhaps the better appreciate the truth that the "grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men."

Many times in the Scriptures we are reminded that our eternal salvation is ours not by works, but only and entirely by God's grace, grace which has been defined as "God's free unmerited favour." In Ephesians 2.8, 9 the apostle wrote, "For by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, that no man should glory," and again in 2 Timothy 1.9, God "who saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal."

'Twas grace that wrote each name

In life's eternal book;

'Twas grace that gave us to the Lamb,

Who all our sorrows took.

It is this same grace (God's favour towards us) that instructs us "to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world." Both the prohibitions and the exhortations of Scripture are expressions of God's favour towards us, and are for our good always. This was so under the old covenant as is clear from Deuteronomy 6.24, "The LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as at this day," and again from Deuteronomy 10.12, "What doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the LORD, and His statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?"

There is much around us which is of an ungodly nature and the grace of God instructs us to deny all such, and also worldly lusts (or desires); not only desires associated with those grosser sins which are abhorrent to any right-minded person, but also desires which are centred in this present world and not in that which is to come.

The Lord Jesus, in Luke 17.26, 27, spoke of those in the days of Noah who were engrossed in worldly desires, and who, in the waters of the flood, were all destroyed. The world itself which had absorbed them, "being overflowed with water, perished " (2 Peter 3.6).

The life of a disciple is not however a merely negative existence. The grace of God also instructs us to live "soberly and righteously and godly in this present world." "Soberly," suggesting the existence of self-restraint that governs desires, enabling us to be conformed to the mind of Christ, " righteously," that is, acting rightly and justly in our dealings with others, and "godly," realizing and seeking to fulfil our obligations towards God.

Grace too instructs us to keep constantly before us the " blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ." The coming of the Lord Jesus for His own will sever us for ever from the "things which are seen and which "are temporal" and usher us into "the things which are not seen" now, but which "are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4.18).

Following the coming of the Lord Jesus, as foretold in 1 Thessalonians 4, the judgement-seat of Christ will be set up, and there "each man's work shall be made manifest: ... and the fire itself shall prove each man's work of what sort it is." It is solemn to contemplate that the work of each individual believer will be "made manifest." It is well for us to remember that we have to do with Him before whose eyes all things are naked and laid open.

Before the holy judgement throne

We'll see, as we in awe bow down,

Our works in fire be tried;

In view of that devouring flame,

Be this our prayer, and this our aim

'In Him may we abide.'"

The Lord Jesus has said, "Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to render to each man according as his work is."

The giving of rewards is associated with the coming Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ (see Matthew 16.27, Matthew 19.28, 29 and Revelation 11.18), though some rewards abide in the eternal state (Revelation 2.7; 3.12).

The present order of things in this present world will come to an end and pass away for ever. Dreadful it will be for those whose activities, hopes and ambitions have been centred therein! Lot was a man who occupied himself in worldly things, and it is sad indeed to observe the end of his earthly sojourn, living in a cave (Genesis 19.80), all his earthly possessions gone.

The earthly kingdom of the Lord Jesus is to be for 1,000 years (Revelation 20.4-6), and when He has "abolished all rule and all authority and power" He "shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father ... that God may be all in all" (1 Corinthians 15.24-28). Peter speaks of the day of the Lord in which "the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up," and he adds, "Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness?" (2 Peter 3.10, 11).

"Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for these things, give diligence that ye may be found in peace, without spot and blameless in His sight" (2 Peter 3.14).

May the grace which God has bestowed upon us not be found vain!

R.T.H. HORNE | Feb 1962
General