GRACE -> Paid It All . . The End!

I wonder, at times, why we keep trying to pay God back for our mistakes when they have already been paid for by Jesus Christ when we confessed our sins and repented?

Hebrews 4:16 

Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God’s unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it]. 

Rom. 5:20

Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

Manasseh – King of Judah
(the son of King Hezekiah)

This is a story of a man who went from being
one of the vilest and wicked sinners ever, to a saint.
  
From an enemy of God to a servant of God.

From a man under God’s judgment to a man under God’s Grace and Mercy.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.

But he did evil in the Lord’s sight, like the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord drove out before the Israelites.

 For he built again the [idolatrous] high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared altars for the Baals and made the Asherim and worshiped all the hosts of the heavens and served them.

Also he built [heathen] altars in the Lord’s house, of which the Lord had said, In Jerusalem shall My Name be forever.

He built altars for all the hosts of the heavens in the two courts of the Lord’s house.

And he burned his children as an offering [to his god] in the Valley of Ben-hinnom [son of Hinnom], and practiced soothsaying, augury, and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.

And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son,

            “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put My Name [and Presence] forever; And I will no more remove Israel from the land which I appointed for your fathers, if they will only take heed to do all that I have commanded them, the whole law, the statutes, and the ordinances given through Moses.”

So Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the heathen whom the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.

The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken.

So the Lord brought against them the commanders of the host of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks and in fetters and brought him to Babylon.

When he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

He prayed to Him, and God, entreated by him, heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem to his kingdom.

Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.

And he built an outer wall to the City of David west of Gihon in the valley, to the entrance of the Fish Gate, and ran it around Ophel, raising it to a very great height; and he put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities of Judah.

           
And he took away the foreign gods and the idol out of the house of the Lord and all the altars that he had built on the mount of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem; and he cast them out of the city.

           
And he restored the Lord’s altar and sacrificed on it offerings of peace and of thanksgiving; and he commanded Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel.

Yet the people still sacrificed in the high places, but only to the Lord their God.

2 Chronicles 33: 1-17

♫ Jesus paid it all,

All to Him I owe;

Sin had left a crimson stain,

He washed it white as snow. ♫

God’s GRACE – Old & New Testament

Even in its diversity, the Bible is tied together by the theme of God’s GRACE, and we can see this in every book of the Old and New Testaments. And God’s GRACE always points us clearly to Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the Grace of God

For while the Law was given through Moses, GRACE
(unearned, undeserved favor and spiritual blessing)
and truth came through Jesus Christ.

(John 1:17)

OLD TESTAMENT

Genesis shows God’s grace to a universally wicked world as He enters into relationship with a sinful family line (Abraham) and promises to bless the world through him.

Exodus shows God’s grace to His enslaved people in bringing them out of Egyptian bondage.

Leviticus shows God’s grace in providing His people with a sacrificial system to atone for their sins.

Numbers shows God’s grace in patiently sustaining His grumbling people in the wilderness and bringing them to the border of the promised land not because of them, but in spite of them.

Deuteronomy shows God’s grace in giving the people the new land ‘not because of your righteousness’ (Deut. 9).

Joshua shows God’s grace in giving Israel victory after victory in their conquest of the land with neither superior numbers nor superior obedience on Israel’s part.

Judges shows God’s grace in taking sinful, weak Israelites as leaders and using them to purge the land, time and again, of foreign incursion and idolatry.

Ruth shows God’s grace in incorporating a poverty-stricken, desolate, foreign woman into the line of Christ.

1 and 2 Samuel show God’s grace in establishing the throne (forever—2 Sam. 7) of David, an adulterous murderer.

1 and 2 Kings show God’s grace in repeatedly prolonging the exacting of justice and judgment for kingly sin ‘for the sake of’ David.

1 and 2 Chronicles show God’s grace by continually reassuring the returning exiles of God’s self-initiated promises to David and his sons.

Ezra shows God’s grace to Israel in working through the most powerful pagan ruler of the time (Cyrus) to bring His people back home to a rebuilt temple.

Nehemiah shows God’s grace in providing for the rebuilding of the walls of the city that represented the heart of God’s promises to His people.

Esther shows God’s grace in protecting His people from a Persian plot to eradicate them through a string of unexpected events.

Job shows God’s grace in vindicating the sufferer’s cry that his redeemer lives (Job 19:25), who will put all things right in this world or the next.

