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SAVED BY GRACE by Dr. Ed Roels
PERSONAL TESTIMONY
In most ways my grandfather was a very ordinary man. Few people remember him and most people never heard of him. However, on his death bed he taught his children and grandchildren a powerful truth which none of us will ever forget.
When he was dying at the age of 81, grandpa was lying on my parents’ bed in our family home. His strength was almost gone. His breathing was shallow and he spoke in little more than a whisper. We all knew that his life was slowly ebbing away. Soon he would be gone from us and at home with the Lord.
The family gathered closely around his bed to hear his final words. As he lay there dying he repeated the same few words over and over again. ALL BY GRACE. All by Grace. All by grace. His voice got softer and softer but his words remained the same. He repeated these precious words until his breath was almost gone. And then, with eyes closed and with a final effort he repeated it once more: “It’s all by grace.” And then he was gone. The gates of heaven were opened and by the grace of His Lord he entered the presence of the One he loved and served so long.
To me as a grandson, this is a very touching story. However, more important than the story itself is the truth my grandfather emphasized: Our salvation, our forgiveness, our confidence of spending eternity with the Lord, our victory and peace in life and in death are all by grace . . . and by grace alone.
There has never been a time or a situation when salvation could be merited or earned by doing good works or by keeping God’s laws or by observing His commandments. Salvation was always a gift of grace . . . and so will it always be. By ourselves we will never be “good enough” for heaven and, if we are truly “in Christ,” we will never be “too bad” for heaven. God’s grace covers all our sins, all our failures, all our imperfections, all our doubts, all our inconsistencies, and all our fears. Salvation is totally and wonderfully and purely a gift of God’s grace.
Grace -LESSON ONE
Introduction
Someone was once asked what he thought was the single most important word in the entire Bible. After thinking for a while, he replied, “I believe the most important word in the Bible is grace.” You might choose a different answer, but as you study these Lessons you will increasingly understand and appreciate how God’s grace is truly the source of every blessing we enjoy.
What is GRACE?
In its simplest form God’s grace may be described as God’s unmerited and undeserved favor toward us. By ourselves we merit nothing, we deserve nothing, and we can earn nothing. However, because of His grace, God pours out His blessings upon us. God is truly a God of mercy, love, and forgiveness, but unless He chooses by grace to show His love and forgiveness to us, we would be forever lost.
HOW DOES GOD DEMONSTRATE HIS GRACE TO US?
God demonstrates His grace to us every moment of our lives. EVERY blessing we receive comes to us because of the grace of God. Every breath we take, every moment we enjoy, every gift we receive, every skill that we possess, every work that we accomplish and every hope we have for the future is ours only because of God’s grace. Even the good we do in obedience to God and the love we show to others are possible only because of God’s grace. God may reward us for our obedience or for the kindness and love we show to others, but the source of every good thing in our lives is the sovereign grace of our Father in heaven.
This is especially true in regard to our salvation. No matter how we live or how much we pray, no matter how much we love the Lord or how diligent we are in seeking to live a holy life, our eternal salvation is based totally and completely on the grace of God. THAT is the main emphasis of this course. We do not minimize the importance of prayer, obedience, Bible study, or seeking to help others, but we must always recognize that we can add absolutely nothing to what Jesus has already done for our salvation.
Since Jesus Christ has done everything required for the forgiveness of our sins and for our eternal life, our part is to BELIEVE in Jesus Christ as our perfect Savior and then seek to live out the salvation He gives us in works of obedience, gratitude and praise. That is what the Bible means when it says that we are saved by grace through faith for good works (Ephesians 2:4-10).
In this course we will study some of the wonderful ways in which God has demonstrated His grace to mankind throughout history. The first Lessons will deal primarily with God’s gracious actions and promises in the Old Testament. Later Lessons will focus on the teachings of grace in the New Testament. The last chapters will deal with the subject of Christian Liberty—our freedom in Christ to live without the burden of constantly wondering whether we are good enough or whether we are doing enough to please God. We obviously do want to please God and walk with Him if we are His children, but salvation is truly a gift from our Father in heaven. The way of salvation has always been By Grace Alone.
EARLY DEMONSTRATIONS OF GOD’S GRACE IN THE BOOK OF GENESIS
Adam and Eve
When God created Adam and Eve, He created them in His own image and after His own likeness. He gave them authority over the earth He had created and told them to rule over it, care for it, and be fruitful and increase in number. He placed them in the beautiful Garden of Eden where everything was peaceful and delightful. They had a wonderful place to live, good minds, loving hearts, meaningful things to do, and a great variety of things to eat and enjoy (Genesis 1:26-30; 2:8-9). There were no arguments, no disagreements, and no frustrations. There were no disappointments or failures, no sickness or pain, no sorrow or death, no guilt and no fear. Everything was perfect.
However, God gave Adam one very clear command–a command not to eat the fruit of one specific tree in the Garden. The penalty for breaking that command, God said, would be death (Genesis 2:16-17).
He did not say or even suggest to Adam in any way that He would Himself provide a way for Adam to escape that punishment. The only message He gave to Adam was this: “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” The command was simple and the punishment for breaking the command was clear: Eat and you will die. At this point there was no promise of grace if Adam failed.
Later, when the serpent came and tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden, Satan aroused in them a desire for something they did not yet have. He assured them that if they ate the forbidden fruit, they would become as God Himself, gaining a personal knowledge of good and evil. As a result, Adam and Eve questioned God’s motive for giving them the one negative command and believed the lie of Satan rather than the truth of God. So they ate. (Genesis 3:1-6)
As a result of their disobedience and sin, their once-perfect bodies immediately became subject to suffering and pain and eventually to death. They also died spiritually and became alienated from the God who created, loved, and blessed them. The once-perfect earth began to produce thorns and thistles and God told Adam he would eat its fruit only through painful toil. They became aware of their physical (and spiritual) nakedness and in their guilt and shame they sought to run away and hide from the God who had created them (Genesis 3:8-10). Adam and Eve also were alienated from one another and began to make excuses for their sin (Genesis 3:11-13).
But God did not leave Adam and Eve alone in their guilt and nakedness. In His grace, He took the initiative and went “looking” for them. He could have let them die in their sin without mercy–but He didn’t. Just as Jesus in the New Testament was the Good Shepherd who cared for His sheep (John 10:11-14), so the Father immediately sought out Adam and Eve in their lost and confused condition. He didn’t excuse what they had done and He didn’t minimize the consequences of their sin, but He immediately “found” them and questioned and challenged them about what they had done. They responded with feeble efforts to excuse themselves by putting the blame on someone else. Their pitiful response simply showed the depths to which they had already fallen. But God, in His grace, responded with a word of hope.
Before pronouncing His judgment on Adam and Eve, God pronounced a curse upon the serpent (Satan) who had deceived them. He graciously promised that some day one of Adam’s and Eve’s descendants would crush the head of the serpent (Satan) and would thus win a victory over sin and death (Genesis 3:15). God also indicated, however, that this victory would come at great cost to the “seed” (descendant) of the woman. At this point, God’s promise of GRACE was veiled in language which Adam and Eve could not begin to understand. However, the promise of grace was there, and this promise would never fail.
Because of God’s grace, both Adam and Eve knew that there was HOPE for them and all their descendants. Though the results of sin would be terrible and painful (Genesis 3:16-17), death would not be the final word. Some day there would be a glorious victory! That was grace!
