{"id":21353,"date":"2022-11-22T17:59:32","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T17:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=21353"},"modified":"2023-10-17T16:47:36","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T16:47:36","slug":"ingredients-of-gods-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=21353","title":{"rendered":"Ingredients of God\u2019s Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 4<\/p><p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">[<strong style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Note: <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our <b>Brief Articles 1\u00a0<\/b>page.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the New Testament, the \u201cgrace of God\u201d refers to the unearned and unearnable favor God has extended to mankind. In the classical Greek literature, such grace was extended only to friends. In the New Testament, a new and evolutionary dimension is added: God extended it to His enemies. A fine study on the subject is found in Titus 2:11\u201314. The passage says the \u201cgrace of God hath appeared.\u201d It is now revealed through the work of Christ and the declarations of His Word. God\u2019s grace has appeared unto \u201call men\u201d in that it embraces all people potentially. It blesses only those who accept it on God\u2019s own terms. What are the ingredients of God\u2019s grace toward us?<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Salvation<\/strong> (v.11). A planet of rebellious creatures stood under condemnation of an all-righteous Creator. The guiltless Judge stepped down from the bench and said, \u201cI will take their place and die in their stead,\u201d (v. 14). Since He died for us, we do not have to \u201cdie\u201d eternally. Divine justice has been satisfied and by the death of Christ we have life (Rom. 5:18; 6:23). This salvation is not granted indiscriminately but is for those who obey Christ (Heb. 5:9).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Instruction <\/strong>(v.12). Grace includes responsibility as well as privilege: we must hear and obey God\u2019s instruction. Some things are absolutely forbidden if we would continue in grace. There is also a certain way we must live \u201cin this present world.\u201d To ignore God\u2019s instruction is to forfeit His grace.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Anticipation <\/strong>(v. 13). By God\u2019s grace we have many spiritual blessings presently, but our ultimate hope rests in anticipation of the Lord\u2019s coming when He will gather us home with all the redeemed. May we constantly live in consciousness of that coming.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Possession <\/strong>(v.14). He redeemed us by giving Himself for us. He freed us from sin\u2019s slavery to live for Himself. In our redemption we were purified of all iniquity and made His possession. Zeal for good works is a necessary ingredient of living in His favor (cf. Eph. 2:8\u201310). We deny and forfeit God\u2019s grace when we have no energy for serving God.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">God\u2019s offers grace to all but doesn\u2019t grant it universally; nor does He force it upon anyone. Only those who obey the Son of God may claim it (Mark 16:16; 2 The. 2:7\u20139).<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[<span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Note:<\/strong> I wrote this article for, and it was published in the January 1, 1976, edition of <em>the Granbury Gospel, <\/em>weekly bulletin of the Granbury Church of Christ, Granbury, Texas, of which I was editor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Attribution:<\/strong> From <em>thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 4[Note: This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 1\u00a0page.] In the New Testament, the \u201cgrace of God\u201d refers to the unearned and unearnable favor God has extended to mankind. In the classical Greek literature, such grace was extended only to&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"easywp-readmore\"><a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=21353\">Continue Reading&#8230;<span class=\"easywp-sr-only\">  Ingredients of God\u2019s Grace<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[193,830,44,639,346,196,72,302],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-god-2","category-gods-power","category-grace","category-hope","category-instruction","category-redemption","category-salvation","category-zeal","wpcat-193-id","wpcat-830-id","wpcat-44-id","wpcat-639-id","wpcat-346-id","wpcat-196-id","wpcat-72-id","wpcat-302-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21353"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23278,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21353\/revisions\/23278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}