Grace, Grace, Grace

As we move toward the end of the month I am very excited to be celebrating Reformation Day. This will be my second year doing so and we will enjoy a time of fellowship, good food, and good teaching out in the countryside. There is great meaning for me today in this celebration of a point in history when men stood up to the Roman Catholic Church and held their ground on the true faith of scripture. The wealth of sound doctrine, right theology, and scriptural discernement that Christ has poured into me these past three years has transformed all of who I am today. What excitement indeed to see God for who He truly is.....Almighty God.

One of the nuggets of truth I have unearthed is the amazing grace of God. Just to see that this grace He gives out is so bountiful and at the same time so undeserved by wretched sinners; to understand that when He gives this grace to a sinner, the sinner is unable to reject the mighty hand of God; to know without doubt, that once this special grace of salvation has been infused into sinners, theirs is a faith that is never extinguished and indeed will be finished; Realizing all this along with His supreme sovereignty, has generated within me a hunger for God and a fire to burn for Him amongst the masses.

In the tradition of the five Solas of the Reformation, the Reformers saw clearly in the scriptures the five part order of imparted knowledge by God to His servants. It goes like this, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christos, Sola Scriptura, and Sola Deo Gloria. We are saved by Grace Alone, through Faith Alone, in Christ Alone, of Scripture Alone, for the Glory of God Alone. These things work in harmony but are in themselves completely singular. Awesome.
This is what I have been thinking about: the word used for "grace" here is "gratia".
It is Latin and means in order to, for the sake of,
on account of,
gratitude, or favor.
In Latin, the word for free is "gratis".
It doesn't take too much to show that if one is getting grace then that grace must be by its very definition, completely free. It is entirely redundant to use "free" and "grace" in the same sentence. Nevertheless, great pains have been gone to in using the phrase "Free Grace", in order to enlighten men's hearts to the very reality of God. Indeed, the title of this blog proclaims that to be the thrust of my writings. Why must we be redundant in proclaiming this amazing grace of God? Let's look at some questions.

Is God actually in control of all He has made? Does He truly know what every man, woman, and child is thinking, doing, and saying, or for that matter has ever or will ever think, do, or say? Is the very fabric of creation and its continued existence contingent upon the sustaining power of God? Does God mete out salvation according to His divine will? One more question; If we answer yes to all these questions, are we actually prepared to love God enough that these truths be applied to our lives?

If you are known by the God of the Bible, then either, salvation is very appealing to you or salvation has already made its effect upon you. Likewise, the unfathomable being of Almighty God must do nothing less than lay upon you the truth of the answer "yes" to the above questions. Why then do so many dig their heels in and baulk at election and pre-destination? They try to equivocate and skirt the main issue. Could it be that man-centered doctrines have filled the church today and we have no room for a God so big that He has placed nothing contingent on our "free wills"? Even now, you may be reading this and think that I have contradicted myself by saying "the UNFATHOMABLE GOD" and "laying upon you the truth of 'yes' to the above questions". Maybe not. However, just for clarification, allow me to lay out for you a wonderful verse from so long ago when God was dealing with His chosen people.
Deuteronomy 29:29 says this:
“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

If the things are secret, then we will never know them this side of eternity. They belong to God. Things like what exactly His glory is, how it is that He has never had a beginning, or the wonderful majesty of the Trinity are things not for us to know now or possibly ever. However, our God has revealed many soul-stirring things about Himself and the ways in which He works in this 'ol world and He also wants us to know what these things are. One thing that frustrates me so much is when I speak with a Christian about certain doctrines that they may not fully grasp and they become exasperated and end up exclaiming that they are good where they are at and do not want to speak of such things.
If I may, let me point you to another precious scripture that speaks volumes about what Christ desires of us:
In Matthew 28:20 we see the risen Christ giving out the Great Commission and what does He say?
...teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
It is not enough to simply believe that Jesus is God. Even the demons believed this and trembled. It is clear in the first chapter of Mark that we must Repent, Believe, and Follow. What does it mean to follow? Is this a reference to the importance of the "journey" we are on rather than a focus on the destination as many apostate leaders would have us believe. Of course not! We are to soak up everything we can about the Godhead Three in One! We are to "observe everything.." as Jesus said! You will love what you look at and look at what you love. What are you looking at today?
Do you think it is "all about the journey"? Do you belive that the church is a hospital for the sick? Did you ever stop to think that the destination is indeed what matters? To be glorified in the presence of Almighty God is what we long for! Oh Christian, do you not realize that men are dead in their sins!? They do not need a physician they need a Saviour who raises people from the dead! The church is for the equipping of the saints! Period! We must not waver in dolling out the hot fresh bread of the gospel and the meat of heaven from the pulpit. For truly, the FREE GRACE of God will do its job anyway and how much more when the foolishness of preaching is done the way God has commanded?
This is why we proclaim from the housetops that God is a Holy God and we are not. God will judge all those not under the covering of christ. What joy that there is this unending flow of free grace whereby God saves. For indeed, without it, not a soul would see the streets of gold.
If God is actually God, then He is completely and totally sovereign over all things. Otherwise, why worship Him? Did you catch that? I said that God is completely and totally sovereign. A closer look will show you that I have been very unnecessary in my redundant use of words. For if someone is sovereign over another it is already understood that said sovereignty is total and complete. If the sovereignty is not total, it is not sovereignty. So why would one ever need to say "Total Sovereignty"? It is because in today's age we do not know how to process information and we know nothing of propositional thinking. We think and speak in blurbs to our demise.
While we are not too often redundant in our use of the word sovereignty, we do in fact become generously redundant when we speak of grace. "We" being those of us who are reformed in our thinking and Calvinistic in our doctrine. We love to say "free grace" because it sounds so sweet. When we are pleading with unbelievers or even professing Christians who cling to their libertarian free-will, we say the free grace of God is precious and saves sinners. Even the Westminster Confessions of Faith written from July 1643 to February 1649 by men who came together in one accord over the scriptures in order to exposit sound doctrines, contains the term "free grace" more than once. Why? It is because the brevity or conciseness and quality of expressing much in few words is nowhere found more precious than in the proclamation of the grace of God. WE DO NOT DESERVE IT! We are depraved and God would be absolutely just in sending us all to Hell. However, praise God He has chosen some for redemption! Oh how I pray you count yourself among this number! So we are redundant and exclaim, "Free Grace"! We say it because we are passionate about driving home the truth of God's supreme Holiness and our abhorrent depravity. We say it because we are in awe of our sovereign Lord and wish to be a City on a Hill for all to see. We say it, because it is His blinding glory which we so desperately desire to be on display.
Gratis Gratia.