ما هي النعمة حقا؟

نظرة عامة

Rev. Jon Ryan examines “What is Grace, Really?” through Genesis 6, Genesis 1, Proverbs 3, 2 Corinthians 12, showing how grace, christ, going shape a believer’s relationship with God, daily choices, and service to others.

النص الكامل

Understanding What is Grace, Really?

Thinking about grace, what is grace? We can quickly spout off, well, it’s God’s unmerited divine favor, but that doesn’t mean anything if it’s just a phrase. What really is grace? You start with me in Genesis chapter 6. This is one of the first uses. Here God had set everything in motion in the first chapters of Genesis.

One of the great things that God made available because of his justice and his love is he made free will available. Men and women can choose to believe God or not to believe God. They can choose to walk in harmony with God and according to what he’s laid out in his word or they can choose to walk in another direction.

And that’s always the choice because God’s honest and God’s just and he doesn’t just make some robots that had no choice but to do what he said. How much greater is it if we choose to love God when we have that choice than if we’re just forced to love God because there is no choice. Here in Genesis 6, things have eroded to the place where verse 6 says, and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart.

And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast and creeping thing and the fowls of the air. So that’s, you know, if you read Genesis 1, that’s how he put it all together. He put one piece at a time and it’s just kind of gone to hell.

So he’s like, you know, this is figure of speech because God knows the end from the beginning, but it’s just clearly communicating is this pleasure where things have gotten to. And it says in verse 5, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. That’s what he’s so distressed about.

It’s just where have these people gone? They’ve just followed the wrong people, one another, and they’ve joined together in this evil thinking to where it’s God’s like, God, this is not what was intended. And yet we get down to verse 8 and it says, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. So here’s a man, Noah, that stands out.

He’s different than the rest. And what is it to find grace? See, it’s, it really, there’s a tie together I’m seeing as I’m working this word grace. There’s a tie together with humility where it’s not how great I am or the things that I can do or some other man, but it’s realizing that certainly greater than me, greater than any other individual is God.

And that’s what Noah recognized, that he’s got respect for God’s word. They had the word available. Adam was taught by God from the beginning.

Adam named the animals, the stars are all there. And it’s the word of God is written in the stars and Adam knew how to read it. There was no scrolls.

There were no scrolls at that day in time. They had the word that was spoken and the word that was in the stars where they could teach. And this man, Noah, had respect to that.

مؤسسة الكتاب المقدس

And he believed God. So God is going to prevent the calamity that’s about to take place. The consequence of this evilness of man is opening these flood gates to where the whole world is going to be flooded.

And yet Noah is going to, with God’s grace, escape the flood. Not by his own doing, not by his own power. He’s just going to trust God.

What came to mind over and over again as I was working this grace, I realized how tremendous Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 is. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths. That’s a very familiar verse, but it really has great significance that we just don’t want to lean on our own understanding or the collective understanding of people that are around us.

We want to trust God. Let’s go to the New Testament. Go to 2 Corinthians, please.

2 Corinthians 12. Paul is such a great example of grace. He got to usher in the grace administration.

And he certainly had great respect for God and who God is. In 2 Corinthians 12, let’s pick it up in verse 7. And lest I should be exalted above measure to the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh of the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. See, Paul had at one point walked contrary to the Word.

He would have easily fit in together with that group from Genesis 6 that thought evil continually. He was condemning God’s people to death. He was spending all his energy trying to find those men and women that said they were followers of the Lord Jesus Christ and bringing them to prison.

He was walking very contrary. And he began to realize that once on the road to Damascus in Acts 9, Jesus Christ himself confronted Saul—his name was Saul at the time—and said, Saul, what are you doing? It’s hard for you to kick against the pricks. And he disclosed to Saul that he was indeed the Messiah, which Saul could not accept until that point in time.

And then he realized, this is the one that we’ve been waiting for for thousands of years. And you can imagine the condemnation. He went blind for three days.

He was in a pretty poor state. He needed people to lead him around. His heart just must have been so filled with grief and condemnation that it took another man, a believer that God sent named Ananias, to come and minister to him.

أمثلة ودروس روحية

He called him Brother Saul because Saul realized that Jesus Christ indeed had been raised from the dead and that he was the Christ. That’s what it takes to get saved. He was the Lord.

And so Saul then did an about-face. And he, with as much zeal and energy as he had put into condemning the Christians, he now put that energy into making known Jesus Christ. Right from that record in Acts 9, he begins to preach Christ and to make him known.

