Understanding Grace

Obedience, Repentance, Mercy, Love and Grace

       One of my dearest teachers, Dr. O. Talmadge Spence brought to us the formula to comprehend a concept. I will try to explain it in my own words... He said that a person would not fully understand a concept till he had closed their own circle or the square inside its circle, maybe a square will be more suitable for the explanation: some people will have one part of the concept, other two and even three parts and still will not fully understand the concept of a thing. It is when you get the four parts that you will fully understand that concept.  That is what happens many times to people, it is when they get the four lines and close the square when they begin to fully understand the concept. So, there are many Bible commentators who will not follow the Spirit of the Scriptures but their own system of interpretation of the Scriptures which will not allow them to fully understand the concept they try to fit or teach about any doctrine. They will give us their opinion about some doctrine mixing everything.

There have been some controversies through the ages about these doctrines related to salvation and the way some brethren dealt with these doctrines. Their way of bringing to us their knowledge has become the Good News of Salvation as if we must do something else of what God Himself had commanded to do for us to be fully saved. So Obedience and Repentance are taught not just as doctrines to be learnt as results of a new born Christian believer’s way of living but as things needed before salvation. Let me set all these things in the right context of what the Bible teaches us about them.

The first thing Paul says for a preacher is that he was not to be a novice (I Tim. 3:6), but one who has been prepared for the ministry and to minister; the Missionary, the Preacher, the Evangelist, the Pastor and the Teacher. They are given to us as a gift from the Lord to His Church, which must be learned people fill with the Holy Ghost, and are set to prepare and edify the Body of Christ in perfection  (Eph. 4:11, 12).

So, many struggling pastors sometimes have no clear concepts about doctrines and his applications upon believers; also, many Christians have been taught under some kind of system, leading them to interpret the Scriptures under that condition and not to interpret it by Biblical theology. So, many people commit some errors which will be harder to clarify afterwards and these make them difficult to live walking in the Spirit and in the Avenue of Sanctification (Is. 35:8).

Let us explain certain concepts of these important doctrines. On one side we have Creation starting in a point of time for humankind; on the other side we have Redemption which was established before the foundation of the World (I Pet. 1:18-20). All according the revealed Scriptures, these are Biblical facts! After Creation of Adam and Eve we are told they sinned because they did not believe what God the Creator told them about the tree of the knowledge of the science of good and evil; the serpent was very subtle asking the woman in a way as if God had made a command and not a warning about the results of eating such fruit.  It is certain that Eve was led by the serpent which told her they will be like God knowing good and evil making her to think God was hiding her very good things according of the awakening of her desires… She saw three things: a tree good for food, which was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise… but the serpent shut up her mouth about the death that sin will do to them and lied to them telling “Ye shall not surely die”.

Things were coming on, so with Noah the Flood came, and Babylon’s tower and the confusion of languages. After This God called Abram from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan and he went there following the mandate of God. God told Abraham that his people will be slave during 400 years in Egypt. After a while God choose Moses to lead his people out of Egypt and gave him the Law. This Law was given under conditions: God will bless His people if they will fulfill the Law; so, the people has to know the Law, they will have to obey it, but if they will break the Law they were given time to repent and bring the needed offering for their sins, this will restitute communion with God; and clearly was told them that without shedding of blood there was no remission of sins. So the Law, holy and perfect, was under condition of fulfillment for the people of God. So communion and salvation were resting upon human decision on obedience and repentance. At the same time God was laboring on Redemption, setting the teaching of the kinsman which will redeem his relative slave.

With the coming of Christ grace and truth came to be the new deal for humankind, establish under the new covenant and prophesied by the servants of God of whom Jeremiah will be the best exponent, and worked by Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. This \new Covenant, the New Testament, was wrought without conditions but labored only by God, Who was to fulfill Redemption giving us salvation through His Son’s death on the cross of Calvary, which is the basis of our belief. Whom God the Father set by love His only begotten Son as the One we must believe to be saved.

            So, the Law is based in human condition: obedience and repentance to be restored. That’s the reason the Lord Jesus Christ told John the Baptist that it was needed for him to fulfill all justice when he was to be baptized by John in the baptism of Repentance. This was made in such a way that nobody could take this out of context telling he did not fulfill with the Law. The difference is that He did it for us, so we might say we have fulfilled too with the Law when we believe in Jesus as our Savior; because He is our substitute on the Cross of Calvary.

            Now Grace and Truth came with the Lord Jesus Christ, there was Grace before and there was the Spirit of God acting before, but now it is going to be different. God changed the way of dealing with us because of Christ. As His Redemption is perfect, God the Father decided to give us His only begotten Son to pay the price Divine Justice was claiming because the sin. He shed His blood on the Cross of Calvary and paid the price for our sins; fulfilling in that way the complete requirements the Justice of God demanded. The only thing we have to do is to believe in Him. We have to apply faith to accept the gift of God. It is all of Grace and by Grace.

            Now remember the concept, because here many commentators slip down trying to solve supposed items or issues they have not clarified before. So, many mix repentance with faith as a matter of changing the mind of the sinner to be saved…  But the Lord has not told us to do that at all. We just have to believe in the perfect work of Redemption Jesus Christ has done for us; He suffered chastisement before the cross, He was nailed to the Cross; He shed His blood on the Cross; He died on the Cross; He was buried according to the Scriptures and He resurrected the third day too. He was with His people 40 days and then He was taken to heaven on the clouds; then, the fiftieth day came the Holy Spirit to remain in the earth making the inner work of God in the soul of the sinners to convince of sin, of justice and of judgment (Jh. 16:8-11) and to enlighten, guide us and honor the Lord Jesus Christ according to His Word. We have nothing to do with His perfect Work of Redemption but to believe it.

            I know too that many theologians and Bible commentators speak of Sovereign of God and Human Responsibility. The subject is to know (again) the true concept of each. Related to Salvation God gives us a Graceful gift, which we have to accept it believing Him; this is our human responsibility, and it is not a simple fact because the Holy Spirit has been working in us to convince us we are lost sinners and we need urgently salvation, and there is One Who gave His life for us to do it. Which is our human responsibility? It consists in believe in the Grace of God applying faith, that’s all!