How God’s grace gives to men is not only an interesting study but also one of utmost importance as it relates to our salvation, a salvation which is clearly set forth in the scriptures as being a free gift of God to man. “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 3:24 NKJV) It is by grace through faith we are saved and not by works. (Eph. 2:8-9) Salvation is specifically said to be “the gift of God.” (Eph. 2:8 NKJV)
Many more or less assume
this gift of God freely given has no conditions attached, that it is
unconditional, or else works would be included in its obtainment. We sometimes jump to conclusions rather than
crawl to them the latter being the much safer route as it involves thought and
process, study and meditation, rather than the fire of emotionalism.
While salvation (and
thus heaven itself--our promised land) is said to be a free gift from God it is
no more said to be a free gift than was the promised land to the children of
Israel in the Old Testament beginning with the original promise to Abraham in
Gen. 12:7, “To your descendants I will give this land.” (NKJV) (See also Gen.
13:15, 17)
To Moses God said,
regarding Abraham’s descendants, the children of Israel, “I have also
established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan.” (Exodus
6:4 NKJV) Look up the word “given” or
“give” in any Bible concordance and you will find time and again passage after
passage stating that God either had given the children of Israel the land of
Canaan or would do so.
But if it was a gift
from God freely given then surely there was nothing the children of Israel had
to do to obtain it other than believe - was there? The way people reason today, if they were to
be consistent, they would have to answer “no there was not” but they know
better. They will not do that for they
know their Old Testament history well enough to know that while God had given
them the land and they were assured of it they still had to fight battle after
battle to drive out those who lived there.
How can a person say a
gift is free if effort is required to receive it? That is a fair question deserving an
answer. By definition, a gift is the giving
of something that does not have to be given. There is no legal necessity to give a
gift. I give to the government tax money
but none of us would say that is a gift.
On the other hand, if I give to an orphanage that is a gift freely given
for there is nothing compelling me to give other than the desire of my heart to
do so. If God gave the land of Canaan to
the children of Israel, as he did, what forced him to do that? Was he under obligation or was it the desire
of his heart?
Man can complain all he
wants about the children of Israel having to fight all those battles and say to
himself “what kind of gift was that?” It
is an argument with God for he is the one who said he was “giving” the
land. Man would say man was earning the
land, earning it the hard way with combat, but God called it giving. There
is an important lesson here. We need to
learn to think the way God thinks, not the way mankind thinks. “My thoughts are not your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8
NKJV) is what God says. When God gives
to man a gift it does not necessarily mean no effort is required to take possession
of the gift. It does mean, however,
because God is giving it, obey and you will succeed (no doubt about it) and you
will become a recipient of the gift of God.
God speaks in the New
Testament of salvation as being a gift.
Men thinking the way they do this means to most “sit back, relax, and
dump it into my lap.” Bad mistake! The children of Israel received the land of
Canaan by God’s grace. It was a free
gift that did not have to be given. They
defeated the inhabitants of the land not because they were a stronger military
force but because God was fighting with them and for them delivering the
inhabitants into their hands.
God’s gift of grace
means opportunity. God’s grace in giving
the children of Israel the land of Canaan meant believe and obey and I (God)
guarantee your success. It is no
different today with us other than the location of the Promised Land. By God’s grace, we are given an opportunity to
reach the promised land of heaven itself and our success is guaranteed if we
will believe and obey.
Lest the reader thinks I
am setting up an analogy that is invalid comparing the children of Israel and
their promised land and God’s children today and our promised land this is the
very thing the writer of the book of Hebrews does beginning in Heb. 3:7 and
going through about Heb. 4:11.
In Heb. 3:18-19 the
writer says a thing of utmost importance to you and me if we are to learn the
lesson he desires us to learn. “And to
whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who did not
obey? So we see that they could not
enter in because of unbelief.” (NKJV)
The reader ought to note carefully how the Hebrew writer ties together
faith and obedience or unbelief and disobedience. Those who believe obey; those who disbelieve
disobey.
Why did the adults of
that group we refer to as the children of Israel who left Egypt with Moses to
go to the Promised Land fail to enter in?
They disobeyed God who told them, “Go up and possess the land which I
have given to you.” (Deut. 9:23 NKJV)
They feared the inhabitants of the land and did not believe God’s word
that he had given them the land (and thus would fight with them in all their
battles allowing victory). Moses
speaking to them says, “You rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your
God, and you did not believe him nor obey his voice.” (Deut. 9:23 NKJV)
When men do not believe
they do not obey. Obedience then is a
matter of faith, disobedience a matter of a lack of faith. Why are people today, people who claim to
believe, not baptized “for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38 NKJV) as Peter
preached and commanded in the very first Holy Spirit inspired gospel sermon ever
to be preached? The answer is because
disbelief leads naturally to disobedience.
The Hebrew writer sums it up well, “the word which they heard did not
profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.” (Heb. 4:2
NKJV) Yes, he was speaking of a
generation long gone but speaking for our benefit today so that we can learn
from it. Will we learn?
The Hebrew writer goes
on in speaking of those Israelites who failed to enter the promised land saying,
“those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience”
(Heb. 4:6 NKJV) and then warns us not to fall “according to the same example of
disobedience.” (Heb. 4:11 NKJV)
What should we learn
from all of this? Genuine faith that
saves is a faith that when it hears believes and obeys. Men can call obedience salvation by works if
they want to, that is their choice, but the wise man will obey and not seek
salvation without obedience. To seek
salvation without obedience is to seek salvation without any real faith. “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:26
NKJV) and things that are dead no longer have life and are ready to be buried. Willful disobedience manifests a lack of
faith and is rebellion.
God’s gifts and grace,
in the context of the subject of which we are talking, always require more of
man than a dead faith that refuses to act.
When God speaks (gives a command in his word) our obligation is to obey and
not sit around and meditate on how doing so means works and not grace. The children of Israel would have been glad
to walk into Canaan under other circumstances more pleasing to themselves. They were just not willing to believe God and
do it his way. His grace, his gift, was
not to them sufficient grace. Will we be
that way about going to heaven? Are we
only going to heaven if we can get there our way? Are we only willing to go if God requires
absolutely nothing of us? I hope that
does not prove to be the case.
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