Grace: God’s Enabling Power

Thesis

We live in a post-microwave world. Microwave ovens for the home were available for the first time for the previous generation. Today, we expect faster internet services, desktop supercomputers, vastly increased memory capacity, more efficient cars, etc. We demand everything come quickly while requiring little or no effort. It seems that the orthodox Christian believer or leader thinks God’s grace involves nothing more than mere mental assent. But grace has always been and will always be for those who will not idly believe. It is for those who want God’s will: grace is for the doer.

Modern misinterpretations and misapplications of grace are dangerous because they propagate an unbiblical “salvation.” Coupled with the misunderstanding of the concept of “works,” most Christians in present-day churches are even less “saved” than those for whom they pray. The correct, saving doctrine of ‘The Way’ and biblical grace for the New Testament era are enshrined in the teachings of the First Century church in the Book of Acts. Understanding grace and biblical salvation is the starting place for followers of Christ. We must follow the example of the church from that time. It is not enough only to idly believe.

Grace

Genesis 6:8 is the first biblical occurrence of grace, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” We might ask several questions. (1) What does the word grace mean? (2) Why did grace come to Noah and not others before? (3) What did Noah do (if anything) with it?

The online Merriam-Webster dictionary of August 2024 provides the following definition of the word grace.

Grace (n): 1a: unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification.

In short, grace is God’s unmerited favor. This is not to confuse God’s mercy. Mercy is setting aside punishment due: once administered, grace can operate.

A Few Examples of Grace

Twins: A non-biblical illustration

Consider a father’s 17-year-old twin sons, who got their driver’s licenses. They want to borrow Dad’s car. (Note: neither son contributed anything to the vehicle’s purchase or upkeep.)

The youngest (by 10 minutes) asks first. Reluctantly, the father gives the young man the keys. His only requirement is that the car be returned by 10 PM. At 9:55 PM, his son pulls into the driveway. Upon inspection, the father discovers a full gasoline tank, and the automobile is washed and detailed. Even the oil was changed. Dad is pleased!

The old son asks the following evening. Dad is less reluctant but with the same rule: back by 10 PM. The elder son returns after 1 AM. The car is dented and scraped up, and the tank is empty—the floors, seats, dashboard, and steering wheel sport food and mud stains. Dad is not pleased.

Did Dad’s love for the elder son diminish after the abuse? Of course not! The next time his boys request the car, whom do you suppose the father will favor? He loves both. The father owes neither the car. One did his father’s will; the other did not. The younger is likely to receive the father’s “grace,” but it is entirely within the man’s rights to allow the elder’s continued use (and possible abuse). Our little example is not perfect, but perhaps we find a clue as to why God might have given Noah grace. Not only did Noah hear God, but he responded well.

Noah

Jesus said in Matthew 20:16 and 22:14 that “many are called, but few are chosen.” The actors of The Vineyard and The Marriage Supper made their choices first. God’s judgment came after the parables’ actors made their choices. Judgment is God’s choice: who is accepted and cast away. Likely, God called men from Abel to Noah. No doubt, He called Enoch. Enoch pleased God, and God took him (Genesis 5:24, Hebrews 11:5). Aside from Enoch and Noah, we find no response. Noah was on the scene when God judged before and at the Flood, ready to obey the Lord.

How was God’s grace toward Noah manifest? First, with God’s relationship to him. God knew Noah would obey. He warned Noah of impending judgment and how to escape. The Lord provided him with a plan, the knowledge of an expert shipwright, the necessary tools and materials, and the help of three sons. Noah likely enjoyed the assistance of neighbors who were unsure of his sanity. It is no surprise that a man would build a ship. However, there was no rain before the Flood, and Noah was far from a suitable body of water.

God’s grace came to Noah because God knew Noah would do His will. What did Noah do with God’s grace? He built the ark. He obeyed. Noah was a man of action. Hebrews 11:7 says, “Noah moved with fear.” As insane as it must have seemed to his neighbors, Noah was convinced that God told the truth. Faith is evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). Noah believed in God, and saved eight souls, a human future, and countless animals.

