Sovereign, Sustaining Grace
GRACE
I remembered Xiwen asking about what grace is, so I went home and had a few days of research. It was rather enlightening and thought I’d share with you all.
Like she have said, grace may be something that is given when you do not deserve it. True. Which of us deserves to be saved? None. ‘ For all have tried but fall short before the glory of the lord.’ (Romans) Yes. Grace is definitely something that we don’t deserve. But to grace there is more than that. It is not about whether grace is deserving or undeserving. Not about us being worthy or not. After much research, grace is not about us receiving, but more so on GOD GIVING.
The parable of the lost coin, the lost sheep, etc points to the joy of finding the lost ones. Yes, I would bet that the coin, the sheep would have felt extremely ‘privileged’ to have been found by the owner. HOWEVER, the ultimate joy and glory, and the main person in the parables are ALL THE OWNERS. Not the found. The most evident would be the parable of the prodigal son. He went away, splurging, came back empty, and was given more. The joy did not only belong to the son. More joy belonged to the FATHER. He RAN towards his son, hugged and kissed him. In Traditional Israel, the guys would never do something so embarrassing and unmanly. But the fact the father did it shows the JOY. Thus, we receive grace, but the ultimate character in grace is GOD, not us.
Ephesians 2:7 ‘ In the coming ages he (will) show the immeasurable riches of his GRACE in KINDNESS towards us in Christ Jesus.’ – Kindness towards us.
Then, upon further discovery, grace is also something given that is not a RIGHT.
1) Psalms 35:37 ‘ Great is the lord, who delights in the WELFARE of his SERVANTS’ – What right does the servant have? But he DELIGHTS in providing
2) Isiah 62:4-5 – In the end, it shows that God is omnipotent & righteous & holy & sovereign & creator & glorious, BUT of all the things he could do, he CHOSE to MANIFEST in LOVE, yesterday, today, forever. No matter, how we change, no matter our status, our predicament, our place. God gave not by what you are, by because of who he is, and that he is the provider. This is grace.
We can view a lot of things as grace, and the bible refers to this word a lot of times. However, the modern context of grace may not be the same as some of the times that grace appeared in the bible, which prompted another question. WHAT DOES GRACE DO?
The answer came in the forms that grace manifested in the bible: sovereign, sustaining grace, in the place of grace
Here’s a story told by John Piper in one of his lectures: Bob Richer, president of BGC, and his daughter were driving when they met with an accident. His daughter would have died, if it had not been for the ‘coincidental’ doctor in the car behind them who ‘happened’ to have an air tube and knew how to use it to save a dying person. What grace. However, let us think about this for a moment: If God could play with probability such that there is an accident, and that father lives, and the daughter would suffer from the accident but would be saved by a doctor in the car behind who would happen to have an air tube to save her, do you think that God could not have prevented it all in the first place? Then why? This has to do with sustaining Grace.
GOD does not ALWAYS (sometimes he does) spare calamity. Jeremiah 32:36 ‘Now therefore thus says the lord god of Israel concerning this city of which you say, ‘it is given into the hand of the king of Babylon (enemy) by sword (fighting), by famine, and by pestilence.’ Oh the suffering Israel had to bear. Calamity may not be spared. BUT ultimately, God has the last word: Sovereign Grace. A grace that in all these God can still save, that his sovereignty cannot be doubted. Jeremiah 32:37 continues to show his sovereignty in this matter: ‘ Behold, I will gather them out of all the lands to which I have driven them….., and I will bring them back to this place & make them dwell in safety.’ Sovereignty hand in hand with grace. For God wraith by his righteousness, by loved in grace. Righteousness and law would have probably deemed us dead, if not for God’s SOVEREIGNTY in the matter, that he would use CHRIST JESUS to redeem. Sovereign grace.
But how do we know that sovereign grace works for us? Not against us? In what do we, sinners, hope in to be assured that God would provide this Grace? That would be sustaining grace, in the promises God himself made as grace that he would provide to sustain. These are from Jeremiah 32:38-41
1) 32:38: Gods promise of grace manifesting in his presence with us. ‘ They will be my people and I will be their God.’ God would make sure we STAY as his people and that he would BE OUR GOD FOREVER. NO MATTER WHAT.
3) 32:40: Gods promise of a grace that holds onto us. ‘ …..that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put fear of me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me.’ —-> God would not forsake nor abandon you, NO MATTER WHAT.
4) 32:41: Gods promise of grace through his infinite love for us. ‘ and I will rejoice over them to do them good,….. with ALL MY HEART AND WITH ALL MY SOUL.’ NO MATTER WHAT.
All this is sustaining, in that it does not waver due to changes in us, and works for the good in us, so that we might be sustained. These are sustaining. yesterday, today, forever. And what, we act to get this grace? Nope. It is the sovereign will of God that HE would be the one doing all these.
I do not know whether you would understand this. It is something I got out of the grace of God that he showed to me when I bursted my lung, and again, and again. Why not just not let it happen? Before that, I would tell you this. It is all the better that God provided the strength and wisdom and courage and love and GRACE to endure and persevere through all these things for me to see the glory that is him and boast of not myself but him. And that is what he will do. TO PERFECTION. ‘ my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made PERFECT in WEAKNESS.’ Not in it never happening. In sustaining, sovereign grace we would find the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, so that we have nothing to boast but in him, that the glory would go to him.
TAKE THIS INTO THE DEEPEST OF CONSIDERATIONS: If it NEVER happened, would it be grace? No. We would not say, ‘God ceased these from happening to me.’ It just did not happen. But grace that endures through these happenings would then become sustaining, sovereign grace from the living God. Amen.