God also demonstrated His grace to Adam and Eve in another significant way before He banished them from the Garden of Eden. He made “garments of skin” for them “and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). Earlier Adam and Eve had tried to cover their nakedness by sewing some fig leaves together (Genesis -4-
3:7). These fig leaves represented their own efforts to deal with the results of their sin. But God showed them that He alone could provide for their “spiritual nakedness” by taking a “substitute” and using the skin of a sacrificial animal to provide the covering they needed.
This first “substitute” in Genesis 3:21 pointed ahead to the time when God’s own Son would come into the world as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Though Adam and Eve could not fully understand all this, God demonstrated that people could never atone for their sins through their own effort. The payment for their sin required the death of a perfect Substitute who would die in their place. And God, in His grace, loved the world so much that He gave His own Son to die so that all who believed in Him would not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
FURTHER DEMONSTRATIONS OF GRACE IN THE BOOK OF GENESIS
Some time later, God gave Adam and Eve two sons, Cain and Abel. When Cain killed his brother, God pronounced judgment on him for what he had done. At the same time, God showed Cain special grace by protecting him from those who might want to kill him or hurt him in some way. In order to assure Cain of protection from others, God put a distinguishing mark on Cain so that others would not harm him. Cain lived as a fugitive, but God spared his life so that he did not immediately perish (Genesis 4:13-16).
After the death of Abel, God, in His grace, blessed Adam and Eve with another son, Seth, through whom He would carry out His promise to some day provide someone who would be their Redeemer. It was during the lifetime of Seth’s son Enosh that people began for the first time in recorded history to call on the name of the Lord (Genesis 4:25-26). In those days people seemed to understand, possibly for the first time, that their greatest need was to live in the grace of their Creator God.
In Genesis 5, we read the “roll call” of successive generations of people who died. The penalty that God had pronounced on Adam and Eve in the beginning was being carried out, even though people in those days lived a very long time. However, in the midst of the somber repetition of the words, “And he died,” in this chapter, there is a wonderful and encouraging sign of God’s continued promise and grace. Enoch, one of Adam’s descendants, walked with God and did not die but was taken directly to heaven to be with the God he loved and served (Genesis 5:21-24) . Here again was a glorious sign of hope and grace in the midst of the despair of death.
THE DAYS OF NOAH
Several generations after the time of Adam and Eve, sin became so deeply entrenched in human life that God decided to destroy mankind from the face of the earth by means of a flood. In Genesis 6:5 we read, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” For most people, God did not matter. Almost all of them had forgotten about God and no one seemed to have any concern about life after death. They lived to be very old and they did what they pleased, and for them this was all that mattered.
Because of this pervasive evil, God pronounced judgment on everyone except for one man, Noah, and his family (Genesis 6:8-9). In His grace God spared Noah and his family because he was considered “blameless” and “righteous” among the people of his time. This does not mean that Noah was without sin, but Noah was a man who believed God, trusted Him, and sought to do what was pleasing to Him. We don’t know whether or not Noah’s family were also “righteous” people, but God in His grace spared both Noah and his entire family because of Noah’s “righteousness” (see Genesis 7:1).
Did Noah “earn” his salvation because of his obedience in building the ark God told him to build? Not at all. Noah was far from perfect (see Genesis 9:20-23), but by doing what God told him to do, he demonstrated that he truly desired to serve God and trusted Him to save him from the destruction that was coming.
Though Noah preached for many years, no one believed the warnings God had given to him. No one turned to God in repentance and faith. Noah, however, believed what God had told him and, in spite of the unbelief of the people around him, demonstrated his faith by doing everything God told him to do. The unbelief and disobedience of the people led to their destruction. The faith and obedience of Noah led to his salvation.
After the earth dried up again after the flood, Noah offered sacrifices to God in gratitude for what He had done and as a sign of his commitment to what God commanded him to do. After Noah offered these sacrifices to the Lord, God in His grace promised that He would never again destroy the entire world with a flood (Genesis 9:8-11). He also provided a unique “sign” of His promise by placing a beautiful rainbow in the sky. This rainbow would remind all people of God’s gracious covenant promise made initially to Noah (Genesis 9:12-17). Though God would still punish people for their sins, there would never again be a world-wide flood to destroy all mankind. The rainbow provided both a reminder and an assurance that God will provide a way out of destruction for everyone who puts his faith in His redeeming love and grace.
THE TOWER OF BABEL
When the number of people continued to grow rapidly after the flood, the people became proud and soon forgot again about God. They deliberately refused to “fill the earth” as God had commanded in the beginning (Genesis 1:28) and began to build a tower that would reach to the heavens. They said that they wanted to “make a name” for themselves so that they would not be scattered over the face of the earth (Genesis 11:4). In response to their arrogance, pride and disobedience, God confused their languages and scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
With this story of the Tower of Babel we come to the end of God’s dealing with mankind as a whole. God did not change His purpose of providing a Redeemer for people throughout the world, but He no longer would deal with all the nations in the same way. From this point on (beginning in Genesis 11:27) God chose to work out His plan of redemption through one man, Abraham, and his descendants. To these people He would give His promises, to them He would give His laws, and through them He would fulfill the promise He made in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15). God’s plan of redemption would not fail, but for the next two thousand years, most people would be excluded from the Covenant of Grace He would establish with Abraham and his descendants.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
When Adam and Eve were first created, God provided them with wonderful blessings of grace in the Garden of Eden. However, God also gave them a simple command not to eat the fruit of one of the trees in the Garden. If they did eat from that tree, God said, they would be severely punished for their disobedience. Regrettably, they chose to listen to the temptation of the serpent (Satan) and disobeyed the Lord. The consequences were catastrophic. Adam and Eve gained nothing and lost all that was precious, holy, and valuable. Through their disobedience they “earned” the penalty of death (see Romans 6:23) and all their descendants also shared in that penalty (Romans 5:12, 18-19).
Adam and Eve immediately died spiritually and also began to die physically. However, God graciously promised them that some day one of their own descendants would come and provide a way of salvation from the ultimate penalty for their sin (Genesis 3:15).
As sin increased in the world, God decided to destroy all living creatures on the earth by means of a devastating flood–except believing Noah and his family Years later, when sin again increased greatly in the world, God scattered people over the face of the earth. At that time He also began to limit His saving activities for the most part to one man and his descendants. That man was Abraham who later became known as the “father of all believers” (Romans 4:11, 16-17).
In the next Lesson we will focus on God’s call to Abraham, the Covenant of Grace, and Abraham’s descendants.
[/vc_column_text] [vc_accordion title=”QUESTIONS FOR LESSON ONE”] [vc_accordion_tab title=”Review Quiz”] [vc_column_text el_position=”first last”]
Click the plus buttons to see the answers to the questions.
[/vc_column_text] [/vc_accordion_tab] [vc_accordion_tab title=”1. How would you define the word “grace” as it is used in the Bible?”] [vc_column_text el_position=”first last”]
- Grace is God’s unmerited and undeserved favor toward us.
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- By ourselves we merit nothing, deserve nothing, and can earn nothing. Everything we receive from a holy and merciful God is because of His grace. Without it, we would be forever lost.
[/vc_column_text] [/vc_accordion_tab] [vc_accordion_tab title=”3. What does it mean that we are saved by grace alone?”] [vc_column_text el_position=”first last”]
- We can do absolutely nothing to earn our salvation. Jesus Christ has done everything required for our salvation and we cannot add anything to it.. Whenever we try to add anything to it (such as our works, our obedience, or anything else) we simply detract from it because we are then indicating that Christ has not really done all that is needed for our salvation.
