The Grace Dispensation is the one in which we live. "If you have heard of the dispensation of the Grace of God ... "(Ephesians 3 :2). Though this Grace Dispensation is now 1900 years old, still today, so many seem not to have heard! you should go to 10,000 doors and ask if they had heard, how many would tell you, "yes "?
What is God's offer for this Grace Dispensation? The offer is individual salvation oll'the sole basis of depending upon the Lord Jesus Christ, His work, not yours! Please read Romans 4:5 several times and think: what does it say? "To him that worketh not but believeth on HIM that..justifies the ungodly,-his- faith is counted, for righteousness." (Justified means given a righteous standing.) Justification and reconciliation for the alienated, for the ungodly. is offered free, .no works involved, nothing to payor to do (2 Corinthians 5:19, 20). That is the AMAZING GRACE OF G0D!
How many hundreds of people I've talked to who said, "Oh, if only I could know if I've done enough (works, charities, rituals, etc.)." Of course you have not; no one has; it's not that way at all; Heaven is not up for trade! It is by GRACE only.
If any say,. you make it too simple,. or it's not that easy, I reply: when you add law-keeping, you make it too hard, in fact, you make it utterly impossible! For the Lord is not receiving any on the basis of human works in this Dispensation. If any think some works or rituals are involved for them to do for salvation or to keep salvation, they are trusting in works and not in the Lord Jesus Christ only, and so they are still lost. Any who trust in works, that is, think that salvation is by some human work or partly by some human works or goodnesses, are under the curse (Galatians 3:10).
Salvation is not part law and part grace, not part your works and part Christ's. Works and grace, being opposites, are not to be mixed (Romans 11 :6). For by Grace are you save by believing, Ephesians 2:8,9. Not by works of righteousness which we do (Titus 3:5). There are 147 Scriptures passages that teach salvation by believing only.
Grace is the only hope for the guilty. Grace is the -gift for beggars-for those who recognize themselves condemned by the Law. Some say spiritually bankrupt, but bankrupt implies you once had something; so it is even more the realization-not only I have nothing, but I never had a thing to merit God's acceptance. Have you so realized yourself?
Though Grace is free, it is not "cheap." It cost all the Lord suffered to make salvation possible for you. Those who think they should be accepted by their works or partly by their works are insulting the work the Lord did, for they are saying it was not enough, not sufficient. God saves by Grace because He is satisfied that the work on the cross was sufficient, and by it every claim against you has been paid. Why aren't you, likewise, satisfied with a salvation by Grace?
The saved person of this Dispensation 'is one' who, seeing himself as a sinner, has believed on the Lord for salvation and who, because of having believed, knows: I have believed on the Lord and I know I am thereby saved.
Since salvation is by Grace, it is completely secure (John 3: 16; Romans 8:35-39). How life may be lived after one is saved is given in another chapter. Works pleasing to the Lord are possible after one is saved, the works flowing from the salvation already possessed (but it is not doing works to try to attain to salvation-there is a whole world of difference).
The Law was given to Israel; the Announcement and the Offer of the Kingdom were to IsraeL In the Dispensation -of Grace, to WHOM is the offer made? The offer of salvation by GRACE is open to all, Gentiles and Jews. In this Dispensation, there is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:22,23). At Israel's fall the Nation became in the same class as the Gentile nations, that is, alienated from God. If a Jew is saved, it is by depending on the Lord's death on the cross for him. If a Gentile Is saved, it is by the same way. The responsibility to believe is personal; the offer today is to individuals. No one has a priority. There is equal opportunity for Gentiles and for Jews to be saved.
In the previous 2000 years before the Grace Dispensation began, the only way a Gentile could come to the Lord was on the "skirt" (Zech. 8:23)--we would say "coattail"--of a Jew, that is by becoming a proselyte to the Hebrew religion. Also previous to the Dispensation of Grace, some work was required as well as faith for salvation. For instance, Abel and Noah did the required works (see Hebrews 11:4,7, for explanation of the Genesis record). Under the Law Dispensation, it was obvious works were required constantly. And in the periods.of the Announcement and the Offer of the Kingdom, there were works to do including a law ritual. So the Dispensation of Grace was a complete change from anything that had gone before. As the Law Dispensation with its continual sacrifices, "do or be cut off," was entirely different from what was offered before it, so the Grace Dispensation is entirely different from what went before-no works at all for salvation.
"The only chapter to be interested in is the one on Grace for that's what I need," a friend said on hearing of the prospects of this book. So say we all. However, Grace is appreciated the more as we see mankind's complete failure under all the other dispensations. The unique'" jewel of Grace shines all the brighter against the background of mankind's failure under the other offers God made previous to the offer of Grace. It is serious error when the offers of other Dispensations are preached in this Dispensation of Grace .. Some may preach good things but if salvation by Grace is omitted, it is the "fatal omission." By inspiration, Paul wrote that even though an angel from Heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which he, Paul, preached, let him be accursed (Galatians 1:8; 2 Corinthians 11:14,15).
The Grace Dispensation was not prophesied. ("What if' Israel had accepted that bonafide. offer by Peter? The prophesied tribulation could have come and passed swiftly and be followed immediately by the Millennium. The Gentiles would have been blessed, hear of salvation, through Israel, rather than now apart from Israel.)
The Grace Dispensation was "hidden." It was a "sacred secret," a mystery made known to Paul by revelations (Ephesians 3:2-5; Colossians 1:24-26; Galatians 1:1,11,12 and 2:2,7,9).
The word mystery ( secret) means God "kept His mouth closed" about this' until He revealed it to Pau1. Paul (Saul) who had been the leader against the Messianic church, was saved in Acts 9. Then by abundant revelations from the Lord in glory he was made the leader of the new Dispensation (Romans 11: 13). Salvation by Grace alone was not proclaimed until Paul made it known. Paul did not learn about Grace from the 12 Apostles. They learned from him, and later Peter told people to grow in the thing Paul taught-Grace. "Grow in Grace" (2 Peter 3:18).
At Israel's rejection of King and Kingdom, what a hopeless predicament the whole world was in! For since Israel was God's witness to the" world, how could anyone come to God now that Israel would be set aside as the Gentiles had been? What utter darkness the whole world would have been plunged into-except that then God revealed the "sacred secret" of the heretofore hidden Dispensation of Grace.
How
God Saves Men
Believing
Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing
Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
Read
Romans 1:16, Romans 10:9-10 and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4
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