ENDLESS GRACE UPON GRACE - PART 4

THURSDAY 31 OCTOBER 2024

Reference: John 1:16 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

"For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace."

2nd Peter 1:2 reads, "Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord" (NIV). In other words, heightened experiences of God's grace are often amplified through our deepened relationship with the Word.

Foundationally, the saints are destined to fully function in grace because of Christ's atoning sacrifice. When I consider Christ's suffering process that ushered us into this sphere of grace and how He feared the judicatory retribution, I find it as a basis or reason to highly appreciate the grace of God because although we received it as a free gift, it didn't come at a free cost. How did Jesus fear the judicatory retribution? In accordance with the book of Matthew 26:37, the Bible stated:

'And taking with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, Jesus began to be sorrowful and troubled. He told them, "My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, "My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine"' (Matthew 26:37-39 ESV/NLT).

Before Christ paid the costly price by laying down His life for us, human strength could not carry or sustain Him to the cross. The disheartening sense of the imminent suffering overwhelmed Him and His well-being, and with such human psychological condition, He decided to express His mind and will, in order to know if God would change His own mind and understand Him in such situation. Let's consider how He responded to God:

"My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me."

In other words, the discouraging nature of facing the suffering made Him to ascertain if there was a possibility of utterly avoiding the cup of suffering. Remember Jesus assured beforehand or boldly affirmed prior to His "Gethsemane" experience, by saying, "The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded" (John 10:17-18 NLT). To me, that was a statement of strong faith and resolute dedication to His approaching sacrificial accomplishment, but in Gethsemane, we could trace an atom of unstable confession, aiming to activate a substitute notion, which was suggestive of another possibility or choice of His human will.

Notice that He went away and prayed the second time, saying, "My Father, if this cup cannot pass unless I drink it, may Your will be done"…(Matthew 26:42 ESV). However, when He was strengthened in the process, He embraced the will of God by taking upon Himself - all sins, which He bore in His body, so that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, and utterly abolished - an act of dedicated sacrifice which the priests under the law could not do. Zero wonder, the greatest throne is known as the throne of grace, since the nature of the New Covenant was ratified by God's grace through the Lord Jesus Christ, not according to the works of the law (see also Ephesians 2:8-9 NET).

As a man or woman of strong faith, have you ever caught yourself dealing with unbelief or experiencing discomposure in an extremely challenging circumstance, or having a second plan or opinion due to uneasiness, even after declaring God's will over your life concerning a particular expectation? Maybe, you've entertained uncertainty after an assurance from God, and now you are saying, "How could I have done that?" How could I have feared the worst or considered an alternative plan? A whole me!

Beloved, don't be too hard on yourself, but rather, just like Jesus did, get up in prayer and be strengthened with power in your innermost being to comprehend the endless grace of God made available to you on account of being united to Christ, who was also strengthened by His loving Father at Gethsemane, to remit the wrongdoings, guilt, penalty or punishment of mankind as a result of their sinful nature. Stay tuned for part 5.

Scripture Reading - Ephesians 2:8; Romans 5:20-21; Titus 2:11-14; 2 Peter 3:18.

Exuberant Declaration:

Grace upon grace is the prayer God answered on behalf of kings and priests like my humble self, with relation to Christ's atoning sacrifice. By amassing the wealth of uncommon grace, I sustain a true sense of belongingness to Christ and a superior force of association with the Supreme Godhead, that gives my life a godly purpose and meaningful expressions. Glory to God!