Welcome to The Kingdom Come Where Christ is King!
Eccesiology Eschatology Soteriology Bibliology Christology Pneumatology
Hamartiology Hermeneutics History Apologetics Humor Website
 
Welcome to The Kingdom Come Where Christ is King!
Home

Grace of God

How many of us can remember back before we were a Christian how we lived and thought? I’m sure we all knew right from wrong, having a conscience that would bother us from time to time. Some may have been blessed being raised in a Christian family and hearing, if not learning God’s Word. Some I’m sure had unbelieving parents who didn’t set very good examples but still had some idea of right and wrong. Have you ever thought about it? Where did it come from? I think the Bible has a lot to say about that subject. Just reading the Word has caused me to think about it in my life. I’d like to share some thoughts about it. When I think about it I have to go back to the very beginning.

Adam and Eve were in a true paradise. Life was good and easy and full of pleasure. God had provided all of their needs and comforts and only gave them one command that they should not do.


Genesis 2:16-17 16 And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Eating you may eat of every tree in the garden; 17 but of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you may not eat, for in the day of the eating of it, dying you shall die.

Adam broke that law and in doing so he gained the knowledge of Good and Evil. That knowledge has been passed down through all humanity. A conscience was formed but what was that conscience? The Apostle Paul explains to us what that was.

Romans 2:14-15 14 for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)
 
To get the full weight of these verses one needs to start at the beginning of the book of Romans and follow carefully what Paul is saying. He gives a picture of the natural man to show that from the beginning man has known God and was without excuse. It is interesting to read about the time from Adam to Noah. Those people knew who God was. The result of Adam’s sin was the expulsion from the Garden away from the tree of Life but it didn’t keep them from communion with God. Cain and Able knew God.

Genesis 4:1-7 1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, "I have acquired a man from the Lord." 2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. 6 So the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it."

I think we get the idea that after Adam’s sin mankind was cut off from God but that is not what the Bible says. Read those above verses very carefully and hear what God says to Cain. Yes man became a sinner but man separated himself from God not God from man.

Isaiah 59:1-2 1 Behold, the hand of Jehovah is not shortened from saving, and not is His ear heavy from hearing. 2 But your iniquities are coming between you and your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, from hearing.

Genesis 4:25-26 25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, "For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed." 26 And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.

Most of the details are left out of God’s Word but we have been given what He wanted people to know. There were four generations between Seth and Enoch that are recorded and covered hundreds of years.

Genesis 5:21-22 21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. 22 After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters.

All of those years people knew God but as time passed men became more wicked. Noah was another three generations from Enoch and by then all of the people had been totally corrupted except Noah and his family.

Romans 1:20-32 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man--and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

In putting together the Scriptures from Genesis and Romans I see the law was written on their hearts and that being their conscience. The law in the natural man had no power for his sin ruled him. I find it interesting that after the Gospels and Acts the first letter was by Paul that shows we are all sinners for Paul goes on to speak about the Jews. In words only Inspiration can give, Paul reveals to the reader that all are the same.

Romans 3:9-26 9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. 10 As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one." 13 "Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit"; "The poison of asps is under their lips"; 14 "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." 15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways; 17 And the way of peace they have not known." 18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes." 19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

What a beautiful picture! The Gentile could not earn their salvation and the Jew couldn’t either because Salvation was only by God’s Glorious Grace! Apart from what so many Christians believe Salvation didn’t come about by doing away with the law but by fulfilling it! It wasn’t just a matter of the Old Covenant being done away with. The Gentiles were not under the Old Covenant but they still had the law written in their hearts. All people from the time of Adam to the present have had the law written in their heart both Jew and Gentile but that doesn’t work. Everyone has a conscience.

Romans 8:3-4 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

The problem was never the law but SIN. There will always be law for the Saint and the sinner. As long as we live on earth we will have a conscience accusing or else excusing. The unbelievers will always have a conscience to accuse them and the believer will have a conscience free of guilt from the penalty that the law calls for sin. What law does the believer have?

Hebrews 10:14-18 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. 15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, 16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them," 17 then He adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." 18 Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

This was a prophecy made to Israel that began at Pentecost so how does it help the Gentile?

Ephesians 2:11-16 11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh--who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands-- 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.

Ephesians 3:5-6 5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: 6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel,

It may be argued by some that we had the law written in our hearts before what is the difference to have them written in our hearts again? Now we have been born again.

1 Peter 1:23 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,


Romans 8:14-16 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

We are new creatures in Christ. As I said before our problem wasn’t the law but sin. The law is good and Holy and we can rejoice in the law but it was our sin we died to.

Romans 6:3-14 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

Paul goes into much detail about the law and sin and it wasn’t just the sin committed under the Old Covenant but we have to go all the way back to the beginning. It was the sin of Adam that God had to deal with and so we learn about the first Adam and the last Adam.

Romans 5:12-14 12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned— 13 for until the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.

Death reigned from Adam to Moses because the people had the law written in their hearts. They were sinners from the beginning because of Adam. 

I have attempted to share my thoughts in hopes that it may stir up others to think whether they agree or not doesn’t matter but to think on these things is good.


Blessings,
Fred

By Commonman on 2006 Apr 5 - 09:01 | Archived | add new comment | email this page | printer friendly version | 587 reads