Psalms shows God’s grace by reminding us of, and leading us in expressing, the relentless covenant of love God has for His people and the refuge that He is for them.

Proverbs shows us God’s grace by opening up to us a world of wisdom in leading a life of happy godliness.

Ecclesiastes shows God’s grace in its earthy reminder that the good things of life can never be pursued as the ultimate things of life, and that it is God who in his mercy satisfies sinners (note Eccl. 7:20; 8:11).

Song of Songs shows God’s grace and love for his bride by giving us a faint echo of it in the pleasures of faithful human sexuality.

Isaiah shows God’s grace by reassuring us of His presence with and restoration of contrite sinners.

Jeremiah shows God’s grace in promising a new and better covenant, one in which knowledge of God will be universally internalized.

Lamentations shows God’s grace in His unfailing faithfulness in the midst of sadness.

Ezekiel shows God’s grace in the divine heart surgery that cleansingly replaces stony hearts with fleshy ones.

Daniel shows God’s grace in its repeated miraculous preservation of His servants.

Hosea shows God’s grace in a real-live depiction of God’s unstoppable love toward His whoring wife.

Joel shows God’s grace in the promise to pour out his Spirit on all flesh.

Amos shows God’s grace in the Lord’s climactic promise of restoration in spite of rampant corruption.

Obadiah shows God’s grace by promising judgment on Edom, Israel’s oppressor, and restoration of Israel to the land in spite of current Babylonian captivity.

Jonah shows God’s grace toward both immoral Nineveh and moral Jonah, irreligious pagans and a religious prophet, both of whom need and receive the grace of God.

Micah shows God’s grace in the prophecy’s repeated wonder at God’s strange insistence on ‘pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression’ (Micah 7:18).

Nahum shows God’s grace in assuring Israel of ‘good news’ and ‘peace,’ promising that the Assyrians have tormented them for the last time.

Habakkuk shows God’s grace that requires nothing but trusting faith amid insurmountable opposition, freeing us to rejoice in God even in desolation.

Zephaniah shows God’s grace in the Lord’s exultant singing over His disobedient yet beloved people.

Haggai shows God’s grace in promising a wayward people that the future glory of God’s presence with them will far surpass its former glory.

Zechariah shows God’s grace in the divine pledge to open up a fountain for God’s people to ‘cleanse them from sin and uncleanness’ (Zech. 13:1).

Malachi shows God’s grace by declaring the Lord’s no-strings-attached love for his people.

NEW TESTAMENT

Matthew shows God’s grace in fulfilling the Old Testament promises of a coming king (Matt. 5:17).

Mark shows God’s grace as this coming king suffers the fate of a common criminal to buy back sinners (Mark 10:45).

Luke shows that God’s grace extends to all the people one would not expect: hookers, the poor, tax collectors, sinners, Gentiles (‘younger sons’) (Luke 19:10).

John shows God’s grace in becoming one of us, flesh and blood (John 1:14), and dying and rising again so that by believing we might have life in his name (John 20:31).

Acts shows God’s grace flooding out to all the world—starting  in Jerusalem, ending in Rome; starting with Peter, apostle to the Jews, ending with Paul, apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 1:8).

Romans shows God’s grace in Christ to the ungodly (Rom. 4:5) that washes over both Jew and Gentile while they are still sinners (Rom. 5:8).

1 Corinthians shows God’s grace in favoring what is lowly and foolish in the world (1 Cor. 1:27).

2 Corinthians shows God’s grace in channeling his power through weakness rather than strength (2 Cor. 12:9).

Galatians shows God’s grace in justifying both Jew and Gentile by Christ-directed faith rather than self-directed performance (Gal. 2:16).

Ephesians shows God’s grace in his plan to unite us to his Son before time began (Eph. 1:4).

Philippians shows God’s grace in Christ’s humiliating death on an instrument of torture—for us (Phil. 2:8).

Colossians shows God’s grace in nailing to the cross the record of debt that stood against us (Col. 2:14).

1 Thessalonians shows God’s grace in providing the hope-igniting guarantee that Christ will return again (1 Thess. 4:13).

2 Thessalonians shows God’s grace in choosing us before time, that we might withstand Christ’s greatest enemy (2 Thess. 2:13).

