Lord of Grace & Judgment
Notes
Transcript
What do Christians mean by grace?
The doctrine of grace results from the Lordship of God.
Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.
And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
The Lord does whatever he pleases, and what he pleases is to be gracious.
And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts,
“Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
The graciousness of Jesus is controversial because it is lordly.
Jesus conveys this message in a parable.
And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.
He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.
Isaiah 40:13–15 (ESV)
Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord,
or what man shows him his counsel?
Whom did he consult,
and who made him understand?
Who taught him the path of justice,
and taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way of understanding?
Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
and are accounted as the dust on the scales; ...
The Lord does as he pleases, and we do not know how.
The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
The Lordship of Christ has a life of its own.
But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
The Lord’s will always gets results.
All of this benefits you. None of this is caused by you.
This is what Christians call grace.
But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
What is God’s grace growing in your heart?