[/vc_column_text] [/vc_accordion_tab] [vc_accordion_tab title=”4. Fill in the blanks in the following sentence: “We are saved by __________ through__________ for ___________ _________”.”] [vc_column_text el_position=”first last”]
- By GRACE through FAITH for GOOD WORKS (or works of love and obedience).
[/vc_column_text] [/vc_accordion_tab] [vc_accordion_tab title=”5. A. How would you describe the life of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before they sinned?”] [vc_column_text el_position=”first last”]
A. Before they sinned, their life was perfect in every way. There were no problems, weaknesses, sicknesses, needs, disappointments, frustrations, or failures. They had everything they needed or desired and they lived joyfully in fellowship with God.
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B. After they sinned, their bodies began to die physically, they died spiritually in the sense that they were alienated from God, they became subject to all kinds of problems, challenges, difficulties, and hurts, and they lost the joy they once had in fellowship with God. Even the earth was cursed and would bring forth thorns and thistles and make life difficult and unpleasant for them. At the same time, however, they still were able to enjoy many good on this earth and with each other since God did not utterly destroy the “beauty of the earth.”
[/vc_column_text] [/vc_accordion_tab] [vc_accordion_tab title=”6. Did Adam and Eve die immediately after they sinned?”] [vc_column_text el_position=”first last”]
- They immediately died spiritually in the sense that they were alienated from God and were destined for eternal death without Him. They also began to die physically as their bodies became mortal and would ultimately be destroyed.
[/vc_column_text] [/vc_accordion_tab] [vc_accordion_tab title=”7. A. What great promise did God give to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15?”] [vc_column_text el_position=”first last”]
- A. God promised them that some day a Savior or Redeemer would come who would crush the head of the serpent (Satan) which had deceived them and led them into sin. This Savior would be born as a human being (the seed of the woman), a future descendant of Eve and Adam.
[/vc_column_text] [/vc_accordion_tab] [vc_accordion_tab title=”B. Was this promise given after or before God pronounced the punishment they would receive?”] [vc_column_text el_position=”first last”]
B. God announced this BEFORE He pronounced the punishment they would receive.
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C. This demonstrates God’s great GRACE for Adam and Eve and the human race. They could not earn their salvation and they would not have to. God Himself would redeem them! The final word for mankind would be victory over sin and all its consequences in spite of the fact that they would be facing the results of sin throughout their earthly lives.
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- A. God covered them with animal skins.
[/vc_column_text] [/vc_accordion_tab] [vc_accordion_tab title=”B. What was the significance of replacing their fig leaves with animal skins?”] [vc_column_text el_position=”first last”]
B. The fig leaves represented man’s efforts to “cover” the results of their sin. The animal skins represented two things: (1) GOD’S provision for man’s need, and (2) the death of “another” to cover their sins.
[/vc_column_text] [/vc_accordion_tab] [vc_accordion_tab title=”9. A. How did God show His grace to Cain after he killed his brother Abel?”] [vc_column_text el_position=”first last”]
A. God gave Cain some kind of sign which would show to others that they should not kill him or harm him because he was under God’s “protection.”
[/vc_column_text] [/vc_accordion_tab] [vc_accordion_tab title=”B. Do you think Cain “deserved” to be given special treatment by God?”] [vc_column_text el_position=”first last”]
B. No. Cain had done nothing to merit God’s special treatment and he had not even shown sincere remorse for his sin. It was only God’s grace that protected him from the attacks of others. (Note: This earthly “protection” did not mean that Cain was “saved” or forgiven for what he had done. However, when God prolonged his life, He gave Cain more time to repent and ask God for forgiveness.)
[/vc_column_text] [/vc_accordion_tab] [vc_accordion_tab title=”10. A. How would you describe the basic message of Genesis 5?”] [vc_column_text el_position=”first last”]
A. Genesis 5 shows that the “death penalty” for man’s sin was indeed being carried out. Even though people lived for many years on earth, they all died (except, of course, for Enoch).
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B. Enoch walked with God and was taken directly to heaven without dying.
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C. Students will likely answer this question in different ways. Some may possibly emphasize the solemn repetition of the words “And he died,” while others might emphasize the hope found in the example of Enoch.
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11. A. Genesis 6:5 contains some of the most awesome words of the entire Bible concerning the pervasiveness of sin in human life. We read, “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.”
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B. Answers will vary here. In general, the statement of Genesis 6:5 would not fit our situation today, since there are millions of believers around the world who are faithfully (though imperfectly) serving the Lord and serving others in His name. Also, there are many adherents of non-Christian religions who are living a life of “external obedience” to the laws of men and of God, even though they do not love and serve God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength or their neighbors as themselves.
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A. Noah is described as “a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.”
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B. No. No one is sinless or perfect in the sight of God. After the flood Noah got drunk and exhibited some very inappropriate behavior (Genesis 9:21). There were likely other failures in his life as well. However, he definitely was an exceptional person of integrity and faithfulness who walked with God in his daily life.
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A. God established a special covenant with Noah and his sons and the rest of the created world, promising that he would never again destroy the entire earth with a flood.
[/vc_column_text] [/vc_accordion_tab] [vc_accordion_tab title=”B. What sign did God give in connection with this promise?”] [vc_column_text el_position=”first last”]
B. The sign of this covenant promise was the rainbow “in the clouds.”
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A. The people built the Tower of Babel “so that they could make a name for themselves “and not be scattered over the fade of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:4)
[/vc_column_text] [/vc_accordion_tab] [vc_accordion_tab title=”B. Why did God punish them for what they were doing?”] [vc_column_text el_position=”first last”]
B. Earlier God had commanded Adam and Eve (and, thus, their descendants) to multiply and fill the earth. In their pride and arrogance and defiance, they deliberately refused to do that. If they continued with their defiance, God said that “nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” (Genesis 11:6)
[/vc_column_text] [/vc_accordion_tab] [vc_accordion_tab title=”15. What major difference in God’s plan of redemption took place after the events at the Tower of Babel?”] [vc_column_text el_position=”first”]
SAVED BY GRACE by Dr. Ed Roels
PERSONAL TESTIMONY
In most ways my grandfather was a very ordinary man. Few people remember him and most people never heard of him. However, on his death bed he taught his children and grandchildren a powerful truth which none of us will ever forget.
When he was dying at the age of 81, grandpa was lying on my parents’ bed in our family home. His strength was almost gone. His breathing was shallow and he spoke in little more than a whisper. We all knew that his life was slowly ebbing away. Soon he would be gone from us and at home with the Lord.
The family gathered closely around his bed to hear his final words. As he lay there dying he repeated the same few words over and over again. ALL BY GRACE. All by Grace. All by grace. His voice got softer and softer but his words remained the same. He repeated these precious words until his breath was almost gone. And then, with eyes closed and with a final effort he repeated it once more: “It’s all by grace.” And then he was gone. The gates of heaven were opened and by the grace of His Lord he entered the presence of the One he loved and served so long.
To me as a grandson, this is a very touching story. However, more important than the story itself is the truth my grandfather emphasized: Our salvation, our forgiveness, our confidence of spending eternity with the Lord, our victory and peace in life and in death are all by grace . . . and by grace alone.
There has never been a time or a situation when salvation could be merited or earned by doing good works or by keeping God’s laws or by observing His commandments. Salvation was always a gift of grace . . . and so will it always be. By ourselves we will never be “good enough” for heaven and, if we are truly “in Christ,” we will never be “too bad” for heaven. God’s grace covers all our sins, all our failures, all our imperfections, all our doubts, all our inconsistencies, and all our fears. Salvation is totally and wonderfully and purely a gift of God’s grace.
