Wonderful Grace of God
God has His work on earth, which He has entrusted to men and women: His gospel to give to the world. It’s the everlasting gospel (Rev. 14:6). Having begun by the twelve apostles, and then carried forward by the church to this day, it will continue to do its work until He comes again, as He promised.
Yet we look at the church, in all it’s division and denominations, with faulty people, all its misunderstandings and erroneous doctrines, all its inner fighting and backslidden condition, and we might wonder, How does He keep this dysfunctional organism around any longer? Why hasn’t He swept it off the map and started all over again?
It’s because He has a plan, and also because His mercy endureth forever. Was there ever a time when His church was faultless? Were His band of twelve free from misconceptions of scripture and of His work, or from grievous personal flaws? No; yet He stayed with them, corrected their flaws and misconceptions. He would remain with them so long as they were drawn to Him and to His love and grace for them. Never before had they known the kind of acceptance He offered them and everyone else He met. And never before had they seen such a determination in anyone to lead friends up to a more and more perfect character, to lead by example and to teach patiently, even going over lessons again and again, as long as it need take. If the student were content to stay with Him, He was happy to receive all whom the Father sent to Him. He rejected none.
Following some preliminary training, He sent His disciples out to preach and to heal and to minister. They came back with exciting stories of devils being subject to their command in Christ’s name; yet they still needed correction and more training, which He entered into at a retreat in the wilderness. Away from the multitudes who pressed on Christ so much that He found it difficult to find time to eat, He invited His closest group, “Come ye yourselves apart, and rest a while.” There, in that quiet environment of Christ’s full attention, they found heaven to draw near to earth, and the lessons He taught, the imperfections of character He revealed and the corrections He brought out, His students readily received. To them He could say, “Ye are now clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” Jn. 15:3.
In Christ, the Word of God, who lightens every man that cometh into the world, in Him “mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” Ps. 85:10. He cannot dispense mercy alone; it must be mingled with truth. In all His dealings with His children, peace is never expressed without tenderly working righteousness into it, thus the glory of God blazes forth in all that Christ did and said. Thus the gospel is “the power of God unto salvation.” Rom. 1:16.
“God takes men as they are, with the human elements in their character, and trains them for His service, if they will be disciplined and learn of Him. They are not chosen because they are perfect, but notwithstanding their imperfections, that through the knowledge and practice of the truth, through the grace of Christ, they may become transformed into His image.” Desire of Ages, p.294.
He loves His followers; He loves His people; He loves His Christian church. In spite of its imperfections, it is His chosen agency for bringing the light of His character to a world won over to Satan. If the church will keep the Bible close, with all the light streaming from its pages of instruction, they will enjoy the blessings that come from obedience to God’s laws and statutes and commandments and judgments. The more they learn, trust, and obey, the more they see the power of His hand; conversely, the less they come to the light, and remain there, looking and learning and practicing, the less they partake of the power of God’s grace and His success in their work. These are His conditions and His test of discipleship.
The church may be full of corruption, and on the verge of the judgment sentence, “Her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities,” (Rev. 18:5); she may crucify her Master afresh and bring Him into open shame; yet He does not abandon her. “He that is not against us is for us,” He says. Lk 9:50. She is the apple of His eye. She performs an important function, faulty as she is. She provides the way back to Eden, even if only a hollow framework for that path. Her ideas of God’s grace may be fraught with a lop-sided view of God’s mercy without justice or His justice without mercy; she may misrepresent His condemnation as overwhelming, and His final judgment against sin with sinners, in eternal torment, may be blasphemously glorifying Satan; then she may present Christ’s reward for the saints at the opposite extreme by disposing of the great investigative judgment and the resurrection, and adopting the pagan ideas of immediate entrance into heaven upon death, thus opening the door to communicating with spirits of darkness in the effort to contact dead loved ones; her literature that she deploys in pubic places may torture God, yet He allows it to continue because it at least provides the minimum of truth and reminds people that hell must be shunned and that heaven is to be won. He will use what she has to offer, and miraculously make the most of it all. It will leave a framework in place until He finally infuses it with truth under the mighty direction of the Holy Spirit in the powerful Latter Rain.
