Grace’ is a beautiful word. Its Christian meaning is ‘the free and unearned favour of God’ (Concise Oxford English Dictionary, Eleventh Edition). For most of my life I have tried to apprehend its meaning. It is one thing to understand grace at an intellectual level but I wanted to spiritually apprehend the concept so I engaged my search over a long period of time. Eventually I found what I was looking for, at an unexpected time and in an unexpected place – in a movie theatre watching ‘The Passion Of The Christ’. This had a profound effect upon me. It drove home the figure of Christ amidst people, all with their multitude of responses to Him, with His final mission majestically fulfilled in the midst of and despite all the human responses clamouring around Him. The film’s inclusion of the devil figure was powerful. What I saw on the screen was a filmic version of the Stations of the Cross, a novel experience for a Protestant. The film’s harsh criticism from non-believers only served to strengthen my faith in God, knowing that a spiritual nerve had been touched.
Christians believe that the Holy Spirit, given to each believer upon turning to Christ in view of His atonement for them, enables and empowers them to gradually conform to God’s will in behaviour and outlook. Christians do and can claim that they have been translated from the realm of darkness into the realm of God’s light through the grace of God (justification). Through the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life, unhindered by reluctance or cowardice, that Christian will continue to grow in conformity to God’s will (sanctification). Grace ultimately results in complete release from the second death, sickness, sorrow, pain, sin and Satan for the believer after the first death – bodily death. The second death is mentioned in Revelation and refers to final spiritual death following judgement :
Revelation 21:8 (NKJV) 8 “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
There is significance in what Jesus said of John the Baptist :
Matthew 11:11 (HCSB Free) 11 “ I assure you: Among those born of women no one greater than John the Baptist has appeared, but the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
Luke’s corresponding version of Matthew 11:11 is almost identical except that Luke uses the term ‘kingdom of God’ rather than ‘kingdom of Heaven’. What are Matthew and Luke conveying here? That we will be fully transformed upon entry to Heaven. Sinners on earth; perfected by God in Heaven. John the Baptist, described by Christ as the best person to have walked the face of the earth, is not as good a person as the very least in the Kingdom of Heaven. So even a wonderful prophet like John the Baptist cannot meet the standards of the “least in the kingdom of Heaven”. How can this be?
Alamy Stock Photo/Jesus of Nazareth baptised by John the Baptist
The least in the kingdom of Heaven have been transformed by God upon death, the first death, that all humans have to one day go through. This is implied by Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:11 and Luke 7:28. We learn too that there is a hierarchy of saints in heaven. The word “least” carries that implication. Note that martyrs who die in Christ’s name are mentioned ahead of those who refused to worship the beast or his image. In other words, the martyrs died for what they believed in whereas those who refused to worship the beast may not have had to face the challenge of martyrdom but were still God’s by virtue of their continued loyalty. I found reassuring the words of the late John MacArthur in one of his sermons when he said that most of us will probaqbly not be challenged to martyrdom, or words to that effect:
Revelation 20:4 (NASB) 4 Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
In Matthew 11:11 Jesus is comparing John to everyone, “among those born of women”, not just to prophets past, so here I go out on a limb. However, I quote one source that appears to agree with my understanding. The KJV SB comments :
“Them that are born of women means mortal men, the idea being that the greatest of all in this life cannot be compared with the glory of the life to come.”
God’s gift of grace does not imply that God doesn’t care what we do or how we live after we turn to Him. He has forgiven us because He is a merciful God. The means of His forgivenenss is the atoning work of Christ. God offers salvation to all. Our task is to respond to Him by an act of turning away from our past that ignored God’s existence and turning towards Him in an act of faith in His power to save and change us. We become transformed with a renewed heart and live for God. This process can be gradual and in a process of flux. Keep going. Constantly ask God for His help to uphold your faith. Satan wants to bring you down. With God’s help, he will never succeed. Keep trusting God. Even the disciples had doubts. Jesus said to ask, seek and knock and that the door will be opened to you. Keep up your communication with God through prayer, with Christians and read Scripture as your firsthand source of ultimate truth. If you are starting out as a new Christian, may I suggest a Study Bible? See my tab, Bibles, Grammar and Saints.
Summing up, I understand God’s grace to be God’s gift of salvation. The gift and Giver cannot be separated. If we take the gift, we get the Giver in the form of the Holy Spirit. Yield to Him in all of your life – your everyday, ordinary or extraordinary life. It is daily life and our response to it that shapes us into faithful creatures of God. Ask God to shape your thinking and your understanding not just of the spiritual things you read in the Bible but of the whole of life. Ask, seek and knock at God’s door and you will find, using prayer and your own personal Bible reading.
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