Grace -LESSON ONE
Introduction
Someone was once asked what he thought was the single most important word in the entire Bible. After thinking for a while, he replied, “I believe the most important word in the Bible is grace.” You might choose a different answer, but as you study these Lessons you will increasingly understand and appreciate how God’s grace is truly the source of every blessing we enjoy.
What is GRACE?
In its simplest form God’s grace may be described as God’s unmerited and undeserved favor toward us. By ourselves we merit nothing, we deserve nothing, and we can earn nothing. However, because of His grace, God pours out His blessings upon us. God is truly a God of mercy, love, and forgiveness, but unless He chooses by grace to show His love and forgiveness to us, we would be forever lost.
HOW DOES GOD DEMONSTRATE HIS GRACE TO US?
God demonstrates His grace to us every moment of our lives. EVERY blessing we receive comes to us because of the grace of God. Every breath we take, every moment we enjoy, every gift we receive, every skill that we possess, every work that we accomplish and every hope we have for the future is ours only because of God’s grace. Even the good we do in obedience to God and the love we show to others are possible only because of God’s grace. God may reward us for our obedience or for the kindness and love we show to others, but the source of every good thing in our lives is the sovereign grace of our Father in heaven.
This is especially true in regard to our salvation. No matter how we live or how much we pray, no matter how much we love the Lord or how diligent we are in seeking to live a holy life, our eternal salvation is based totally and completely on the grace of God. THAT is the main emphasis of this course. We do not minimize the importance of prayer, obedience, Bible study, or seeking to help others, but we must always recognize that we can add absolutely nothing to what Jesus has already done for our salvation.
Since Jesus Christ has done everything required for the forgiveness of our sins and for our eternal life, our part is to BELIEVE in Jesus Christ as our perfect Savior and then seek to live out the salvation He gives us in works of obedience, gratitude and praise. That is what the Bible means when it says that we are saved by grace through faith for good works (Ephesians 2:4-10).
In this course we will study some of the wonderful ways in which God has demonstrated His grace to mankind throughout history. The first Lessons will deal primarily with God’s gracious actions and promises in the Old Testament. Later Lessons will focus on the teachings of grace in the New Testament. The last chapters will deal with the subject of Christian Liberty—our freedom in Christ to live without the burden of constantly wondering whether we are good enough or whether we are doing enough to please God. We obviously do want to please God and walk with Him if we are His children, but salvation is truly a gift from our Father in heaven. The way of salvation has always been By Grace Alone.
EARLY DEMONSTRATIONS OF GOD’S GRACE IN THE BOOK OF GENESIS
Adam and Eve
When God created Adam and Eve, He created them in His own image and after His own likeness. He gave them authority over the earth He had created and told them to rule over it, care for it, and be fruitful and increase in number. He placed them in the beautiful Garden of Eden where everything was peaceful and delightful. They had a wonderful place to live, good minds, loving hearts, meaningful things to do, and a great variety of things to eat and enjoy (Genesis 1:26-30; 2:8-9). There were no arguments, no disagreements, and no frustrations. There were no disappointments or failures, no sickness or pain, no sorrow or death, no guilt and no fear. Everything was perfect.
However, God gave Adam one very clear command–a command not to eat the fruit of one specific tree in the Garden. The penalty for breaking that command, God said, would be death (Genesis 2:16-17).
He did not say or even suggest to Adam in any way that He would Himself provide a way for Adam to escape that punishment. The only message He gave to Adam was this: “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” The command was simple and the punishment for breaking the command was clear: Eat and you will die. At this point there was no promise of grace if Adam failed.
Later, when the serpent came and tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden, Satan aroused in them a desire for something they did not yet have. He assured them that if they ate the forbidden fruit, they would become as God Himself, gaining a personal knowledge of good and evil. As a result, Adam and Eve questioned God’s motive for giving them the one negative command and believed the lie of Satan rather than the truth of God. So they ate. (Genesis 3:1-6)
As a result of their disobedience and sin, their once-perfect bodies immediately became subject to suffering and pain and eventually to death. They also died spiritually and became alienated from the God who created, loved, and blessed them. The once-perfect earth began to produce thorns and thistles and God told Adam he would eat its fruit only through painful toil. They became aware of their physical (and spiritual) nakedness and in their guilt and shame they sought to run away and hide from the God who had created them (Genesis 3:8-10). Adam and Eve also were alienated from one another and began to make excuses for their sin (Genesis 3:11-13).
But God did not leave Adam and Eve alone in their guilt and nakedness. In His grace, He took the initiative and went “looking” for them. He could have let them die in their sin without mercy–but He didn’t. Just as Jesus in the New Testament was the Good Shepherd who cared for His sheep (John 10:11-14), so the Father immediately sought out Adam and Eve in their lost and confused condition. He didn’t excuse what they had done and He didn’t minimize the consequences of their sin, but He immediately “found” them and questioned and challenged them about what they had done. They responded with feeble efforts to excuse themselves by putting the blame on someone else. Their pitiful response simply showed the depths to which they had already fallen. But God, in His grace, responded with a word of hope.
Before pronouncing His judgment on Adam and Eve, God pronounced a curse upon the serpent (Satan) who had deceived them. He graciously promised that some day one of Adam’s and Eve’s descendants would crush the head of the serpent (Satan) and would thus win a victory over sin and death (Genesis 3:15). God also indicated, however, that this victory would come at great cost to the “seed” (descendant) of the woman. At this point, God’s promise of GRACE was veiled in language which Adam and Eve could not begin to understand. However, the promise of grace was there, and this promise would never fail.
Because of God’s grace, both Adam and Eve knew that there was HOPE for them and all their descendants. Though the results of sin would be terrible and painful (Genesis 3:16-17), death would not be the final word. Some day there would be a glorious victory! That was grace!
God also demonstrated His grace to Adam and Eve in another significant way before He banished them from the Garden of Eden. He made “garments of skin” for them “and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). Earlier Adam and Eve had tried to cover their nakedness by sewing some fig leaves together (Genesis -4-
3:7). These fig leaves represented their own efforts to deal with the results of their sin. But God showed them that He alone could provide for their “spiritual nakedness” by taking a “substitute” and using the skin of a sacrificial animal to provide the covering they needed.
This first “substitute” in Genesis 3:21 pointed ahead to the time when God’s own Son would come into the world as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Though Adam and Eve could not fully understand all this, God demonstrated that people could never atone for their sins through their own effort. The payment for their sin required the death of a perfect Substitute who would die in their place. And God, in His grace, loved the world so much that He gave His own Son to die so that all who believed in Him would not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
FURTHER DEMONSTRATIONS OF GRACE IN THE BOOK OF GENESIS
Some time later, God gave Adam and Eve two sons, Cain and Abel. When Cain killed his brother, God pronounced judgment on him for what he had done. At the same time, God showed Cain special grace by protecting him from those who might want to kill him or hurt him in some way. In order to assure Cain of protection from others, God put a distinguishing mark on Cain so that others would not harm him. Cain lived as a fugitive, but God spared his life so that he did not immediately perish (Genesis 4:13-16).
After the death of Abel, God, in His grace, blessed Adam and Eve with another son, Seth, through whom He would carry out His promise to some day provide someone who would be their Redeemer. It was during the lifetime of Seth’s son Enosh that people began for the first time in recorded history to call on the name of the Lord (Genesis 4:25-26). In those days people seemed to understand, possibly for the first time, that their greatest need was to live in the grace of their Creator God.
