Understanding God’s Grace: Not in Instant Miracles but in Lasting Maturity

Understanding God’s Grace: Not in Instant Miracles but in Lasting Maturity

In many circles of modern Christianity, there is a prevailing sentiment that God is essentially "on call," always attending to the immediate needs and welfare of the believer as if He owes them or as if, through His love, He is expected to provide constant earthly comfort. Believers today often expect instant miracles or immediate answers to prayer because they figure that since they are Christians, God is obligated to shield them from all hardship. While God’s love for us is indeed infinite, this specific theology of guaranteed physical health and wealth actually belongs to God’s dealings with Israel in the kingdom dispensation. During that time, God made literal covenants with Israel to protect them, heal them, and save them from their earthly enemies as a sign of His favor, promising that "the Lord will take away from thee all sickness" (Deuteronomy 7:15) and that they would be "blessed in the basket and thy store" (Deuteronomy 28:5).

However, these national, physical covenants were not made with the Body of Christ today. We must recognize that God works with us in the Dispensation of Grace (Ephesians 3:2) in a very different way. In this present time, we are told that we "walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7), which means we do not rely on the visible "sight" of constant miracles to validate God's presence. Our primary blessings are not found in the bank account or the doctor’s office, but are "spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3). While God certainly has the power and ability to work miracles today, it is not His current focus or His method for proving His love toward us. Our inheritance is spiritual and eternal, and we are instructed to set our affection on things above, not on things on the earth (Colossians 3:2).

That the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable

That the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable

In Romans 15:16 Paul says that I should be THE minister of Jesus Christ to you Gentiles. Are we Gentiles? Yes. Then who's the minister of Jesus Christ to us? Paul. You've got 13-epistles in your Bible written by that man who said he was the apostle of Jesus Christ to us. Not a minister, THE minister. The definite, defined minister of Jesus Christ to us Gentiles.

What did Paul minister to us? He ministered the gospel of God. Why? So that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. Do you know what Paul's saying here? His ministry, those 13-epistles that he ministered to us by the spirit of God, are to be written in our hearts by the spirit of God. What's the purpose of that ministry? It is so that when you're offered up to God for his will and purpose, you'll be acceptable. It's sanctifying you; it's cleansing you.

Remember what Paul said in Ephesians 5? That Christ gave himself for the church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church. And Paul, as a minister of Jesus Christ, was ministering the gospel of God so that the offering up of the Gentiles for the will and purpose of God might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. Paul's ministry is getting us ready for the purpose for which God called us out. And guess what. It is not just to be saved by the gospel. Paul didn't write 13-epistles about forgiveness of sins, and he didn't write 13-epistles just to tell us about justification. There is a lot more to the Christian life than just being saved.

The content of his 13-epistles is a curriculum that when we study it progressively, and in order, from Romans to Philemon, it will establish us, grow us up, and form Christ within us. It will impart knowledge and understanding that will do a work of faith within us that we might be transformed by it and learn to prove the good, the acceptable, and the perfect will of God. It will bring us to sons, who are influenced by the doctrine and who are led by love and faithfulness as we patiently wait in hope of Christ's return. This doctrine is preparing us for the vocation in the ages to come. This was Paul's calling as the minister to the Gentiles, and this is our responsibility, to learn the doctrine, Paul's 13-epistles, and let it transform us and prepare us for what God has called us as the Body of Christ to fulfill.

Adapted from this video by Paul Lucas.

Q-A: What does it REALLY mean to be 'In Christ'?

Q-A: What does it REALLY mean to be 'In Christ'?

Read the shaded verses below slowly and carefully and then compare the first two verses to the last three. There is a HUGE difference in how Paul describes the believers at Corinth.

1 Cor 1:2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,