And in doing so, he entered full swing into the spiritual competition. Because throughout the whole war to God, God’s enemy, the devil, is constantly attacking men and women that want to believe God, that want to walk with God. Ultimately, his attack was focused on Jesus Christ.

But throughout the whole Old Testament and certainly in the New Testament, once Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and seated at God’s right hand, this spiritual competition raged. And Paul was continually being, as it says here in 2 Corinthians, he had this thorn in the flesh, which is a figure of speech. It hardly does it justice.

If you get pricked with a thorn, it wouldn’t bother you as much as Paul. He had listed in chapter 11. If you look back one chapter, chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians, Paul had listed some of the things that he had been up against.

He had said, are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. He was born with the right credentials, a Hebrew of the Hebrews of the tribe of Benjamin. He was circumcised on the eighth day, everything according to oil. Are they of the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak of the full.

I am more. In labors more abundant, in stripes that’s being whipped, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. He’s just recounting some of the things that he went through.

He was put in prison. He was whipped and beaten. He was actually stoned to death at one point.

Acts chapter 14, verse 24, of the Jews five times received I forty stripes, save one. Forty stripes was the death penalty. So if they wanted to really lay it into somebody, they’d give them forty stripes plus one, thirty-nine stripes, which could just tear somebody’s back up, their body up.

He goes on in verse 25, thrice was I beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. That’s Acts 14.

الإيمان في العمل

He was stoned to death. They raised him from the dead. Thrice I suffered shipwreck.

A night and a day I have been in the deep. And then he goes on. So here, go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 12, and he’s asking God, can this beating that I’m receiving, this evil that I have to endure, can that stop? Can this thorn be removed? Verse 8 of 2 Corinthians 12, for this thing I sought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.

And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. See, what God’s telling him is that when you can’t do it on your own power, Paul, that’s when my grace has to kick in. See, Noah had no way to escape the flood, except by God telling him, you need to build a boat, and I’m going to give you the dimensions and I’m going to give you the time to build it before this rain starts to fall.

And he gave him years to build this boat. And there’s so many other records where men and women of God had to count on not their own power and ability, but God’s power working within them to overcome the challenges that they faced. So Paul goes on here.

Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12, 10. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake.

For when I am weak, then I am strong. Now, he said, I take pleasure. It’s not like he wanted, I want another beating.

He’s a competition. The enemy’s going to come at him. He didn’t have to endure more than Jesus Christ, who ultimately had to give up his life.

He just knows that whenever I’m in these situations, and it’s beyond my physical or mental capacity to endure, then God’s going to kick in and provide for me the way to escape. See, Paul had written in 1 Corinthians 10, in the previous letter to Corinthians, that God is faithful and He will always make a way to escape that you may be able to endure it. There’s no temptation taken you except that it’s common to man.

I kind of reversed that verse, but you look up 1 Corinthians 10, 13. Paul knew God always had a way to escape. When he’s on the ship in the Mediterranean Sea as a prisoner in Acts 27, he recognized who he was.

السير في الحب والثقة

Everyone else had given up. They all had determined, well, we’re not going to make it. We’re all going to die.

Yet, Paul stood amongst them and said, I believe the God whose I am, and the God whom I serve. He said, we’re going to make it. Miraculously, every one of them made it.

Their boat fell apart in the middle of the sea. Yet, they all made it to shore alive. Some swam and some on the pieces of the boat.

See, that’s what Paul had learned. Look at the Gospel of John. Jesus Christ, more than anyone, knew God’s grace.

The Gospel of John chapter one, here in verse 17, for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man had seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he had declared him or made him known.

See, there was grace in the Old Testament, but Jesus Christ showed grace in all its fullness. As he walked with God, he showed people one incident after another. It says, if all the things that he did were written down, the world couldn’t contain the books.

He showed people that we can’t do it all by ourselves. Look at John chapter five, the Gospel of John chapter five. Here in John five, go to verse 19.

Jesus Christ is speaking here, and then answered Jesus and said unto them, Barely, barely, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do, for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth. And he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.

There’s going to be a point in time where God’s going to raise Jesus Christ to the dead. Look at verse 30. I can of my own self do nothing.

As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which has sent me. See, Jesus Christ, as he faced situations, he didn’t rely on his own strength, his own ability to think things through. He would have been a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant man, because he had perfect blood.

تطبيق التعاليم في الحياة اليومية

And yet, he didn’t rely on that. He didn’t lean on his own understanding, but he trusted God. When he’s confronted with situations like he’s in the middle of teaching, and the people that are the rulers of Israel break into his meeting with this woman that they caught in adultery, and they think they’ve set a trap for him, he just goes to God.

