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God's Love
Colin:
Hi everybody
This thread has provided some excellent food for thought......by some "coincidence" (not really) I decided to read the transcript of Ray's June 2007 Bible Study entitled "Saved by Grace ...by divine influence upon our hearts "
I include an excerpt from it which I found enlightening and felt it could be beneficial while we are contemplating this topic. Unfortunately I do not have the link details to it, but Kat, with her extensive archive could "dig it out" to provide ready access for all. Half way through the transcript , the following is found.....
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,5417.0.html (link added by Kat)
Well now, did Israel have divine influence from God upon their hearts? No. Listen - the most times you will find grace in the Old Testament talking about anything or anybody, it’s [re] Moses. It’s always Moses saying, ‘oh Lord I hope I find grace in Your eyes.’ He just means favour. He says, don’t be mad at me, let me do right - let me find mercy - let me find favour - let me find safety - don’t get angry God, let me find grace in your eyes; it’s in there about 8 times. Never once in the Old Testament is anybody ever talked about being spiritually saved or received salvation by grace. It’s just not there.
I mean even King David… if God had divine influence on his heart, the way it’s supposed to be, why would he go to his death bed squeaking out his last words to his son, Solomon. Telling him how he wants him to kill all his enemies and make it bloody. Does that sound like divine influence upon your heart, from God? It doesn’t sound like that to me. That’s what grace is, divine - divinity - God - Godly influence on your heart. But now we’ve taken grace out of the realm of a noun, into a verb, it’s doing something you see. Of course I said that a long time ago.
Jesus didn’t need grace for any pardon of anything. But did He need the influence of God, divine influence on His heart? Absolutely. That’s why He could live the way He did, accomplish what He did, never give in to wrong motives and temptations and all that. He had this divine influence of God on His heart ALL THE TIME.
So then we read Paul says, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace (divine influence upon the heart) which was bestowed upon me was not found vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I….” (1 Cor 15:10)
“Yet not I” what? He said “I laboured”; you know what that means, work. I’ve ‘worked’ harder than all of them, yet it wasn’t I that works, right. Notice it wasn’t “I” that was doing the work, but the grace of God, which was with me. The grace of God, what? These things are all understood;
Notice it, I am what I am by His divine influence upon my heart, which He bestowed upon me and it was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all laboured: yet not I laboured, but the grace of God laboured. That’s what it’s saying, can you see that? So what is the grace of God doing in Paul’s heart? It LABOURS, it works.
It’s not some ‘thing’ like, ‘well I have the grace of God,..that saves me.’ They take that word and just tack it on the wall; ‘grace’ there it is, I got it, God said I got to have it and there it is ‘grace.’ It can’t just be in a book, it can’t be on the wall, it’s got to be IN YOUR HEART. What does it do there? IT LABOURS - IT WORKS.
That's the end of the excerpt:
Sometimes I find material, a topic being discussed by Ray in one article and then the same topic in another, but expressed slightly differently and then the "light comes on", as it were.
This transcript precedes what Ray later wrote in the LOF series on paideuo - where he linked chasten, teach and grace ....it is the same message, but perhaps somebody else might find the different phrases used in this transcript might help to "see it a little more clearly" as it did for me. Colin
Jeff:
Colin,
It's no siurprise to me that you shared that excerpt, at this moment, in this thread. But I pray that God will bless you for doing so.
I did a word study on grace today, and it was really beneficial. What God gave you to share makes it so much more significant. Thank you.
The Hebrew word for grace (chen) means favor, and the Greek word for grace (charis) means "that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness: grace of speech" and also "of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues"
Luke 6:23 "Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets."
Rejoicing (to be glad) has a significant connection to grace. Grace is probably the most significant connection to God that we have, apart from the Salvation of Christ, but grace even has a part in that.
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