Welcome to the Age of Grace
Jesus Christ is coming back.
Welcome to the Age of Grace! We are all excited that our website is “new and improved.” The look and feel is new, but we are still
commitment to the same mission: Giving support to the raising up young men
and women for leadership among God’s people.
One thing we did not change was our URL name. Ask anyone; they will tell you, “All of the
good URL’s are already taken.” So, when this
site was started, the perfect URL name, “Age of Grace” was still available. We were very blessed. Here’s why:
Grace is an important
and wonderful concept to Christian believers. The word is seldom used these
days outside of church. Without a common context, the concept becomes a little
fuzzy for some people. To put Grace into
context, and help clarify it, I will compare it to a related word, Mercy. The two words are often linked in the Bible. In fact, they occur together so often that
many people think that they mean the same thing, but they don’t.
In human terms, both mercy and grace are acts of blessing. Also, they both spring from the same set of
emotions. However, they differ because
they apply to different circumstances. Mercy
is a matter of forbearance or relief from bad consequences. Usually mercy comes from someone in high
authority or in very much better circumstances. For example, in traffic court, a defendant can plead guilty and ask for
mercy. In the state where I live, the
judge has the option of placing an offender under court supervision. In that case, the charge would be dropped as
long as there are no more violations for a certain length of time. The court’s
mercy has a big string attached. In
contrast, when God is merciful, he attaches no strings:
He
hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our
iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, [so] great is his mercy
toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, [so] far hath
he removed our transgressions from us. [Psalms 103:10-12]
Thus, with God’s mercy, you don’t get something bad that you
deserve to get. With Grace, God gives
you something good that you do not deserve. Both acts are expressions God’s love.
Both are good so God treats his children with both mercy and
grace, depending on which applies. Both
concepts are wrapped up in Jesus’ statement to Nicodemus from the Gospel of
John:
For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not
his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him
might be saved. [John 3:16,17]
No condemnation: This is Mercy.
Everlasting life: This is Grace.
You might be asking, Why are we calling it the AGE of grace? Hasn’t God always been
merciful and gracious down through the ages? Why is this different?
Yes, God has not changed, but people have, especially in our
relation to him. Originally, Adam and
Eve lived in perfect harmony with God. He talked with them directly and they trusted Him implicitly. Then, trough the subtlety and trickery of the
devil, they not only lost Paradise, but they lost their
direct access to God. This began
mankind’s darkest age. God did not leave
them in total despair, however. He gave
them hope of the promised seed, the promised redeemer. This began the long saga of salvation
thorough which God brought us back to Him.
The rest of the Bible is about our salvation through Jesus
Christ. We live in the time between
Jesus ascending to God’s right hand and sending holy spirit and the time of his
return in glory. This current era is the
easiest time to get back to God. In
other times, access to salvation was much more difficult. Now, all that is required to be saved is
stated in Romans Chapter 10 verse 9:
That
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. [Romans 10:9]
As a result, we are saved and live by God’s grace. But wait, there is more. In Ephesians, the
Bible says:
That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding
riches of his grace in [his] kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by
grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift
of God, Not of works,
lest any man should boast. [Eph 2:7-9]
Here God says that there will be ages to come where he will
show his grace. What a great time to
live! Never has it been easier. Never has God showered us with many
gifts. We are not ignorant that we have
an adversary, but he can do nothing to separate us from God’s love.
For
I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor
any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. [Romans
8:38, 39]
God will not let go. He showers with Grace upon grace, that
is, with gift after gift. Now we can
spend our time thanking and loving the father and awaiting Jesus’ return.
So, again I say, Welcome to the Age of Grace,
-Tim
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