In Genesis 5, we read the “roll call” of successive generations of people who died. The penalty that God had pronounced on Adam and Eve in the beginning was being carried out, even though people in those days lived a very long time. However, in the midst of the somber repetition of the words, “And he died,” in this chapter, there is a wonderful and encouraging sign of God’s continued promise and grace. Enoch, one of Adam’s descendants, walked with God and did not die but was taken directly to heaven to be with the God he loved and served (Genesis 5:21-24) . Here again was a glorious sign of hope and grace in the midst of the despair of death.
THE DAYS OF NOAH
Several generations after the time of Adam and Eve, sin became so deeply entrenched in human life that God decided to destroy mankind from the face of the earth by means of a flood. In Genesis 6:5 we read, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” For most people, God did not matter. Almost all of them had forgotten about God and no one seemed to have any concern about life after death. They lived to be very old and they did what they pleased, and for them this was all that mattered.
Because of this pervasive evil, God pronounced judgment on everyone except for one man, Noah, and his family (Genesis 6:8-9). In His grace God spared Noah and his family because he was considered “blameless” and “righteous” among the people of his time. This does not mean that Noah was without sin, but Noah was a man who believed God, trusted Him, and sought to do what was pleasing to Him. We don’t know whether or not Noah’s family were also “righteous” people, but God in His grace spared both Noah and his entire family because of Noah’s “righteousness” (see Genesis 7:1).
Did Noah “earn” his salvation because of his obedience in building the ark God told him to build? Not at all. Noah was far from perfect (see Genesis 9:20-23), but by doing what God told him to do, he demonstrated that he truly desired to serve God and trusted Him to save him from the destruction that was coming.
Though Noah preached for many years, no one believed the warnings God had given to him. No one turned to God in repentance and faith. Noah, however, believed what God had told him and, in spite of the unbelief of the people around him, demonstrated his faith by doing everything God told him to do. The unbelief and disobedience of the people led to their destruction. The faith and obedience of Noah led to his salvation.
After the earth dried up again after the flood, Noah offered sacrifices to God in gratitude for what He had done and as a sign of his commitment to what God commanded him to do. After Noah offered these sacrifices to the Lord, God in His grace promised that He would never again destroy the entire world with a flood (Genesis 9:8-11). He also provided a unique “sign” of His promise by placing a beautiful rainbow in the sky. This rainbow would remind all people of God’s gracious covenant promise made initially to Noah (Genesis 9:12-17). Though God would still punish people for their sins, there would never again be a world-wide flood to destroy all mankind. The rainbow provided both a reminder and an assurance that God will provide a way out of destruction for everyone who puts his faith in His redeeming love and grace.
THE TOWER OF BABEL
When the number of people continued to grow rapidly after the flood, the people became proud and soon forgot again about God. They deliberately refused to “fill the earth” as God had commanded in the beginning (Genesis 1:28) and began to build a tower that would reach to the heavens. They said that they wanted to “make a name” for themselves so that they would not be scattered over the face of the earth (Genesis 11:4). In response to their arrogance, pride and disobedience, God confused their languages and scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
With this story of the Tower of Babel we come to the end of God’s dealing with mankind as a whole. God did not change His purpose of providing a Redeemer for people throughout the world, but He no longer would deal with all the nations in the same way. From this point on (beginning in Genesis 11:27) God chose to work out His plan of redemption through one man, Abraham, and his descendants. To these people He would give His promises, to them He would give His laws, and through them He would fulfill the promise He made in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15). God’s plan of redemption would not fail, but for the next two thousand years, most people would be excluded from the Covenant of Grace He would establish with Abraham and his descendants.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
When Adam and Eve were first created, God provided them with wonderful blessings of grace in the Garden of Eden. However, God also gave them a simple command not to eat the fruit of one of the trees in the Garden. If they did eat from that tree, God said, they would be severely punished for their disobedience. Regrettably, they chose to listen to the temptation of the serpent (Satan) and disobeyed the Lord. The consequences were catastrophic. Adam and Eve gained nothing and lost all that was precious, holy, and valuable. Through their disobedience they “earned” the penalty of death (see Romans 6:23) and all their descendants also shared in that penalty (Romans 5:12, 18-19).
Adam and Eve immediately died spiritually and also began to die physically. However, God graciously promised them that some day one of their own descendants would come and provide a way of salvation from the ultimate penalty for their sin (Genesis 3:15).
As sin increased in the world, God decided to destroy all living creatures on the earth by means of a devastating flood–except believing Noah and his family Years later, when sin again increased greatly in the world, God scattered people over the face of the earth. At that time He also began to limit His saving activities for the most part to one man and his descendants. That man was Abraham who later became known as the “father of all believers” (Romans 4:11, 16-17).
In the next Lesson we will focus on God’s call to Abraham, the Covenant of Grace, and Abraham’s descendants.
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After the people defiantly tried to build the Tower of Babel, God chose to work out His plan of redemption through one man, Abraham, and his descendants. To these people He would give His promises and His laws and through them He would fulfill the promise He made to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The “other people” in the world would not be forgotten, but they would not receive the same blessings and promises that Abraham and his descendants did
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FOR FURTHER REFLECTION,
1. Please indicate why you do or do not agree with this sentence: “The most important word in the Bible is “grace.”
1. How would you respond to someone who said: “If salvation is all by grace, then it doesn’t matter whether I love and serve God or not. It really doesn’t make any difference whether I try to obey God or whether I don’t.”
1. How did God demonstrate His grace in the lives of Adam and Eve after they sinned?
4. What effect did the sin of Adam and Eve have on their future descendants, including you?
1. What practical difference would it make in your daily life if God saved people on the basis of their works rather than through faith in Jesus Christ?
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By: Jeremy hunsinger
COVENANT OF GRACE by Dr. Ed Roels
Shortly after God scattered the people who had built the Tower of Babel, He chose to work out His plan of salvation by limiting His special revelation primarily to one person and his descendants.
The person God chose for this very special honor and responsibility was a man named Abram (later called Abraham). God’s ultimate purpose in choosing Abraham was not simply to bless this man and his descendants. Rather, His primary purpose in working through Abraham was to bring salvation to all people on earth. Eventually, a child would be born in the line of Abraham who would be the Savior of the world. That person was God’s own Son who took on human form when He was born on earth to a young Jewish girl in the city of David in the land of Israel (Luke 2:10-11). This Holy Child was given the name “Jesus” (meaning “the Lord saves”) because He would save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).
GOD’S PROMISE TO ABRAHAM
When God called Abraham to leave his home in Ur of the Chaldeans (in an area known today as Iraq), God gave him a very special promise. God said, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:1-3).
What a fantastic promise that was! God had never promised anything like that to anyone before. But why did God choose Abraham for this special blessing? Had he worked hard for it? Did he earn it somehow? Did he have a record of great accomplishments? Did his family have a long history of loving and serving God?
The answer to all those questions is a very strong NO! We know very little about Abraham’s ancestors other than the fact that they apparently were idol worshipers (Joshua 24:2 an24:15). God definitely did not call Abraham because of his merits or worthiness. God called him because of His grace. And when God called Abraham to leave his fatherland and go to a new land where he had never been before, Abraham trusted God and did what God had told him to do.
It was by faith that Abraham went out to the land of Canaan and it was by faith that he continued to trust and obey God throughout his life, even when he was tested and challenged over and over again. Because of that steadfast faith in the promises of God, Abraham is referred to in the New Testament as the father of all believers— people who trusted God, believed His promises, and obeyed His commands (Romans 4:11).
