Grace
October 16, 2024
Pastor Gordon Cook
I'm going to start with a quote from someone who was the editor of the Banner of Truth magazine, Maurice Roberts. I used to get that magazine quite regularly and what I appreciated so much about Mr. Roberts was he focused upon Christ and upon God. Here's what he said in one of his articles,
Pastor Gordon Cook
I'm going to start with a quote from someone who was the editor of the Banner of Truth magazine, Maurice Roberts. I used to get that magazine quite regularly and what I appreciated so much about Mr. Roberts was he focused upon Christ and upon God. Here's what he said in one of his articles,
"To have God in your mind and thought is the believer's constant source of strength. The thought of God should be the Christian's panacea, it should cure all his ills, all his worries at a stroke."
And he goes on to say this,
"Christian, there exists a being who is infinite in power, knowledge and goodness and who cares for you with a perfect love and sent his son to suffer the agony of the cross to secure your eternal happiness."
If we really believe that, it should be the easiest thing to worship him, thank him, and praise him.
This is a distinct gospel from the other three gospels, it's got that real interesting prologue. But here we get introduced to Jesus, not from a historical perspective like Matthew or Mark. Mark introduces us to Jesus by way of his baptism, Matthew by the way of his birth. But here we go right back to the very beginning of beginnings, “In the beginning was the Word.”
If you look back at verse 16 and 17, you've got two words that are mentioned here in John 1, the word glory and the word grace. I don't think there are two words that have had me thinking more over the years than those two words, the word glory and the word grace. The word glory is used twice, but the word grace is used three times. Look again at verse 16, “For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace;” and then verse 17, “For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” And again it's very hard to find a more important word than that word grace. It has been argued by different theologians that it's the key word to understanding our salvation. I think Dr. Packard says it is the key word to open up or unlock the New Testament. Dr. McMillan, a pastor teacher who was over in Scotland many years — he was a preacher over there, I have some of his books on my shelf. He died back in 1991 at the age of 58. But here's what he said, “The doctrines of grace or of the Bible cannot be understood properly if we don't understand grace.” Dr. Packer, again, listen to what he says, “It is the key word of the New Testament.”
And we don't deny that grace is found in the Old Testament, you couldn't be saved without faith, without grace. Noah, remember, found grace in the sight of God, we read of that in Genesis 6. But under the New Testament, grace takes on a richer and a manifold expression and application. That explains why John makes that contrast. Look again what he does between Moses and Christ, the law came by Moses, but grace came by Jesus. And when Jesus came there was a flood tide or a tsunami of grace and it keeps on coming. I remember one person saying, grace has a face, it's the face of Jesus.
And if you go through your Bible, you find that word is used to describe God, God is a God of grace. It is used to describe Christ, obviously here it references Christ and even the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of grace. When we think of our salvation, past grace, present grace, future grace. Past grace: electing grace, predestinating grace, the grace of calling, the grace of regeneration, the grace of justification, that's past grace. You have present grace: adoption, perseverance, progressive sanctification; we also need grace every step of the way. And we can speak of future grace, ultimately glorification, that's future grace; but you even need grace for tomorrow, you need grace next week, you need grace next month, we need grace every day of our lives. We need grace to fight the fight of faith. We need grace to fight our worries and our fears. We need grace to suffer wisely and to suffer well. Remember what the apostle Paul said in terms of his thorn in the flesh, he found the grace of Christ. It was sufficient for his trial.
When you think of prayer, can you think of grace? It's the throne of grace, Hebrews 4:13, “We come to the throne of grace.” Why do we come to the throne of grace? To receive grace. We need grace. If there's anything you can be sure of when you come to prayer, if you're a Christian, it is that God, the God of grace will give you grace. We need to pray for grace, grace of faith, strengthen our faith, the grace of boldness, the grace of perseverance, the grace of humility... we even need to pray for grace to receive God's word, to receive it with meekness. As we go back to the past Lord's day let's even pray and thank God for getting exposed to what we call the means of grace; private means, public means of grace, the teaching and preaching of God's word.
John 1:14-18, “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.”
This is a distinct gospel from the other three gospels, it's got that real interesting prologue. But here we get introduced to Jesus, not from a historical perspective like Matthew or Mark. Mark introduces us to Jesus by way of his baptism, Matthew by the way of his birth. But here we go right back to the very beginning of beginnings, “In the beginning was the Word.”
If you look back at verse 16 and 17, you've got two words that are mentioned here in John 1, the word glory and the word grace. I don't think there are two words that have had me thinking more over the years than those two words, the word glory and the word grace. The word glory is used twice, but the word grace is used three times. Look again at verse 16, “For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace;” and then verse 17, “For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” And again it's very hard to find a more important word than that word grace. It has been argued by different theologians that it's the key word to understanding our salvation. I think Dr. Packard says it is the key word to open up or unlock the New Testament. Dr. McMillan, a pastor teacher who was over in Scotland many years — he was a preacher over there, I have some of his books on my shelf. He died back in 1991 at the age of 58. But here's what he said, “The doctrines of grace or of the Bible cannot be understood properly if we don't understand grace.” Dr. Packer, again, listen to what he says, “It is the key word of the New Testament.”
And we don't deny that grace is found in the Old Testament, you couldn't be saved without faith, without grace. Noah, remember, found grace in the sight of God, we read of that in Genesis 6. But under the New Testament, grace takes on a richer and a manifold expression and application. That explains why John makes that contrast. Look again what he does between Moses and Christ, the law came by Moses, but grace came by Jesus. And when Jesus came there was a flood tide or a tsunami of grace and it keeps on coming. I remember one person saying, grace has a face, it's the face of Jesus.
And if you go through your Bible, you find that word is used to describe God, God is a God of grace. It is used to describe Christ, obviously here it references Christ and even the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of grace. When we think of our salvation, past grace, present grace, future grace. Past grace: electing grace, predestinating grace, the grace of calling, the grace of regeneration, the grace of justification, that's past grace. You have present grace: adoption, perseverance, progressive sanctification; we also need grace every step of the way. And we can speak of future grace, ultimately glorification, that's future grace; but you even need grace for tomorrow, you need grace next week, you need grace next month, we need grace every day of our lives. We need grace to fight the fight of faith. We need grace to fight our worries and our fears. We need grace to suffer wisely and to suffer well. Remember what the apostle Paul said in terms of his thorn in the flesh, he found the grace of Christ. It was sufficient for his trial.
When you think of prayer, can you think of grace? It's the throne of grace, Hebrews 4:13, “We come to the throne of grace.” Why do we come to the throne of grace? To receive grace. We need grace. If there's anything you can be sure of when you come to prayer, if you're a Christian, it is that God, the God of grace will give you grace. We need to pray for grace, grace of faith, strengthen our faith, the grace of boldness, the grace of perseverance, the grace of humility... we even need to pray for grace to receive God's word, to receive it with meekness. As we go back to the past Lord's day let's even pray and thank God for getting exposed to what we call the means of grace; private means, public means of grace, the teaching and preaching of God's word.
Posted in Pastor Devotional