Message One
The Tremendous Significance
of the Grace of God
as Revealed in the New Testament
Hymns: 608
Scripture Reading: John 1:14, 16-17; Heb. 10:29;
1 Pet. 5:10; Eph. 1:5-6; 2:7-8; Rev. 22:21
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.
John 1:16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.
John 1:17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.
Heb. 10:29 By how much do you think he will be thought worthy of worse punishment who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has considered the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
1 Pet. 5:10 But the God of all grace, He who has called you into His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground you.
Eph. 1:5 Predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
Eph. 1:6 To the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He graced us in the Beloved;
Eph. 2:7 That He might display in the ages to come the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Eph. 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God;
Rev. 22:21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.
I. The grace of God is a matter of tremendous significance—John 1:14, 16-17; Eph. 2:7; Rev. 22:21:
A. Grace is the greatest truth and the highest revelation in God's New Testament economy—John 1:14, 16-17; Heb. 10:29; 1 Cor. 15:10; Phil. 4:23; Rev. 22:21.
B. If we would understand what the grace of God is as revealed in the New Testament, we need a clear view of the New Testament as a whole.
II. According to the New Testament, grace is actually what God is to us for our enjoyment—John 1:16-17; 2 Cor. 12:9:
A. Grace is God not in doctrine but in our experience, for grace is God in Christ with all that He is for our enjoyment; this includes life, strength, comfort, rest, light, righteousness, holiness, power, and the other divine attributes.
B. Grace is mainly not the work God does for us; grace is the Triune God Himself dispensed into our being and experienced by us for our enjoyment—13:14.
C. The New Testament is a history of the grace of God as the incarnation of the Triune God in His Divine Trinity processed and consummated and moving and living in and among the believers—John 1:14, 16-17; Rev. 22:21.
III. Grace is the manifestation of the Triune God in His embodiment in three aspects—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—2 Cor. 13:14; Num. 6:22-27; Psa. 36:8-9:
A. Grace is the Triune God in His incarnation to be dispensed into the believers by the Father as the source, by the Son as the element, and by the Spirit as the application—2 Cor. 13:14:
1. The source of grace, the element of grace, and the application of grace are of the three persons of the Divine Trinity to be our everything—Matt. 28:19.
2. In the divine dispensing, grace is called the grace of God, the grace of Christ, and the grace of which the Spirit is—1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 1:12; 8:1, 9; 9:14; 12:9; 13:14; Heb. 10:29.
B. Grace is the embodiment of God, who became a God-man with divinity and humanity, passed through human living, died, resurrected, and entered into ascension; now He is the life-giving Spirit dwelling in us—1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17.
C. Grace is the Triune God processed and consummated for us so that we may enjoy Him—John 1:14, 16-17; 1 Pet. 5:10; 2 Cor. 13:14; Heb. 10:29; 1 Cor. 15:10, 45b; Rev. 22:21.
D. Without being processed, the Triune God could not be grace to us—John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b:
1. The Father is embodied in the Son, the Son is realized as the Spirit, and the Spirit enters into us as grace for our enjoyment—Heb. 10:29.
2. The processed and consummated Triune God dispenses Himself into us to be our portion as grace so that we may enjoy Him as everything in His Divine Trinity—2 Cor. 13:14.
IV. Our God and Father has “graced us in the Beloved”—Eph. 1:6b:
A. For God to grace us means that He has put us into the position of grace so that we may be the object of His grace and favor, that is, that we may enjoy all that God is to us—v. 6b:
1. Because we are in the position of grace and are the object of grace, God is pleased with us.
2. God's delight is in us, we are happy in Him, and eventually, there is mutual enjoyment; we enjoy Him, and He enjoys us.
B. The Beloved is God's beloved Son, in whom He delights—Matt. 3:17; 17:5:
1. In the Beloved we have been graced, made the object of God's favor and pleasure—Eph. 1:6b.
2. As such an object, we enjoy God, and God enjoys us in His grace in His Beloved, who is His delight; in His Beloved we too become His delight—Matt. 3:17; 17:5.
V. In Ephesians 2:8 Paul says, “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God”:
A. Grace is God dispensed into us; therefore, to be saved by grace means to be saved by having the processed Triune God dispensed into us.
B. Ephesians reveals that saving grace is God Himself in Christ wrought into our being; hence, to be saved by grace actually means to be saved by the dispensing of the Triune God into us.
C. When the processed Triune God is dispensed into us, He becomes saving grace to us in our experience—2 Cor. 13:14.
VI. God has predestinated us unto sonship to “the praise of the glory of His grace”—Eph. 1:5-6a:
A. Glory is God expressed (Exo. 40:34); the glory of His grace indicates that God's grace, which is Himself as our enjoyment, expresses Him.
B. God's predestinating us unto sonship is for the praise of His expression in His grace, that is, for the praise of the glory of His grace—Eph. 1:5-6a.
VII. God will “display in the ages to come the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”—2:7:
A. In His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus, God has saved us by His grace; it is in such kindness that the grace of God is given to us—v. 7; Rom. 2:4.
B. The riches of God's grace are the riches of God Himself dispensed into us for our experience and enjoyment; the riches of God's grace surpass every limit.
C. In the ages to come—in the millennium and eternity—God will display the surpassing riches of His grace to the whole universe—Eph. 2:7.
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