Abram

Generations later, in Abram, we find another example of someone who responded to God, such as Noah. Abram’s father, Terah, took his son, daughter-in-law, and nephew, Lot, to Heran. After Terah died, God told Abram to leave his home and go to Canaan, as recorded in Genesis 12:1-3. Genesis 12:4 notes Abram’s obedience. There was no stalling. His obedience continued to the end. God made a covenant with Abram, symbolized by circumcision, something Jews to this day practice. God changed his name to Abraham (from father to father of many nations). God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham’s response to the command was to call it “worship,” supposing that God would bring Isaac back from the dead (Hebrews 11:19). God provided a substitute for Isaac, typifying the substitute our Savior would make once and for all. God was gracious toward Abraham, but the man was not idle. The father of the faithful obeyed what God commanded and used what He provided (even to the point of error, with Hagar and Ishmael). He was vigorously active in pursuit of God’s will.

Contrary Examples

Consider the examples of Jonah and Saul of Tarsus, who opposed God’s will. God called Jonah to preach judgment to Nineveh. Judgment always includes a way of escape. Upon receiving his call, Jonah fled against God’s will. God convinced Jonah, who grudgingly obeyed. Was that God’s grace? Indeed! He placed Jonah in a fish, released him, and gave him a second chance. God owed Jonah and Nineveh nothing but allowed the prophet and wicked Nineveh to repent.

Consider also Saul of Tarsus. Saul was zealous for God, though misdirected. It took Jesus to redirect Saul. God’s grace put Saul on the right path and opened his understanding. Once on the right path, Saul became the Apostle Paul, the great apostle, evangelist, teacher, and author. Paul’s influence will be felt until the Lord Jesus takes His bride home.

God’s grace is His unmerited favor to those who will do His will.

Gracious onto Whom He Will

The four biblical examples of grace are a few among many. Some examples are of people who obviously would do God’s will. Some seemed contrary to God’s leading. The final analysis is that God gave grace to those who would do His will. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman church:

Romans 9:15-19 NKJV

¹⁵ For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”

¹⁶ So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.

¹⁷ For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”

¹⁸ Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.

God owes man nothing but vengeance. God chooses the recipient of His grace. Pharaoh resisted God in his heart, so God hardened Pharaoh’s heart even more. Moses desired to do God’s will, even to attempt it in his power (by murdering the Egyptian (Exodus 2:11-12)). Moses merited none of what God provided him. By definition, God gave Moses grace. Perhaps there are non-biblical examples of God being gracious to those who do not do His will, but the faithful of scripture always had God’s grace before doing God’s will. Of course, His grace precedes and accompanies faith. Grace is a necessary component igniting a doer’s faith.

Works or Grace?

Ephesians 2:8-9

⁸ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast.

When Noah was confronted with God’s call, he was not idle: He moved with fear. God’s grace warned Noah, providing his needs and sufficient time. Of what could Noah boast? He could truthfully say he built the ship, but for God, Noah would perish. God gives us the victory. We must give Him the glory. God provided. He was gracious. Noah obeyed.

Of what could Abraham boast? He was dead in his flesh when he fathered Isaac. Could Johan glory in his obedience? God brought the reluctant prophet to a nation hungry for God’s word. Only God knew the heart of the Ninevites. What of Saul of Tarsus? Could he brag? He was a misguided, zealous man. Jesus set him straight and made him the Apostle Paul. Without Jesus, we can do nothing (John 15:5). It is God’s glory alone.

Throughout the Old Testament, those who received God’s grace had faith: they were doers. (Find an exception.) Without God’s grace, there is no faith or its resulting action. The action could include swinging a hammer, using a trowel while holding a sword, praying, fleeing, and on and on, as the Lord and the moment demanded.

God is sovereign and our source of wisdom. When God speaks into one’s life, He requires obedience, whether in action or inaction. Consider the interaction between God and Israel on the shores of the Red Sea. First, it was “stand still and see the salvation of the LORD (inaction),” and then, over the dry ground that was a seabed, it was “move (action; Exodus 14:13-15)!”

James 2:14, 17 NKJV

¹⁴ What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?

¹⁷ Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

One might argue that all of these examples are from the Old Testament, while Saul’s is exclusively in the Book of Acts in the New Testament. God requires action in response to faith, which befits His character, a vibrant doer. Ponder the fantastic universe in which we live. He created it all! God does what only He can, expecting a believer to do what he can.

We must distinguish works from obedience. Paul’s “works” in Ephesians chapter 2 are what only Jesus could do, and no other man. The works the Apostle James discusses are obedience propelled by faith. Salvation is available because of Jesus’ work. Our response to His work determines our place with Him. It is a pattern. God does what only He can do. The believer must obey to be in His will.

