(Pastor Chen)
We have been looking at the subject of faith. Last time I pointed out that faith is simply a channel or a vehicle to receive the grace of God. It is a means to access what God has willingly provided for us by grace. I like to picture it this way; grace is God reaching down with all things that pertain to life and godliness. He is eager and willing for us to have them. Faith is us reaching up and receiving everything that He has for us. Faith lays hold of what God has for us. Without grace, faith makes no sense because there is nothing to lay hold of. It is important to have a proper understanding of the grace of God. If we try to operate in faith without the proper perspective of grace, faith becomes a struggle instead of rest.
Most of us are very familiar with the classic definition of grace - God's unmerited favor. I would like to give another definition that will enhance our understanding of grace. Grace is God's willingness to use His power to meet our needs and solve our problems independent of our own effort. Grace does not depend on the nature of the receiver; it is dependent on the nature of the Giver. We can see this very readily through the work of the cross. God did not send Jesus to die on the cross because of who we are or what we do. He did it because of His nature. Romans 5:8 tells us, "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." His very nature is love (I John 4:7). He cannot help but being gracious because it is His nature.
It is essential for us to understand the graciousness of God because none of us is perfect. We all have fallen, and we all come short. One card that the devil consistently uses against believers is - "you are not good enough." We feel that we have to reach a certain state for us to be able to receive from God. If we have to be "good enough" to receive from God, then it is no longer by grace but by works, and none of us would be qualified because God demands perfection. We need to realize that Jesus in substitutionary redemption took on our imperfection that we might have His perfection. It is like this, God gives everybody a test. He does not grade on curves; He expects perfection. Anybody makes anything less than perfection will be punished, not rewarded. Everybody fails the test. Jesus willingly steps in and takes the test for us and passes with perfection. He proceeds to take our punishment then turns around and gives us His grade. That is the act of grace! Thank God now we do not have to go to God based on our merit but on Jesus' merit and that is by grace.
The more revelation we have about grace, the easier it will be for us to receive from God. When we realize how much and how eager that God wants us to have His provision, faith will cease to be a struggle. We will talk more about faith later. And when we do receive from Him, we will be more grateful instead of thinking that we have accomplished something just because we exercise our faith. Everything that we are, everything that we have, and everything that we can do is because of His grace and not because of our work. I Corinthians 4:7 summons it up, "And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you glory as if you had not received it?" More to come in the next lesson.