Just as the Old Dispensation, filled with human decrees and requirements, was “decayed and waxen old,” and “ready to vanish away,” (Heb. 8:13); yet Christ could say, “Salvation is of the Jews.” (Jn. 4:22). Wonderful foresight and wisdom of our Savior! He uses whatever He has available and works to improve it. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord, what a wonderful Savior to me! What hope He brings to all who feel the most worthless and deplorably hopeless!
Paul understood all this as he penned, “Many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: the one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then? Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I herein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.” Phil. 1:14-18.
How well-balanced, how grand, how optimistic and full of hope! After Christ had revealed the truth of God to Paul, and after years of experience in cooperating with Jesus, nothing could destroy Paul’s faith even while awaiting his execution, the omnipotent hand of God being so clearly understood by him.
So let’s go forth, also knowing that the Lord will bring His church off more than conquerors through the love of our mighty Commander Jesus. Let’s not fear that He doesn’t accept our work for Him. Let’s not limit His ability to mold us into His image.
Hark! The voice of Jesus calling, “Who will go and work today?
Fields are white, the harvest waiting, who will bear the sheaves away?”
Loud and long the Master calleth, rich reward He offers free;
Who will answer, gladly saying, “Here am I, O Lord, send me?”
If you cannot cross the ocean and the heathen lands explore,
You can find the heathen nearer, you can help them at your door;
If you cannot speak like angels, if you cannot preach like Paul,
You can tell the love of Jesus, you can say He died for all.
If you cannot be the watchman, standing high on Zion’s wall,
Pointing out the path to heaven, offering life and peace to all;
With your prayers and with your bounties you can do what Heaven demands;
You can be like faithful Aaron, holding up the prophet’s hands.
While the souls of men are dying, and the Master calls for you,
Let none hear you idly saying, “There is nothing I can do!”
Gladly take the task He gives you, let His work your pleasure be;
Answer quickly when He calleth, “Here am I, O Lord, send me.”
—F. E. Belden
Yet we look at the church, in all it’s division and denominations, with faulty people, all its misunderstandings and erroneous doctrines, all its inner fighting and backslidden condition, and we might wonder, How does He keep this dysfunctional organism around any longer? Why hasn’t He swept it off the map and started all over again?
It’s because He has a plan, and also because His mercy endureth forever. Was there ever a time when His church was faultless? Were His band of twelve free from misconceptions of scripture and of His work, or from grievous personal flaws? No; yet He stayed with them, corrected their flaws and misconceptions. He would remain with them so long as they were drawn to Him and to His love and grace for them. Never before had they known the kind of acceptance He offered them and everyone else He met. And never before had they seen such a determination in anyone to lead friends up to a more and more perfect character, to lead by example and to teach patiently, even going over lessons again and again, as long as it need take. If the student were content to stay with Him, He was happy to receive all whom the Father sent to Him. He rejected none.
Following some preliminary training, He sent His disciples out to preach and to heal and to minister. They came back with exciting stories of devils being subject to their command in Christ’s name; yet they still needed correction and more training, which He entered into at a retreat in the wilderness. Away from the multitudes who pressed on Christ so much that He found it difficult to find time to eat, He invited His closest group, “Come ye yourselves apart, and rest a while.” There, in that quiet environment of Christ’s full attention, they found heaven to draw near to earth, and the lessons He taught, the imperfections of character He revealed and the corrections He brought out, His students readily received. To them He could say, “Ye are now clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” Jn. 15:3.
In Christ, the Word of God, who lightens every man that cometh into the world, in Him “mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” Ps. 85:10. He cannot dispense mercy alone; it must be mingled with truth. In all His dealings with His children, peace is never expressed without tenderly working righteousness into it, thus the glory of God blazes forth in all that Christ did and said. Thus the gospel is “the power of God unto salvation.” Rom. 1:16.
