[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Wednesday, August 28, 2013

[Paul]

Well folks, midweek day afternoon is upon us, at least for those of us in the Americas, and it's Thursday morning for you in Australia and New Zealand.  I hope that your day is going well, by God's matchless grace and His providential care.

After a bit of an absence, we return to the writings of the late Dr. Ralph Montanus (1919-1986), founder of the Gospel Association for the Blind and editor of its official publication "The Gospel Messenger." The title of his article today is "Grace and Disgrace," rendered as follows:

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:  it is the gift of God:  Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-10).

As evangelical Christians, we cannot stress to strongly the fact that men are saved by grace and by grace alone.  It is absolutely impossible for a person to save himself or atone for his own sin.  Salvation from beginning to end is all of grace.



What Is Grace?

Grace is the unmerited favor and love of God.  We cannot purchase it.  We cannot earn it.  We do not deserve it.  It is the free gift of God.  It is bestowed upon us by and through the sovereign act of God.  The very fact that a man realizes his sin and need of a Savior, which is commonly known as conviction, proves that both repentance and saving faith are the work of grace.  The very ability to turn from one's sin unto the living God is imparted to the individual by the grace of God.



A Dangerous Interpretation

Unfortunately, there are those among professing Christians who have turned the grace of God into lasciviousness.  We read of them in Jude 4:  "For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." Their unscriptural understanding of our meaning of grace has caused much damage to the cause of Christ.

Some persons have concluded that Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9, teach that a person who has put his faith in Jesus Christ is saved no matter what kind of a life he leads.  For example, I have heard of those who teach that a person may truly be saved though he is living in open sin.

I once had a man tell me that he knew of a professing Christian teacher who believed and taught that a person can accept Christ, fall back into sin, die drunk in the arms of a harlot, and still be perfectly justified in the sight of a holy God because he concluded salvation was by grace and not works.  I believe such a conception of the grace of God borders on blasphemy.



The True Meaning Of Grace

In the second chapter of Titus, verses 11 and 12, we have the true meaning of grace.  "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." Here we see that grace teaches us something and produces something.  It produces a change of heart which instructs us to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.

Also preceding this, we read that we are not to live in worldly lusts, but rather the opposite, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts.  So we can readily see that those who teach that grace is a license for sin are, in actuality, teaching disgrace and not the grace of God.

Let us for a moment go back to Ephesians 2:8 and 9.  Here we have God's side of salvation, but verse 10 should never be left out when we quote the preceding verses.  Notice what Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10, says:  "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." From this, we see immediately that, while salvation is the free gift of God, the evidences of the fact that the free gift has been received will be seen in a life of outward conformity to the will of God.  Could it be, dear professing Christian, that your lack of obedience to God is influenced by a wrong conception of His grace?

And there you have Dr. Montanus' article which I hope gave you something to chew on, even though written at least 27 years ago.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul