Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries |
Grace and peace are directed towards the believer from God.
Friday, May 28, 2010
At the moment of salvation we receive 40 things which can never be improved.
Our capacity to appreciate them and our capacity for blessing is going to come out of our spiritual growth but spiritual growth does not mean improving positional truth or the things we received at salvation.
“Grace” - (nominative singular) Charis = grace, which is the principle behind all of this. Grace is everything that God has done for us without our meriting His favor. Grace is the name of the plan of God, the principle of the plan of God, and the only word that explains the concept that God is perfect and therefore His plan has to be perfect.
How can a perfect God design a perfect plan for an imperfect creature? The answer is GRACE!
ROM 5:15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.
“to you” — the dative plural from the personal pronoun su, and it includes not only the original recipients but all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
“and peace” — the noun eirene. It means benefit, welfare, tranquillity, and prosperity. In other words, it is simply a synonym for blessing. Here it connotes prosperity.
When you have the prosperity, benefits and welfare of Bible doctrine you have tranquility.
“from God” — the preposition apo plus the ablative singular of theou referring to God the Father. God the Father is the source of grace and prosperity.
“our Father” — the ablative of patros plus the pronoun hemon - our. As believers God is our true Father. Never said of any OT saint.
“and our Lord Jesus Christ” - kai kuriou Iesou Christou also in the ablative and refers to the second person in the Trinity and the one by whom we understand God and everything related to God.
John 1:17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
John 1:18 No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
This sentence, verses 3-14, describes the function of the Trinity under the divine plan, operation grace.
While suffering, our enemies, and spiritual warfare are necessary for our application of the spiritual life, the real spiritual life centers completely on our relationship with God.
Without a strong, personal, and social relationship with the Trinity we would never be able to handle any suffering or battles.
We could consider our relationship with God to be primary and the things in this world and in the AC that strengthen that relationship to be, while necessary and vital, secondary.
“Blessed” - eulogetos. This is actually taken from the participle eulogeo (eu = good or well; lego = to speak), which means to praise. As an adjective eulogetos means “worthy of praise and glorification.”
To be ready to appreciate eulogetos one must have completed at least the first stage of spiritual adulthood, SSE.
At SSE you have capacity for category #1 love, personal love directed toward God.