Living Under Grace & Salvation

One might say, “We live under grace now.” Amen! We no longer wait and hope. Because the Lamb of God was slain and rose again, God’s grace is available to all. God still speaks to people. We are blessed to have the stories of Old Testament, but we have the written Word of God. Until Moses, it was not available to the believer. In modern times, what we must do is written down on paper. And God will not speak or act against His Word (Malachi 3:6).

Following are some curious things in scripture that all relate to salvation. The written Word of God is our map.

• Straight and narrow is the way that leads to life, and only a few will find it (Matthew 7:13-14).
• Jesus gave Simon Peter the keys to the kingdom of God (Matthew 16:19).
• Jesus told Nicodemus that without being born again of Spirit and water, one cannot see or enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:3, 3:5).
• Jesus was our propitiation, but then spent forty days after His resurrection with His disciples (Luke 24:44-49).
• After His ascension, the disciples, including the 120, prayed in the Upper Room for ten days. On the tenth day, on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fell on the believers as prophesied in the Book of Joel.
• The Day of Pentecost marks the beginning of the New Testament church as we know it.

Jesus gave Simon Peter the keys to the Kingdom of God. The Apostle preached the first New Testament sermon on the Day of Pentecost. His preaching convicted the crowd of murder. That crowd was the same crying, “Crucify Him, crucify Him,” fifty days earlier. Peter gave them instructions to obey. Those instructions are in place today. He told them to repent, be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). He and other apostles repeated that in Samaria, at the Cornelius’ home, at a jail, and to disciples of John the Baptist. Even Saul of Tarsus had to obey Peter’s message.

Their preaching was consistent and unchanging. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians that if a man or angel preached any other gospel, he would be cursed (Gal. 1:8-9). One might decide that Acts 2:38 is not the gospel. Isn’t it? That is what Peter preached at the beginning. Why would it change? The reader is challenged to find where it changed in the Book of Acts. According to the Apostle Jude, he wrote:

Jude 1:3

³ Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

Most scholars believe his epistle was written shortly before the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. By then, the salvation message was common to all (all need it) and delivered to the saints. It will not change until Jesus takes His bride home.

Being a believer in the Old Testament was a “participatory sport.” How has that changed? It hasn’t much. We no longer need to build an ark; no lumber or hammers necessary. Your obedience is not the work that saves you. Your efforts resemble running into the ark (1 Peter 3:20-21). Jesus built “the ark:” He made a way. He did what only God could do. You must obey. Not even God will make you do that.

Through His disciple Simon Peter, Jesus has told us what to do (John 17:17-20). One may claim the message was only for the First Century church. The author challenges the reader to find the change within the pages of the Holy Bible. Rely only on the Word of God.

The Fearful Alternative

Suppose you, the reader, are walking on train tracks. Would the reader find offense if the author shouted, “Train!” because of an oncoming train? The warning could be life-saving. Moving is a choice. We choose our beliefs and resulting actions, but the consequences are out of our hands.

Noah warned his generation, if nothing else, by the great ship he built. Yet, no one heeded the warning, save his family and himself.

2^nd Thessalonians 2:10-12

¹⁰ And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

¹¹ And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

¹² That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Just as the final generation who will not receive the love of the truth, the people of Noah’s time believed a lie and were damned. They chose to believe there was no Flood coming. Jesus is returning soon. The one to whom He gave the keys to the kingdom told us how to get into the New Testament “ark.” It is up to the hearer to choose: heed the instructions or refuse the love of the truth.

Matthew 7:21-23

²¹ Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

²² Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

²³ And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Is He the Lord of your life? If He is, you will recognize His authority and obey.

God’s Will: Repentance

2^nd Peter 3:9

⁹ The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Like Jude, Peter’s second epistle is one of the last epistles. The man who preached on the Day of Pentecost tells his readers that it is not God’s will that any should perish but that ALL should repent.

In Conclusion

When Jesus died on the Cross, we entered the age of grace. Jesus is full of grace and truth. The Lamb of God took away the world’s sin; He did what He could do. He gave Simon Peter the keys to the Kingdom of God. He shared with the church the keys to unlocking the way. God’s grace made a way to enter the narrow gate and cross the great gulf between God and us (Luke 16:26).

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12).

Obey Acts 2:38!

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