“God takes men as they are, with the human elements in their character, and trains them for His service, if they will be disciplined and learn of Him. They are not chosen because they are perfect, but notwithstanding their imperfections, that through the knowledge and practice of the truth, through the grace of Christ, they may become transformed into His image.” Desire of Ages, p.294.
He loves His followers; He loves His people; He loves His Christian church. In spite of its imperfections, it is His chosen agency for bringing the light of His character to a world won over to Satan. If the church will keep the Bible close, with all the light streaming from its pages of instruction, they will enjoy the blessings that come from obedience to God’s laws and statutes and commandments and judgments. The more they learn, trust, and obey, the more they see the power of His hand; conversely, the less they come to the light, and remain there, looking and learning and practicing, the less they partake of the power of God’s grace and His success in their work. These are His conditions and His test of discipleship.
The church may be full of corruption, and on the verge of the judgment sentence, “Her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities,” (Rev. 18:5); she may crucify her Master afresh and bring Him into open shame; yet He does not abandon her. “He that is not against us is for us,” He says. Lk 9:50. She is the apple of His eye. She performs an important function, faulty as she is. She provides the way back to Eden, even if only a hollow framework for that path. Her ideas of God’s grace may be fraught with a lop-sided view of God’s mercy without justice or His justice without mercy; she may misrepresent His condemnation as overwhelming, and His final judgment against sin with sinners, in eternal torment, may be blasphemously glorifying Satan; then she may present Christ’s reward for the saints at the opposite extreme by disposing of the great investigative judgment and the resurrection, and adopting the pagan ideas of immediate entrance into heaven upon death, thus opening the door to communicating with spirits of darkness in the effort to contact dead loved ones; her literature that she deploys in pubic places may torture God, yet He allows it to continue because it at least provides the minimum of truth and reminds people that hell must be shunned and that heaven is to be won. He will use what she has to offer, and miraculously make the most of it all. It will leave a framework in place until He finally infuses it with truth under the mighty direction of the Holy Spirit in the powerful Latter Rain.
Just as the Old Dispensation, filled with human decrees and requirements, was “decayed and waxen old,” and “ready to vanish away,” (Heb. 8:13); yet Christ could say, “Salvation is of the Jews.” (Jn. 4:22). Wonderful foresight and wisdom of our Savior! He uses whatever He has available and works to improve it. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord, what a wonderful Savior to me! What hope He brings to all who feel the most worthless and deplorably hopeless!
Paul understood all this as he penned, “Many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: the one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then? Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I herein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.” Phil. 1:14-18.
How well-balanced, how grand, how optimistic and full of hope! After Christ had revealed the truth of God to Paul, and after years of experience in cooperating with Jesus, nothing could destroy Paul’s faith even while awaiting his execution, the omnipotent hand of God being so clearly understood by him.
So let’s go forth, also knowing that the Lord will bring His church off more than conquerors through the love of our mighty Commander Jesus. Let’s not fear that He doesn’t accept our work for Him. Let’s not limit His ability to mold us into His image.
Hark! The voice of Jesus calling, “Who will go and work today?
Fields are white, the harvest waiting, who will bear the sheaves away?”
Loud and long the Master calleth, rich reward He offers free;
Who will answer, gladly saying, “Here am I, O Lord, send me?”
If you cannot cross the ocean and the heathen lands explore,
You can find the heathen nearer, you can help them at your door;
If you cannot speak like angels, if you cannot preach like Paul,
You can tell the love of Jesus, you can say He died for all.
If you cannot be the watchman, standing high on Zion’s wall,
Pointing out the path to heaven, offering life and peace to all;
With your prayers and with your bounties you can do what Heaven demands;
You can be like faithful Aaron, holding up the prophet’s hands.
While the souls of men are dying, and the Master calls for you,
Let none hear you idly saying, “There is nothing I can do!”
Gladly take the task He gives you, let His work your pleasure be;
Answer quickly when He calleth, “Here am I, O Lord, send me.”
—F. E. Belden
posted by David | 7:58 AM
2 Comments:
Very nice and full of hope. Thanks.
Thank you Inheritor of heaven. I want to inherit heaven too. Come again.
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