The Comfort of Grace
Man is obsessed with salvation by works. He has invented endless religions with this foundation. All of the gods, of all the religions, are slave masters. The allure of Law keeping even competes with the Gospel of grace, in Christianity (see Galatians).
First, there is the unbeliever, who imagines that Christ Jesus will only save him, if he obeys the Law. He does not understand grace leading to justification. Second, there is the believer, who imagines that Christ Jesus will only bless him, if he obeys the Law. He does not understand grace unto sanctification.
Unbelievers and believers only invite guilt and misery for this obsession with Law keeping (obedience). Repeated failure hinders one’s approach to and walk with God, and it is the very reason to abort any endeavor to try and keep the Law of God…before the comfort of the Gospel has been received and enjoyed. What must come first is Gospel comfort. This only comes to those whose fleshly sin-nature is met with the grace-nature of the Holy Spirit.
Grace from the indwelling Holy Spirit showers the regenerate with love, gifts, blessings, and assurance. Even faith, to apprehend all that the Spirit bestows, is a gift of grace (Rom 12:3; Eph 2:8–9; Phil 1:29; Heb 12:2). The grateful receipt of good things from God is from the same Spirit, who constrains us to holiness. In this, the Spirit of holiness is the catalyst for the Christian’s holiness (Rom 15:16; 1 Thess 4:3, 7; 5:23; 2 Thess 2:13; 1 Pet 1:2). This is one element of the restoration of the image of God in the believer.
The joy of the Lord is your strength (Neh 8:10). Peace with God (Rom 5:1) affords the peace of God that keeps your heart and mind through Christ Jesus (1 Cor 2:16; Phil 4:7). Hope in Him actually purifies the Christian (1 Jn 3:3). Knowing God’s joy, peace, hope, love, etc., helps us to rest in the comforts bestowed. We are blessed. We know it. Then, we work.
As you read your Bible, you first digest the Gospel of grace, before receiving exhortation to live holy. Legalists focus on the exhortation, while Antinomians focus on grace. Christians must emphasize both grace and holy living. Grace, first, then comes the exhortation. Grace unto holiness is the rhythm of the prophets and the apostles’ writings.
Imagine receiving your paycheck on your first day of working for a new employer. Unimaginable, right? Grace precedes good works; and it powerfully compels us to labor as unto the Lord, not as an obligation, but as a labor of love. Love never fails in its amazing timing and provision of grace upon grace. Faith trusts that grace will get the job done.
In order to ruin this wonderful economy of “grace first,” one only has to engage in good works before grace. Self-design, followed by self-motivation, in order to self-generate one’s works, to win favor with God, can only fail. God does not bless with wages for services rendered. He blesses; and the fountain of grace and blessing overflows the cup, of those who wait upon the Lord. They have plenty of good works to do (Eph 2:10; Jas 2:14–26), as God’s Spirit is willing and doing His good pleasure in them (Is 26:12; Phil 2:13).
When Jesus commanded the crippled man at Bethesda, “Arise, take up your pallet and walk (Jn 5:8),” He was not a cruel mocker, but He knew the power of grace, to perform the very miracle ordained for that very place and time. Invisible grace is what moves mountains, and faith is an on-location witness, to boast in the glory of God’s works.
Preaching the Law of God is a ministry of condemnation. Unless the bridge to the Gospel is crossed, the preacher has abandoned his congregation in the impassable desert of condemnation (Jn 3:18). Men cannot escape this without the Gospel, and men cannot flourish in the Christian life, without a steady diet of the Gospel’s message of grace.
Sins depress the saints, and without a fresh washing of water by the Word (Eph 5:26), the temptation is to do something “good” for Jesus, in order to cover the sins that can still easily encompass us. Truth about grace is in the Gospel of forgiveness. The promises of God, for the believer, are comfort and assurance. Nothing soothes the fresh wound of sin like remembering that nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:39), where there is now no condemnation (Rom 8:1), from the One who has promised to never leave, nor forsake you (Heb 13:5).
The reason there is no blessed assurance of salvation (Rom 5–8), in false religions and Christian cults, is that unbelievers cannot heed the command of the religious leader. Demanding obedience of people, who have no will nor ability to obey, is wicked. It tortures the soul, which earnestly, yet erroneously turns to self-flagellation. The dark world of religion, even when it masquerades in bright colored hats and robes, is merely a slave market of lost souls.
In contrast to the regimen of the rites and ritual chain gang is the Gospel of light (2 Cor 4:4; 2 Tim 1:10). The Gospel is the consolation of Israel (Lk 2:25), illumined by the Comforter sent from God the Father and God the Son (Jn 14:16, 26; 15:26). Dark drudgery is never the service and worship of the Christian. Grace is amazing, and it must be preached in the light of truth. Where truth is spoken, that is, Law and Gospel, the light of Christ shines, as grace commands unworthy sinners to forsake the way of religion, “Come to Me, you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Mt 11:28).”
Jesus alone gives rest, to the slave of sin working, working, working to make himself acceptable to God, or to those working, working, working to receive blessing from God. Friend, only Jesus is acceptable to God. Go to Him! Christian, only in Christ, are all the spiritual blessings (Eph 1:3). He gives good gifts to those who find rest, not works, in Him (Rom 4:5). Go to Him! Rest, first, then there will be wonderful works to follow (Eph 2:10).
Grace may offend you, today, which is assurance that you do not know, nor do you have grace from God. If this simple reminder of grace delights you, however, then enjoy it with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength…forever. It is sufficient for you!
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
June 4, 2022
