damolaolomu

In light of the times we’re in, i find it pertinent to touch on this subject of grace, to express how i feel about it, which is really a burden on how these days it’s being weaponized as an instrument to justify acts of the flesh. 

First off, i’d like to define grace as the unit of measurement of God’s mercy. It’s the token of God’s response to our faith.  It’s also the basis of our redemption and emancipation from the shackles of sin and death.  – Eph 1:7. 

Grace was God’s back up plan to bring us back to him when Adam fell and became subject to sin and death.  It’s the procedure with which we got saved, not anything we did.  Grace is God’s design. – Eph 2:5,8.

It’s my intent to touch on it from three perspectives, which are;

• Grace as Empowerment
• Grace as Endowment 
• Grace as an Ingress

Grace as Empowerment.

Empowerment is being enabled to do, like receiving capacity to do a certain thing.  All men sinned, fell short of the standard God set due to disobedience, the law came as a schoolmaster to really establish that state of the fall and prove that by works it’s impossible to please Him.  -Gal 3:25,28. 

In the Mosaic testament, faith was the only way they could sort of please God, there was a pseudo atonement, a way to cover their sins with the blood of animals, but that didn’t do it for God, they only postponed judgement, they weren’t necessarily absolved of those transgressions.  Man had to die, because that was God’s judgment for sin. – Heb 11:6, Heb 10:6.

The fathers of faith died without the actual promise of redemption being fulfilled, but they were counted as righteous through Abraham’s faith and God’s covenant.  So even until Jesus’ day, men still weren’t considered just by God, because they still were subject to the law, Jesus came to fulfill the law, and by doing so, paid the price for all. So that by his being righteous, we’re considered righteous.  – Heb 11:13, Matt 5:17.

All of that pointed to the economy that God was opening up to mankind where by the righteousness of Jesus, we have righteousness inputted to us by faith. Jesus knew no sin, he was pure and blameless, God’s standard, so we got his life, Zoe. It was by that life that he pleased the father, being obedient, doing God’s will, and essentially living above sin.   – Rom 3:22, Phil 2:8. 

And because of that life and that economy which is grace, we received that life, the life of God to live above sin, above the desires of sinful flesh by walking in the spirit.  I’ve said all of this to point out the fact that by faith we got into this economy where we’re no longer subject to the law of sin and death, and we operate by the law of the spirit of life in Christ.  I’ll give a real world illustration, the law of gravity says that everything that goes up has to come down, but there’s another law of aerodynamics that enables whatever goes up to remain there, that’s how airplanes operate.  – Rom 8:2. 

So we’ve been given the capacity to live above sin and death, above the desires of sinful flesh. We operate by a higher law that makes us able to please God. Not by our works but by grace through faith in God.  – Gal 5:8. 

Grace as Endowment 

In the same vein, we have grace as a gift, beyond right standing with God. Grace is also a gift, something bestowed, it’s the economy of God’s mercy, his favor and the basis of us not being judged immediately when we err or fall and indulge in sin. God made being righteous easy for us, where by faith we know when we repent, we’re forgiven because he’s just. By grace we also know we’re not condemned when we fall short or perform below expectation, by faith we know he loves us because of this grace and he’s there to hold us and pick us up.  – 1 John 1:9.

By faith we know that by grace the sacrifice has been paid by Jesus’ blood, so there’s no need to offer sacrifices to be in right standing, the blood of Jesus, did that once and for all, it was finished, still is finished and nothing can be added or taken away from it.  By grace we can walk into the holiest place with confidence, not like the old covenant where even for the high priest it was a big risk.  By grace we’re saved, by that same grace, we’re kept.   – Eph 2:13, Heb 10:19, Eccl 3:14. 

Grace as an Ingress

Grace is also the way we have access to every spiritual blessing in heavenly places kept for us in God. By grace, we’re accepted, qualified to be adopted as sons of God. By grace we have access to his predestination before the foundation of the world. By this economy of grace, we can access the mind of God and understand his will for our lives, by this same grace we can fulfill purpose.  -Eph 1:3,5. 

By grace we have access to the courts of heaven, guiltless and blameless, by grace we have access to dimensions and realms of God so long as we thirst for it.  Grace gives us access to the deep things of God. We’re able to be all we’re meant to be by the grace of God.  – Heb 10:19, 1 Cor 15:10a. 

Now, what grace is not is a license to sin. It’s not a leverage for the excesses of the flesh, as a matter of fact grace is the way we live above it. God would never ask us to do what is impossible for us to do. He’s called us to live a life of holiness and righteousness, a life of separation from the world and essentially a life of consecration.  Grace is how we live above temptations and the trails of this world. It’s one of our advantages over the devil, grace is how we get into fellowship with God and eventually partnership, grace is how we live by God’s standard, it’s how we stay acceptable to God.  – Rom 6:1,2.

Grace wasn’t made available to us so that we can choose to remain in sin, remain in the flesh and do things contrary to God’s will because we know there’s an economy for forgiveness. God is not mocked, we can’t choose to engage and indulge in selfishness and make claims on grace.  Grace is how God expects us to give our bodies and even our lives as a living sacrifice.  Grace is everything the flesh is not, both do not mix, they do not co-exist. You either choose grace which is the economy of the spirit of life or choose the flesh and operate under sin and death. Grace is how sin remains a defeated foe because it’s how we acknowledge the sacrifices of Jesus for us. – Rom 6:1, Rom 8:13, Gal 5:25, Rom 12:1,2.