1 Timothy shows God’s grace in the radical mercy shown to ‘the chief of sinners’ (1 Tim. 1:15).

2 Timothy shows God’s grace to be that which began (2 Tim. 1:9) and that which fuels (2 Tim. 2:1) the Christian life.

Titus shows God’s grace in saving us by his own cleansing mercy when we were most mired in sinful passions (Tit. 3:5).

Philemon shows God’s grace in transcending socially hierarchical structures with the deeper bond of Christ-won Christian brotherhood (Philem. 16).

Hebrews shows God’s grace in giving his Son to be both our sacrifice to atone for us once and for all and our high priest to intercede for us forever (Heb. 9:12).

James shows us God’s grace by giving to those who have been born again ‘of his own will’ (James 1:18) ‘wisdom from above’ for meaningful godly living (James 3:17).

1 Peter shows God’s grace in securing for us an unfading, imperishable inheritance no matter what we suffer in this life (1 Pet. 1:4).

2 Peter shows God’s grace in guaranteeing the inevitability that one day all will be put right as the evil that has masqueraded as good will be unmasked at the coming Day of the Lord (2 Pet. 3:10).

1 John shows God’s grace in adopting us as his children (1 John 3:1).

2 and 3 John show God’s grace in reminding specific individuals of ‘the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever’ (2 John 2).

Jude shows God’s grace in the Christ who presents us blameless before God in a world rife with moral chaos (Jude 24).

Revelation shows God’s grace in preserving his people through cataclysmic suffering, a preservation founded on the shed blood of the lamb (Rev. 12:11).

Hallelujah !

Grace - is The Truth

 “And you shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free”
John 8:32

What does it really mean?

Notice that Jesus said this to the Jews of His day. These were people who at an early age grew up studying and learning the law. Yet, these people, much like us today, still battled with fears, anxieties, sicknesses and all kinds of oppression, bondage's and addictions.

So what is this truth that Jesus was talking about, this truth that if His hearers knew, would set them free of all these destructive things? Well, it clearly cannot be the law, because these people were already well-versed in the law. They were already observing the law as best they could, yet they could not find freedom in the law.


My friend, I submit to you that the truth that Jesus was talking about, the truth that shall make you free, is the truth of His grace. This is the truth that He came to give us. His Word proclaims that “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).


[In this scripture] in the original Greek, “grace and truth” are regarded as one item because the following verb, “came,” is used in the singular. Grace and truth are one and the same thing.

Grace  that has the power to set you free from fear, guilt and all addictions—“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

Your freedom is found in rightly believing in His love, His grace, and His favor in your life. When you believe right about His grace, you will begin to live right. Right believing always produces right living.

...excerpt from The Power of Right Believing by Joseph Prince

Grace — Antidote for the Poisoned Mind

Grace is the truth that Jesus came to give us. His Word proclaims that “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).
In the original Greek, “grace and truth” are regarded as one item because the following verb, “came,” is used in the singular. Grace and truth are one and the same thing. 

Grace is the truth that has the power to set you free from fear, guilt, and all addictions — “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

It is the truth of grace and not of the law
that brings you true freedom. 

The truth of the law only binds you. In fact, religious bondage is one of the most crippling bondages with which a person can be encumbered. Religious bondage keeps one in constant fear, guilt, and anxiety.

The good news is that grace came
to set you free from the curse of the law.

Grace is not a doctrine or theological subject. When Jesus talks about grace, He is talking about Himself. Grace is a person. 

Grace is Jesus Himself.

“For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). 

The truth that has the power
to fling wide open your prison doors
is His grace!

His grace is the antidote to counteract every poison in your mind! When you taste Jesus’ love and savor His loving-kindness and tender mercies, every wrong belief begins to dissolve in the glory of His love.

...excerpt from The Power of Right Believing by Joseph Prince

Perspective

An Atheist’s View on Life

I will live my life according to these beliefs
God does not exist
It is just foolish to think
That there is a God with a cosmic plan
That an all-powerful God brings purpose to the pain and suffering in the world
Is a comforting thought, however
Is only wishful thinking
People can do as they please without eternal consequences
The idea that
I am deserving of Hell
Because of sin
Is a lie meant to make me a slave to those in power
“The more you have, the happier you will be”;
Our existence has no grand meaning or purpose
In a world with no God
There is freedom to be who I want to be
But with God
Everything is fine
It is ridiculous to think
I am lost and in need of saving.

A Christian’s View on Life

(Now - read this from bottom to top.)

~ Author Unknown