Blessing and Cursing
When God called Abraham, he not only promised to bless him and his descendants. He also
promised to bless those who blessed Abraham and to curse those who cursed him (Genesis 12:1-3).
The reason for that was not primarily for the personal benefit of Abraham. Rather, God promised
that the coming Redeemer would some day be born into Abraham’s family. Therefore, any person or nation who protected or blessed Abraham and his descendants would receive special blessing from God. However, those who interfered with God’s plan of redemption by opposing Abraham and his descendants or by enticing them to forget their God would face condemnation and destruction. By destroying those who opposed His “chosen people” and blessing those who favored them, God graciously preserved His people and continued to carry out His divine plan to redeem the nations of the world through them.
(Read the history of the people of Israel in the books of Joshua and Judges in the light of God’s purpose and plan.)
God’s Ultimate Purpose
God wonderfully blessed Abraham and his descendants in many ways. However, God’s ultimate purpose in choosing Abraham was not simply to shower blessings on this one family. God’s purpose was to bless the entire world through them. He would do that in two ways.
First and foremost, God would bless the entire world by providing a Savior for all who would believe in Him. And this ultimate purpose would surely be fulfilled, even though Satan would often seek to destroy Abraham’s descendants or cause them to deny, disobey, or distrust their God.
Secondly, the people of Israel were called to live lives of faith and holiness as examples to the rest of the world. They alone had God’s laws and God’s promises and they were called to demonstrate to the rest of the world what it meant to live as the children of the one true God.
Regrettably, however, this second purpose was not always fulfilled.
God never promised Abraham that all his descendants would be faithful and obedient. They obviously weren’t! They often wandered away from God, living lives of selfishness, unholiness, pride, and disobedience. They even forgot God on many occasions and chose to worship other gods instead. When that happened, God punished them just as He punished other nations who opposed Him. However, when Israel repented and earnestly turned back to the Lord again, God graciously forgave them. But whether they were obedient or not, God was always faithful to His ultimate purpose to provide a Redeemer in their family line.
THE PROMISE OF A SON
In Genesis 13:14-16 we read that God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the dust of the earth—even though he had no children at the time.. The amazing thing about this promise is that Abraham was getting older and his wife Sarah was not able to have children. In spite of that, however, Abraham, as always, believed what God had promised.
However, as time went on and his wife remained childless, Abraham assumed that God was going to raise up descendants for him through the family of his trusted servant. But that was definitely not God’s plan! God said to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir” (Genesis 15:4). Then God took Abraham outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them . . . So shall your offspring be” (Genesis 15:5).
Even though Abraham had no idea how this would be possible, he believed what God said,and the Lord “credited it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).
Here, as always, God’s promises were given before Abraham’s obedience–not afterwards. It was God’s grace, not Abraham’s faith and obedience that came first. Earlier he had left his homeland and left for far off Canaan in faith that God would truly bless him in the new land. On the way to Canaan he left most of his family behind in Syria, and by faith he went on to travel without them (Genesis 11:31-32). When he lived in the land of Canaan he let his nephew Lot choose whatever part of the land he wanted for himself (Genesis 13:1-12) since he believed that God would graciously grant him everything He had promised. Abraham’s obedience always followed from his faith and his faith always followed from God’s gracious promises. God’s grace always came first!
ABRAHAM’S FAITH
Several years later, when God promised Abraham that he and his wife Sarah would have a son together, Abraham again believed what God promised—even though by this time he was very old and his wife was well beyond the normal child-bearing years. In the New Testament, the apostle Paul describes the situation this way: “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God has power to do what He had promised” (Romans 4:18-21).
Since both Abraham and Sarah were physically incapable of bearing children at that point, it was obvious that God would have to perform a great miracle if they were ever to have a child. By waiting until there seemed to be no hope at all that Abraham and Sarah would have a child of their own, God demonstrated that He himself would be the one who would make salvation possible. Abraham obviously had to obey as well as trust, but the birth of the promised child was clearly a divine gift from the Lord—another demonstration that salvation would always be a gift of God’s grace.
COVENANT OF GRACE
After Abraham lived in the land of Canaan for a number of years, God gave him a great and wonderful promise which is often referred to as the Covenant of Grace. In Genesis 12:1-3, we read that God had promised Abraham that He would make him into a great nation, that he would make Abraham’s own name great, and that all peoples on earth would be blessed through him. In Genesis 15 God promised him that he would have a son, a multitude of descendants, and that the land of Canaan would be his inheritance. In Genesis 17:1-8 God formally established “The Covenant of Grace” with Abraham, promising that He would be his God and the God of his descendants for generations to come. God said, “I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God” (Genesis 17:6-7). God also promised that he would give Abraham’s descendants the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession and that He would be their God (Genesis 17:8).
Abraham believed that God would do everything He promised. His promises would result in wonderful blessings for Abraham, but the greatest blessing would be that all people throughout the world would be blessed through him and his descendants (Genesis 12:3). This wonderful promise of grace was repeated on various occasions in the Old Testament and again in the New Testament. (See Psalm 72:17; Acts 3:25; Galatians 3:8-9.) All these special promises to Abraham clearly demonstrated that mankind would be saved by God’s grace and not by human effort.
The Sign and Seal of the Covenant
God determined that the Covenant promise in Genesis 17 was to be sealed by the sign of circumcision (Genesis 17:14). This was not an arbitrary sign and neither was it optional. (See Acts 7:8 where the covenant of grace is referred to as the “covenant of circumcision.”) The people of Israel always regarded circumcision as the distinguishing mark of the “chosen people” and they looked down upon all those who were not circumcised. (See, for example, Exodus 12:48 and Judges 14:3.) All adult male converts from non-Jewish nations had to be circumcised if they were to be included as members of the family of God. Even after the death and resurrection of Christ, many Jewish believers still insisted that non- Jewish converts to Christianity had to be circumcised (Acts 15:5).
Since the line of promise was continued among the people of Israel through the male in the family, the sign of the covenant was given only to male children. (See the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 where some of the most prominent Jewish mothers, such as Sarah, are not listed.)
As a sign of the Covenant of Grace, circumcision was particularly relevant for the people of Israel for at least three reasons.
(1) The covenant sign would be intimately involved in the procreation of the children God promised to bless. Each time a child was conceived, the seed of the father would pass through the sign of the covenant even before the child was born. Each child was thus “holy unto the Lord” from the time of conception. (See Genesis 17:7, 10-14).
(2) Circumcision was a sign of the removal of defilement or impurity. The physical act of circumcision was significant, but it was of minimal value for those whose spiritual impurity or defilement was not removed. (See Deuteronomy 10:16, 30:6; Jeremiah 4:4, 9:25-26; and Romans 2:28-29.)
(3) Circumcision involved the shedding of blood. Parents were reminded that each child, even though a child of covenant promise, was born in sin (see Psalm 51:5) and that cleansing and forgiveness would ultimately be possible only through the shedding of blood.
Circumcision was faithfully practiced by the people of Israel and also by Gentile converts throughout the Old Testament. It was not until Jesus provided the perfect sacrifice for our sins that the shedding of blood was no longer necessary and circumcision was no longer of any spiritual value (Colossians 2:11-12; 1 Corinthians 7:19; Galatians 5:6, and Galatians 6:15.)
