What Is Grace? -
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
“The
father of lies” always hates the truth, but he does not always oppose
it by the same methods. If he fails to succeed as a roaring lion he may
appear as an angel of light, suggesting that surely a God of love will
not condemn Christ-rejectors forever. Sinners, he will contend, are not
responsible for their sins anyway, for does not Eph. 1:11 teach that
“[God] worketh all things after the counsel of His own will”? And thus
God Himself is supposed to have conceived the idea of sin as “a gracious
means to a glorious end,” and to have caused man to fall into sin so
that He might finally save him from it!
Why
an almighty, all-wise, all-loving God permitted sin to enter the
universe must, for the time being, remain an impenetrable mystery to us,
but one thing is certain: He is not the author of sin, and never
accepts the responsibility for it — except that in grace and love He
bore its penalty for man.
God
calls sinners “children of disobedience” and “children of wrath” (Eph.
2:2,3), explaining in the clearest language that He hates sin and that
His anger is kindled against it (Rom. 1:18; Eph. 5:6; John 3:36). But if
God meant man to sin and caused him to sin, how was man disobedient and
what cause could God have to be angry? Those who would shift the
responsibility for sin from themselves to God should remember that He
proclaimed His standards of righteousness in the Law “that every mouth
may be stopped and that all the world may be brought in guilty before
God” (Rom. 3:19).
The
contention that all will finally be saved may at first sound like
wonderful grace, but actually there is not one particle of grace in it,
for it is based on the theory that since God got us into sin it is only
just that He save us from its penalty. But grace is God’s mercy and
kindness to the undeserving. In Eph. 2, after calling sinners “children
of disobedience” and therefore “children of wrath,” the Apostle Paul
goes on to say:
“BUT GOD, who is RICH IN MERCY, for His GREAT LOVE wherewith he loved us… hath quickened us… raised us up… and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that in the ages to come He might show THE EXCEEDING RICHES OF HIS GRACE IN HIS KINDNESS TOWARD US THROUGH CHRIST JESUS” (Eph. 2:4-7).
King James Bible
The Preserved and Living Word of God
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