The Grace Teaching-Is It Really A Teaching? • Deshen Daily

Grace is not a teaching in Christianity, neither is it an important doctrine. It is all of Christianity, everything about our relationship with God through Christ Jesus. God has no relationship with us outside of Christ.

Two Systems of God-Man Relationship

After the Fall, God revealed two formal ways of bringing man closer to Himself: first the Law and then grace.

Israel was given the Law to bring them near to God. The Law to a Jew was not a teaching in the Old Covenant; it was everything to him with regards to relating with God. Then God moved from the Law to the second system—grace—which is everything to us in our relationship with God, just as the Law was not a teaching in the Old covenant to a Jew.

Grace is not one of the core doctrines of Christianity or our relating to God, but is actually the blueprint of our salvation. It is everything from the conception of Christ in Mary’s womb to our redemption out of the miry clay to our glorification in the very presence of God for all eternity.

We may talk about mercy, prayer, the second coming of Christ, and holiness which are critical elements of the faith we should learn without fail. But all these things find their anchor in grace. Grace is all things concerning God relating to us.

Grace is not a Salvation Strategy

Grace is God’s plan of saving man, and that plan is not a strategy. It is a Person. The entire plan of God from the very moment Adam and Eve sinned is about a Man coming. It wasn’t a strategic method. The method and the plan was a Man.

I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. (Genesis 3:15 HCSB)

This Seed who is the Hope of humanity was promised to Abraham. And this promise was not by the Law but by grace, which works through faith

Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say “and to seeds,” as though referring to many, but referring to one, and to your seed, who is Christ. (Galatians 3:16 HCSB)

For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. (Romans 4:13 HCSB)

Jesus is the grace of God revealed to man. The plan of redemption is all about the revelation of the Son of God. The Tabernacle in the wilderness is full of the revelation of Jesus. Grace is not simply a strategy to save humanity. It is the Person that saves humanity as John tells us:

…for the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17 HCSB)

While the law was given, grace came. Grace was not given. It came through Jesus Christ.

Grace Unveils Christ

Grace is simply the unveiling of the Person and the work of Christ to rescue lost humanity and translate it into the very glory of God. The message of grace, therefore, is not a new doctrine or teaching. It is the same old truth we have always known. Grace makes us accept and receive who Jesus really is and what He accomplished by His death, resurrection and ascension. Some believers itch to know what this “grace thing” is all about. I wonder what they expect to hear. The message of grace is simple: Jesus is our Savior! Well, you may say, that is not news, but that is the bone of contention in our relating to God. Men would rather save themselves than accept a Saviour.

The message of grace came to bring us back to where we started—at the foot of the cross, where Jesus is the One thing that matters. It seeks to bring us back to the simple meaning of the Saviour, the cross, the empty tomb and His ascension to glory. There is a wave of the revelation of grace coming to the Body, that will revive a passion and hunger in the hearts of believers—who are irritated by the emptiness of religion and church systems—to know Jesus and the work He accomplished for them. . Many believers are unaware of how much of “Church” they know, thinking it is the knowledge of Jesus. An intimate knowledge and walk with the Savior is a spiritual emergency.

Grace is Coming Back

The message of grace is coming back to the Church to bring us back to Jesus. Grace will magnify Christ and crush every other high thing we have erected in His place, including ourselves. Grace will produce an awe for the Lord in the hearts of believers and a fiery passion to live for Him and serve Him. Herein lies the litmus test of the veracity of the message of grace. If it does not elevate Jesus, create a reverent awe for His Person, His work through the cross and the wonder of what man has become in Him—leaving your being in an state of immersion of love and humble adoration for our God that drives you to live a life surrendered to His Lordship and serve Him with all of you—then it is not grace.

One of the satanic attacks on church circles today is a systematic attempt to remove Christ from His Church. Our messages across popular pulpits speak for themselves. It is saddening the position some pulpits have given to the cross and the empty tomb. We are turning our eyes from the Author and Finisher of our faith to other things, including ourselves. Grace highlights the preeminence of Christ in the plan of our salvation. Grace elevates Christ and demotes every human pride, especially that ugly religious pride that ever so often lifts up its head in us all.

You cannot draw a line and separate the grace of God and the Son of God. He is the grace of God at work to save man. It is impossible to have a revelation of grace and not be obsessed with love for Jesus and a holy and reverent adoration of God. Your language changes after an encounter with the revelation of God’s grace in Christ. All you will ever want to talk about is Jesus. It has been said that we should bring the cross back to the Church. Of course this is not referring to us having large crosses made of wood before the assemblies of the saints. That in itself testifies that we understand there has been some wandering off track, and that we must come back to the simplicity of the gospel. We have become more sophisticated, but at the cost of the power and the life of our walk with the Lord.