ABRAHAM and HIS SON ISAAC
When Abraham’s son Isaac was a teen-ager, God told Abraham,. “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about” (Genesis 22:2). Abraham knew that Isaac was the son through whom all God’s promises would be fulfilled. How could God possibly demand that he sacrifice this son? But God’s command was clear and Abraham determined to obey—without question or argument. And he did. However, just before Abraham raised his arm to slay his son who was already on the altar, God called to him and told him not to harm his son. Instead, God provided a ram as a substitute to be sacrificed in the place of Isaac (Genesis 22:1-14).
Immediately after Abraham’s exceptional act of faith and obedience, God said to him, “Because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as sand on the seashore. . . . and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me” (Genesis 22: 16-18).
Abraham’s willingness to offer his beloved son was clearly an act of obedience. But even more than that, it was an act of absolute faith in God. As Hebrews 11:19 puts is, “Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.”
Abraham’s action and God’s provision of a ram as a substitute clearly pointed ahead to the gracious sacrifice of God’s own beloved Son many centuries later. When Jesus died on the cross of Calvary, it was in the same geographical area where Abraham “offered” his own beloved son so long before. Abraham did not realize that, of course, but God did. God again provided a sign of grace which we today can only marvel at.
When Isaac grew up and married Rebekah, they discovered that she, like Sarah before her, was not able to have children. However, in answer to Isaac’s prayer (Genesis 25:21), God graciously give them twin boys named Esau and Jacob. Esau was the firstborn and therefore would normally receive the special blessing and favor which the firstborn son received in those days. However, God, in his wisdom and grace, chose to carry out His covenant promise through Jacob rather than through Esau (Genesis 25:23. See also Malachi 1:2-3.) God did not choose Jacob over Esau because Jacob would live an exemplary life of obedience. Jacob actually was a man of many weaknesses and failures. However, he also turned out to be a man of great faith. But it was again God’s grace that preceded Jacob’s faith and obedience.
Some time after the birth of Esau and Jacob, there was a famine in the land of Canaan. God told Isaac not to leave the land but to stay in Canaan and trust Him to receive what he needed. God then renewed the promise He had made earlier to Abraham and said to Isaac, “Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you.. . . I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands; and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because Abraham obeyed me and kept my requirements, my commands, my decrees and my laws” (Genesis 26:4-5).
Abraham’s obedience and faithfulness were clearly very important in the sight of God. However, God’s initial promises to him were not based on the things Abraham had done but purely on His grace. Abraham was even disobedient at times, but in His grace, God never went back on His promise. Nor did God go back on His promise to Isaac (Genesis 26:24), even though Isaac’s faith temporarily failed almost immediately after God gave him the promise! (See Genesis 26:7-11.)
ISAAC and HIS SON JACOB
When Isaac was old and nearly blind, Jacob deceived his father and managed to get for himself the parental blessing which normally would have gone to his twin brother Esau. As a result of his deceit, Jacob had to flee from the land of promise (Canaan) and run to his relatives in another country. While he was on his journey, God sent Jacob a dream in which he saw angels going up and down a ladder from earth to heaven. Though Jacob had been dishonest and was running away from the land God had promised to give to Abraham and his descendants, God graciously repeated to Jacob the promise He had given to Abraham long before, “I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying . . . All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. . . . I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Genesis 28:13-15).
God obviously did not give Jacob this special blessing because of his obedience or holiness. Both before and after this event, Jacob was known as someone who would do whatever he thought was necessary in order to get what he wanted. Why, then, did God bless Jacob so richly? Because of His grace and promise! If God would have dealt with Jacob simply on the basis of his “works,” Jacob would never have received the blessings he did.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
After the building of the Tower of Babel, God “narrowed” the working out of His plan of redemption to just one man and his descendants. These people, known as the people of Israel, would be the focus of almost all of God’s redemptive activity for many years. However, God’s intention and purpose was to use these chosen people to be the ones who would serve as examples to all other peoples AND to bring into the world the “seed of the woman” promised in Genesis 3:15. Through this promised child God would graciously bring redemption to the all the nations of the world. And, after the coming of Jesus, the promised Savior, God’s “chosen people” would be those who put their faith and trust in Him for salvation. Salvation was and always will be by the grace of God, received by faith, and lived out in obedience.
QUESTIONS FOR LESSON TWO
1. God established His Covenant of Grace with a man called Abram (Abraham). Where was Abraham living when God first called him?
2. Why did God choose Abraham for this honor? Choose A or B or C.
A. God chose him because of His sovereign grace.
B. Abraham came from a family of people who loved and served the true God.
C. Abraham was a person known for his wisdom and integrity.
3. List four great promises God gave to Abraham (as recorded in Genesis 12:1-3).
A.
B.
C.
D.
4. What was God’s ultimate purpose in calling Abraham and working through him?
5. How did Abraham respond when God called him to leave his homeland and go to a new land
about which he knew little or nothing?
6. How does the apostle Paul describe Abraham in Romans 4:11 and 16?
7. God promised Abraham that He would bless those who blessed him (Abraham) and curse those who cursed him. Why did God do this? Choose A or B or C.
A. God chose Abraham to be a blessing to all the nations on earth. Those who encouraged
Abraham would further God’s purpose and those who opposed Abraham would interfere
with God’s purpose.
B. God didn’t want anyone to interfere with the happiness and prosperity which Abraham
earned by being a humble, faithful, and obedient servant of God.
C. Abraham was personally not yet firmly anchored in his faith, so God made sure that others
would encourage Abraham as he gradually increased in faith and obedience.
8. List two ways in which the people of Israel were called to be a blessing to the other nations of
the world. (See the Lesson notes.)
A.
B.
9. Were these two purposes (from question 8 above) fulfilled? Please explain your answer.
10. A. What promise of God is recorded in Genesis 13:14-16?
B. Why was this promise so significant?
C. How did Abraham respond when God gave him this promise?
11. A. What additional promise did God give to Abraham in Genesis 15:4-5?
B. How did Abraham respond to this new promise?
C. How did God respond to Abraham’s faith? (Genesis 15:6)
12. What does Romans 4:18-21 tell us about the faith of Abraham?
13. Why was Abram’s name changed to Abraham? See Genesis 17:1-6.
14. A. What promise did God give to Abraham in Genesis 17:6?
B. What promise did God give to Abraham in Genesis 17:7?
C. What promise did God give to Abraham in Genesis 17:8?
15. God’s promise to bless all nations through Abraham and his descendants was first recorded in Genesis 12:3. List three other places (outside of Genesis) where this promise was repeated in the Bible.
A.
B.
C.
16. A. What was the sign of the Covenant of Grace which God made with Abraham and his
descendants (Genesis 17:11-13).
B. How important was this sign in the sight of God? (See Genesis 17:14)
C. How important was this sign to the Israelites?
17. A. When God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as an offering to him, how did he respond?
B. When God spared Isaac’s life, what “substitute” did God provide?
C. In what ways does this story of Abraham and Isaac point forward to the coming of Christ?
(See Genesis 22:2, John 1:29, John 3:16.)
18. A. When Abraham’s son Isaac and his wife Rebekah were not able to have children, what did
Isaac do?
B. When Rebekah later gave birth to twin sons, which one of them was chosen by God to
continue the “covenant line”?
C. Why was God’s choice so significant?
19. Jacob (also called Israel) had to run away from his home in Canaan because he had deceived his father and cheated his brother. When God appeared to him in a dream while he was running away, what did God promise him? (Genesis 28:13-15)
20. Did Jacob deserve to receive this promise? Please give the reason for your answer.
Covenant of Grace – Further Reflection
1. Out of all the stories and events listed in this Lesson, select two which, in your mind, best illustrate that salvation is by grace alone. Then explain why you have chosen these particular stories rather than others.
