” Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. ” John 15:3
The Galatian Christians had fallen from grace, and the Hebrew Christians were warned about failing the grace of God. What action or what failure caused the fall or fail? Well some Galatians took on circumcision as a prerequisite for salvation. This practice eliminated simple grace as the only means of attaining salvation. Receiving this salvation is through simply believing. The Hebrew Christians interpreted their persecution as a rejection by God, rather than seeing it as a chastening from Father. They excluded themselves from grace.
In both cases, conditions were attached to the free gift, though their salvation was intact. See Roman’s 6:23, 3:23 etc.
So, Paul tells the Thessalonian Christians you are “not in darkness” — not in darkness of understanding (that is, spiritual ignorance) or of the moral nature (that is, a state of sin).
Paul again refers to this darkness:
” …understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.” Ephesians 4:18.
Beloved, an evil heart of unbelief, see Hebrews 3:12, was a state which produced the same “ignorance” in Paul which alienated him from the life of God. See 1Timothy 1:13. This ignorance, a mental state or spiritual state of opposing Knowledge, is the same as “agnosticism.” (, the doctrine that humans cannot know of the existence of anything beyond the phenomena of their experience. “The term has come to be equated in popular parlance with skepticism about religious questions in general and in particular with the rejection of traditional Christian beliefs under the impact of modern scientific thought.)” Britannica
The Hebrew Saints missed out on God’s rest through their terrible unbelief.
Another grace-hurting word used by Paul is “frustrate.” Paul refused to “frustrate” grace by believing righteousness came by following the Law of Moses. Galatians 2:21 This “frustration” means literally to sap the power or impact of grace. Paul’s answer to this “frustrating” was to proclaim that “if righteousness come by the Law, Christ is dead in vain.”
We are not to receive the grace of God in vain. See 2 Corinthians 6:1. Grace and vanity are opposites, so cannot co-exist. This vanity speaks more of the believer’s relationship with the world. Not wanting to stand out as a “sore thumb,” some forsake their testimony for fear. Nevertheless grace continues grace.
Friends, we have an answer.
“And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. ” 1Corinthians 6:11
“Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. 1Thessalonians 5:5
” But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” Romans 8:9
Saints, grace and law cannot coexist, grace and unbelief are opposites, grace and sin cannot survive together, neither grace and ritual, grace and works, grace and scientific evidence, grace and circumstances, (however negative,) Grace trumps any doubt, skepticism, fearful negation, criticism or doctrinal difference. Grace plus nothing supersedes them all. Grace means, “I do not deserve it, but get it anyway.” Paid for by Christ alone. TS
In closing, people like to point at grace as a “licence to sin.” “Grace is no more a license to sin than electricity is a license to electrocute yourself. True, you can use electricity to electrocute yourself but God forbid that you do. That’s not what it’s for. God created electricity so you could enjoy light and warmth and ESPN’s Sports Center. Grace, like electricity is meant to bring life not death, and there is no life in sin.” escapetoreality.org
love ya
Be First to Comment