They said, what the word says, or the law says, we’re supposed to stone her. What do you say? He just goes to the Father, bends down, writes on the ground, and stands up and gives them the perfect answer. He said, but who among you is without sin, first cast the stone at her.

And it totally disarmed them. They all dropped their rocks and walked away, and then he’s there with just this woman. So, he showed by great example how to be gracious.

Look at 1 Timothy 1. See, what we’re learning is that it takes great humility. It takes that recognition that God’s greater. It’s not just grace is unmerited divine favor.

We know we didn’t earn it. It’s not. It’s more than that.

It’s realizing that God is with us, and he has what we need. He will supply all that we need in any situation. In 1 Timothy 1.12, here we see how closely tied together is mercy.

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And that grace our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. See, mercy is so closely tied to grace because that will upset your actions.

If you don’t think that you deserve to have God’s solution, then you’re going to not walk into that grace because you’re thinking of yourself and that you don’t realize that God’s mercy, he forgives our lives. He forgives us when we’ve made mistakes. Paul states it very clearly.

He knew how terribly he had walked. His intentions were good, but good intentions don’t cut it. He had walked contrary to the Word.

He had caused God’s people, some of them, to be put to death. He gave his vote towards—in Acts 7, when Stephen was there, Paul gave his vote to stone Stephen to death. He had to deal with that, and yet he couldn’t let that defeat him and impair him from being able to walk with God.

حياة تشكلها كلمة الله

He had to realize that God’s mercy was abundant. Look at Ephesians 2. In verse 3, it says, Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind that were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. So we’ve all come from not the best place because we’re all included here.

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened or made us alive together with Christ. By grace we are saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.

See, the mercy had to precede it. God, who is rich in mercy, he’s washed over the mistakes we’ve made, the sins we’ve made, and he’s not looking at that. He’s looking at what his Son accomplished and that that was payment enough for any of our sins, for all of our sins, so we could walk with him and have that.

What is it to walk in that grace is to have the recognition that God’s going to take care of us in every situation we face. And let’s close in Hebrews 4. Again, this was another one written by Paul. The Apostle Paul is credited with writing Hebrews.

And here at the end of this great chapter of Hebrews 4, verse 14, seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are. So Jesus Christ paid the price to the uttermost.

He’s been tempted in all ways like anything that we’re going to face, he had to go through it. Tempted in all ways like as we are, yet without sin. Here’s the exhortation.

Let us therefore, because of that, because of who Jesus Christ is and what he did, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy. See, mercy is so necessary that we may obtain that mercy, that forgiveness for our mistakes. We come to God with boldness, with confidence, knowing that God’s going to hear and answer our request.

He’s not going to hold our mistakes in front of us and say, you don’t deserve it. He’s washed those mistakes away. It says, let us come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

And that grace can come in so many ways. The grace of God is there for us in situations that we could never think of. We read the word and we see that God has in so many situations brought to pass miraculous things, fed the children of Israel for 40 years with manna, parted the Red Sea.

He showed David how to kill this giant with a slingshot. He, record after record, he made known his grace, his ability, which could not be done by man alone, but with God’s help, they were able to defeat their adversaries and to overcome and walk into the deliverance that God had waiting for them.

الوجبات السريعة الرئيسية

• But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened or made us alive together with Christ.
• Let us therefore, because of that, because of who Jesus Christ is and what he did, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy.
• See, mercy is so closely tied to grace because that will upset your actions.
• One of the great things that God made available because of his justice and his love is he made free will available.
• And yet Noah is going to, with God’s grace, escape the flood.

الأسئلة الشائعة

What is the main message of “What is Grace, Really?”?

Rev. Jon Ryan examines “What is Grace, Really?” through Genesis 6, Genesis 1, Proverbs 3, 2 Corinthians 12, showing how grace, christ, going shape a believer’s relationship with God, daily choices, and service to others.

ما هي النصوص المقدسة التي تُعتبر أساسية في هذا التعليم؟

The teaching draws especially from Genesis 6, Genesis 1, Proverbs 3, 2 Corinthians 12, Acts 9.

كيف يمكن للمؤمنين تطبيق هذا التعليم؟

One of the great things that God made available because of his justice and his love is he made free will available.

المراجع الكتابية

Genesis 6; Genesis 1; Proverbs 3; 2 Corinthians 12; Acts 9; Acts 14

تم إعداد هذا النص من التسجيل الصوتي التعليمي أو الوثيقة الأصلية. يرجى التحقق من مراجع الكتاب المقدس بالرجوع إلى نسختك من الكتاب المقدس.