2. According to the Lesson notes, what was the significance of choosing circumcision as a sign of the Covenant of Grace? Can you think of any other reasons why God might have chosen this particular sign?
3. In the New Testament Abraham is called “The father of believers.” Do you think this is an appropriate title for Abraham? Please give the reason for your answer.
4. Give some examples from Genesis which demonstrate that “God’s grace precedes His commands.
5. In the book of Genesis God often showed kindness, grace, and love to people who failed to trust or obey Him consistently. Do you think God still does that today? Can you give some examples from your own life?
Grace Lesson Two Answers
- In Ur of the Chaldeans in present day Iraq.
- A
- A. God promised to make Abraham into a great nation and to bless him.
B. God promised to make Abraham’s name great and make him a blessing.
C. God promised to bless those who blessed Abraham and to curse those who cursed him.
D. God promised that all people on earth would be blessed through Abraham.
- God’s ultimate promise to Abraham was that He would bless the entire world through Abraham and his descendants by providing a Savior for all who would believe in him.
- Abraham immediately obeyed God, left his homeland and followed God’s leading.
- Paul refers to Abraham as “the father of all believers.”
- A
- A. God would provide a Savior in Abraham’s family line for all who believed in Him.
B. The People of Israel were called to live lives of faith and holiness as examples to the rest of
the world. In doing this they would demonstrate to the rest of the world what it meant to live
as the children of the one true God.
- The first purpose was fulfilled through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Nothing could stand in the way of the fulfillment of this divine and eternal purpose. However, the second purpose was not always fulfilled. When the people of Israel were obedient and faithful, they did serve as an example and as a testimony to the other nations. However, they were frequently disobedient and unfaithful and no longer served as an example or a testimony to others.
- A. God promised that Abraham’s descendants would be as numerous as the dust of the earth.
B. This promise was especially significant because when the promise was given Abraham and Sarah still no children and Sarah was apparently unable to have children.
C. Abraham believed what God had promised even though it seemed impossible that the
promise could be fulfilled.
11. A. When it appeared to Abraham that he and Sarah would not have a son of their own,they
thought that God would probably provide an heir through Abraham’s male servant. However, God promised Abraham that he would have a son of his own and that his offspring would eventually be as numerous as the stars in the sky.
LESSON TWO ANSWERS -2-
B. Abraham again believed without question or hesitation what God had promised.
C. God credited his faith to him as righteousness.
12. Abraham “did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was
strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to
do what he had promised. This is why it was credited to him as righteousness.”
13. Abram means “exalted father” while Abraham means “father of many.” Since God promised Abraham that he would become the father of many nations, the name change was appropriate.
14. A. The Lord told Abraham that he would become very fruitful, that He would make nations of
him, and that kings would come from him.
B. God promised that He would establish His covenant with Abraham and his descendants as an everlasting covenant and that He would be Abraham’s God and the God of his descendants after him.
C. God promised that He would give the whole land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants after him.
15. A. Psalm 72:17
B. Acts 3:25
C. Galatians 3:8-9
16. A. Circumcision of all males
B. This sign was so important that the males who refused to be circumcised were cut off from
the people of Israel because they had broken the covenant.
C. The people of Israel always regarded circumcision as the distinguishing mark of the chosen
people and looked down upon those who were not circumcised.
17. A. Once again, Abraham responded positively without complaint or argument, even though he
could not understand why God was asking him to do this.
B. God provided a ram which was sacrificed in place of Isaac.
C. The sacrificial ram was a type of Christ who, many years later, would be sacrificed as a substitute for all believers. It is also significant that the place where Jesus was crucified
was most likely in the same geographical area where the substitute ram was sacrificed.
Grace Lesson Two Answers -3-
18. A. Isaac prayed that Rebekah would be able to have a child.
B. Jacob (later called Israel) who was the younger of the two sons.
C. Normally, the older son would be chosen to receive a special blessing as the firstborn son in the family. God’s choice of Jacob rather than his older brother showed that God’s covenant blessing was a matter of grace and not a matter of tradition or human choice.
- God said to runaway Jacob, “I will give and your descendants the land on which you are
lying. . . All people on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. . . . I will not
leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
20. Jacob had done NOTHING to deserve this promise. In fact, Jacob was running away from his home and parents because his older brother was determined to kill Jacob because he had lied to their father, deceiving him when he was old and blind, in order that he might “steal” his brother’s birthright blessing.
FOR FURTHER REFLECTION
- Students will likely choose a variety of stories here. The reasons given for their choices should be interesting and informative.
- The Lesson notes point out three reasons why circumcision was a significant choice as the sign of the Covenant of Grace. Students should list these reasons and may have some additional thoughts of their own.
A. The covenant sign would be intimately involved in the creation of the children God
promised to bless.
B. Circumcision was a sign of the removal of defilement or impurity.
C. Circumcision involved the shedding of blood.
- Yes. The title is appropriate first of all because this is the title given to Abraham in the Bible itself. Abraham exhibited complete faith in God whenever God gave Him a promise or a command. He did not disbelieve any of His promises or disobey any of His commands. Besides, Abraham was the one with whom God established the Covenant of Grace which includes believers of both the Old and New Testaments.
- Students will likely list some obvious examples and may also include some examples which are missed by others.
- Yes. He obviously does. None of us trusts or obeys God perfectly or even as consistently as we should. All of us could give examples of that from our own lives. Students should have little difficulty in finding personal illustrations of that.
Christian Leaders Institute began offering advanced ministry training in 2006. Since that time thousands of Christians have been signing up for free ministry training. I am amazed at how many new students sign up every hour for ministry training. Hundreds of new applications for free ministry training are coming every day. I love to see the names of the new applicants. When an application comes in from a student, I get that application emailed to me. I want to see the names of the new students to remind me of what God is doing in using CLI to bring free ministry training everywhere.
Today in a twenty minute period of time six new students signed up for free ministry training. They included two students from the United States, two from Ghana, one from Nigeria and one from Colombia.
These students immediately start their ministry training in a getting started class.
The Getting Started Class functions to give anyone the opportunity to explore whether they are candidates for ministry training at Christian Leaders Institute. This class replaces the overhead of an admissions department and eliminates those who are not serious or able to study at Christian Leaders Institute.
Christian Leaders Institute offers free ministry training. Why? Many have asked this. Some have wondered whether it will be valued if it is free. Some have said that we have so many students, let them pay for it themselves. Others have said that you will never be a sustainable ministry unless the students pay and outside funding is not needed.
I have reflected on this a long time. I have prayed about this much. I have researched business models and consulted with traditional institutions.
I read the Bible and do not see a charge for training people to be leaders. I just can’t see that Peter and John gave tuition to Jesus in the form of currency. The only currency that was given was the currency of calling. “Come follow me.” That was it! When they followed Jesus, He trained them to be the first leaders in the new church.
Free Ministry Training Students Meet in Michigan USA
Last night I met with Christian Leaders Institute students and graduates from Michigan in Zeeland, Michigan at North Street Church These students shared one very clear message with me. We are here because CLI offered us free ministry training.
One man named John was 70 years old. He is preaching every week at churches, prisons, and nursing homes. Several students serve in local churches. Some are preparing to be commissioned pastors. Some of the students have graduated with various levels of ministry training certificates and diplomas. Some students were new.
All students were bi-vocational. I felt a great amount of joy last night as I saw students talk about what God was doing in their lives.
1 Timothy 1:12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.