Study: 1
The Sovereign Grace of God
Bro. Aby Kuruvilla, Mumbai
Apostle John vividly recalls God's grace when he writes concerning God the Son, " We beheld His glory, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Grace and truth not only paint the character of our Lord’s life on earth but also point to God whose sovereign ways regarding our salvation are beyond our understanding. Let us consider four sovereign displays of God's grace.
1. Grace in Sovereign Intervention
God, in His perfect time and wondrous way, intervened in human history in an extraordinary display of grace. Paul would calculate this intervention as “in due time” (Rom. 5:6). The writer of the Hebrews states, “God... in these last days” (Heb. 1:1-2). But Paul will again say that this is the “fullness of time” (Gal. 4:4). All these verses show us that His intervention was not an afterthought, but sovereignly wrought out, and intertwined in grace.
The prophets of old could not distinguish between the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance (Isa. 61:2). That was not revealed to them as it is to us. Christ taught, “The Son of Man came not to destroy lives, but to save them” (Luke 9:56). This was contrary to what the Jews understood about the Son of Man who was to come as a Judge (Dan. 7:13-14). It was sovereign grace that the Son of Man instead was first revealed as bringing salvation and not as a Judge (also see, Luke 22:69).
2. Grace in Sovereign Inclusion
God’s plan for salvation is not limited to a few chosen people. The Israelites, indeed, were sovereignly chosen by God among all the families of the earth (Amos 3:2; Rom. 9:4). They had a greater revelation of God than the nations who lived in those times. But that didn’t ensure them their salvation. The Bible tells us of others like Lot, Job, Rahab and Ruth, people who are not Israelites, but who by grace were saved through faith, the scriptures further asserting that they are righteous.
Today, “the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men” (Titus 2:11). The scope of that revelation in all its richness has not been limited to a select few, but made available to all the world! The Church is a testament to the sovereign grace of God working to include those who were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world (Eph. 2:12).
It is not so much the sovereign election about this earth that makes us wonder at the grace of God, as much as the sovereign inclusion of those that are not deserving into His kingdom.
3. Grace in Sovereign Justification
Sovereign inclusion doesn’t mean that the sinner is required to enter the kingdom on the merits of his own righteousness. It would be like that man in the parable who was found without the wedding garment, fit only to be thrown out (Matt. 22:12).
The Jews sought to attain the righteousness of the law through their works. But they couldn’t. The Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith, and thus declare, not their own, but the righteousness of Christ Jesus: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus (Rom. 3:26; 9:30-32).
God has decreed that we should be “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24). This is His sovereign grace that justification is freely provided and meritoriously rested in the righteousness of Christ Jesus.
4. Grace in Sovereign Provision
Some suggest that if God wanted to He could simply say a word and forgive our sins, yet He sent His Son to die for our sins. But that is suggesting something that is contrary to God’s holiness and justice. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission (Heb. 9:22).
The law prescribed different animals to be killed so that the sinner could be forgiven (Lev. 4:20). But that forgiveness was to the effect that the sinner could maintain fellowship with God who dwelt in the midst of them. Those sacrifices were not effectual in saving the sinner to the uttermost (Heb. 10:4).
Now, David understood that it was the grace of God that saved sinners. He says, “Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit. For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering” (Ps. 32:2; 51:16). The sinner was forgiven not because he brought a sacrifice, but because he realised his sin and came unto God seeking forgiveness. It was by grace through faith that he was forgiven.
The sacrifices, we know in hindsight, pointed to that perfect sacrifice of Christ. God ordained sacrifices in the past so that they would remind man the seriousness of sin, the need for the shedding of blood to approach God, and the various glories of His Son that they would typify.
But for God, it is that one sacrifice of His Son that would be the atonement for the sins of all of mankind from the beginning of this world even to its end (Rom. 3:25). God in His grace has sovereignly provided Himself a perfect sacrifice in Christ Jesus.
Summary
Grace can be displayed in varying capacities. However, when we consider the grace of God, it is that which proceeds from the highest of heights, from the One who alone is Sovereign. Therefore in all measures, it surpasses all expectations of man and is in accordance to the character of the One who sits on the throne. It is unsearchable in its intervention, unexplainable in its inclusion, immeasurable in its justification and unspeakable in its provision. G&P
