The long arm of grace

“Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered.” (Heb. 5:8).

We have heard of the long arm of the law. But, the arm of grace is even longer.

The Son of God, though being divine and equal with God, had something to learn. He must learn to be more like His Father, whom He called “God,” “My God,” “Father,” “the Father,” My Father,” “Lord of heaven and earth,” who “is greater than I.” (Matt. 19:17;27:46; Jn. 17:1;Matt.11:25,26,27;14:28). He must know what it means to suffer alone, just like His Father has. He also must feel the depths of hell, if He is to execute judgment on the lost. He must feel the pain they will suffer before He gives it to anyone. And He must take the place of all who will hope in His propitiation and substitution before God’s wrath.

I say this in all respect and in the fear of God, that the high and exalted Son had something to learn from His higher and more exalted Father. He took on fallen humanity as His charge, to wrest it from the universe’s greatest enemy, and to do hand to hand, mind to mind combat with His greatest enemy, the dragon.

This He successfully accomplished at creation, in Eden, in the antedeluvian patriarchs, in the worldwide flood, in Abraham, and Israel, in His Messiahship, on Golgotha, in His baptism of hellfire, in His propitiation, in His ascension as High Priest now and in His final work of cleansing the heavenly sanctuary and getting us ready for His return.

He is the Word of God, God’s thoughts made audible. God, “who only hath immortality,” cannot be seen or heard by creation without destroying the perfect balance of peace and power arranged between them. (1Tim. 6:16). The Son has ever held the position as mediator between the Father and His works.

Through Christ’s relationship with His Father, when God pressed His Son’s soul with infinite condemnation, out of Christ came infinite grace. He trod the winepress of God alone, and of the people there was none with Him. The only way for the mother eagle to force the chicks to learn the art of flying, is to cast them out of the nest. As a baby eagle falls, tumbling earthward, it naturally makes use of its wings.

Likewise, the only way God could create infinite grace, a grace able to exceed abundantly when sin abounds in the worst sinner, was for the Father to lay infinite condemnation, infinite rejection, infinite hatred of sin, and His infinite sorrow and suffering because of sin, laying it all upon Christ who had personally formed man from the dust. The Father squeezed grace out of His Son through the tremendous pressure of disfavor and separation from God, as the Son of God responded with submission and undiminished love for a world of sinners He was substituting for.

None have fallen so low or have departed too far away from their God, but that Christ's death on the cross can fully cover them. The long arm of grace which God produced in His Son, can save from more than we can ask or think. “All that come unto Me,” Jesus says today, “I will in no wise cast out.”

Again He says to us, “Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men.” “And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him.” (Matt. 12:31,32).

“To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” (Heb. 3:15)

“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”