by Jacob Ninan
When our eyes get opened to see just how much God loves us, this knowledge becomes the single most important factor that gives us courage and boldness to stand without getting defeated by the challenges in life that all of us face. The more we get to know the characteristics of God's love towards us, the more we learn how to stand without getting easily shaken up.
The grace of God
Perhaps the most significant part of God's love towards us is that it is a free gift God gives us on the basis of the unmerited favour He shows towards us (Eph.2:8,9). He loves us not because we were good or because we had done certain things that qualified us for His favour, but because it is His very nature to love. This takes away the doubts and fears from us that would come when we become aware of some sin that we have fallen into, or recognise our overall sinfulness. On the contrary, we can be certain that His love is not affected by our failures. It is His irrevocable promise that He never leave or forsake us (Heb.13:5).Putting away God's wrath
When we go to God in the first place, acknowledging that we are sinners and confessing our sins, He forgives us our sins. He washes away every record of our sins that could have condemned us. This takes away His wrath towards our sins, and we don't have to live any more wondering when He is going to be angry with us (1Thess.5:8,9).Acceptance as we are
Our God knows everything about us. He knows everything we have done wrong in our thoughts, words, behaviour, desires, and intentions. He knows even the things that others don't know about us (Psa.139:2-4). His love towards us is such that none of these things stops Him from loving us. He has chosen to love us knowing everything about our past failures, our present weaknesses and even failures that might come up in the future. He also clothes us with a robe of righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus. Once this is done, His love is not affected by these imperfections in our life. This gives us such confidence in God's love towards us that Satan's fiery darts towards us will lose their power.The offer of God's nature
We who were sinners and enemies of God have not only been forgiven, but we are also being offered His divine nature (2Pet.1:3,4). Of course, this does not mean that we will become 'gods' as some false teachers are saying. We will remain as created people. When we talk about becoming life Jesus, we are also not talking about how we can do miracles like Jesus. That depends on the particular ministry that He has for each one of us. But what God is offering us is His character, as seen in Jesus when He lived here as a Man. This is an 'exaltation' God is giving to us because of His love.God's plans for us
Every plan that God has for us, and therefore everything He does for us, is for our welfare - spiritual welfare and many times even for our earthly welfare (Jer.29:11). This is what we must remember when we go through situations when we cannot understand how they could be for our welfare! Even when 'bad' things happen to us, we must hold on by faith, believing that God will turn them also around for our good (Rom.8:28).Everlasting love
God's love is not the type that goes up or down depending on how we behave. It is 'everlasting' (Jer.31:3), and once He has started working in us, His goal is to complete it, and He is not going to give up on us even if we fail. God says that nothing can take away His love for us (Rom.8:38,39).Hyper-grace
False preachers who are referred to as 'hyper-grace teachers' by those who know God and His word also say similar things as I have been saying above, and so it might appear that I too am preaching hyper-grace! But the difference is that they stop their preaching here, and I want to go on to other parts of God's truth, with God's grace.These preachers have a favourite quotation from the Bible, "It is finished!" which Jesus said from the cross just before He died. They say that since God has completed everything with respect to our salvation, therefore there is nothing we need to do! They say that in view of this kind of grace from God, all we need to do from our side is to praise and worship Him! It is this that exposes hyper-grace preachers, when they say, or imply, that there is nothing that we need to do. They don't call people to repent from their sins and to put their trust in the Saviour, nor do they ask them to live now in such a way that will honour God. It is true that Jesus completed everything He needed to do for our salvation, but that does not mean that there is nothing that He expects from our side.
Another wrong teaching they give is that since salvation is by grace, unmerited favour from God, and since it does not depend on anything we have done, what we do now does not matter! Our failures (disobedience, carelessness, weaknesses) do not, they say, take away this grace. In other words, they turn the grace of God into a licence for sin (Jude.4).
Yet another wrong emphasis they make is that since God is now our Heavenly Father, it is His responsibility to take care of His children. Since God can be trusted to do this, we can just do whatever we like and enjoy life! Of course, God will take care of us, but what we see here is a burying of our responsibility to walk in His ways. If we go along with this teaching, we will not partake of sanctification, and we will not become any more like Jesus!
Some of these preachers teach that since Jesus has died once for all for all the sins of mankind, and we have received this forgiveness, our future sins have also been forgiven and there is no need to confess our sins every time we fall. But without admitting our sins, receiving forgiveness and asking for help for the future, how can we go forward in sanctification?
Many people are excited when they hear hyper-grace for the first time, thinking that this exalts the grace and love of God. But then, after some time, when they face a calamity, their prayers are not answered, or God does not seem to have protected them from disappointments, pain or sickness, they get totally shaken up. Some of them go on with the form they have picked up, without any enthusiasm, and some of them give up their faith in God altogether.
Our response
What would be our response when we come to see the greatness and the extent of the love of God towards us? Just a thank You and then carry on with our lives? If there is no radical response that changes the direction of our life, we have to recognise that we have not 'seen' the love of God at all! It is a proper, humble, thankful response from our side that would really magnify the love of God that He has shown towards us!When we see that it was our sin that made our Saviour suffer and die for us, the first and foremost response from our side should be to say that we don't want to sin and hurt Him any more! If this response does not spontaneously come out from our heart, it should be obvious that we have not received a new heart and a new spirit from God, and we don't belong to Him. Also, just because now we are under grace and not under Law, it does not mean that we can be casual about sin (Rom.6:15,16). If we continue sinning, we should not imagine that it would still lead to becoming more like Jesus. No. It will lead to spiritual death. If, before we came to grace, we used to yield the members of our body–eyes, mouth, hands, ears–to sin, now we ought to yield them as instruments of righteousness to God (vv.12,13). That is how we will be sanctified.
If we are truly grateful to God for extending to us this undeserved favour, our response must be to yield every part of our life to God as a living sacrifice, to do His will in every way (Rom.12:1). Just as in the case of Paul, our determination must be to live from now onwards for God, and not for ourselves any more (2Cor.5:14,15).
If we are recipients of this grace, as ambassadors and agents of God we would be eager to proclaim the greatness of God everywhere (1Pet.2:9). We can do this not only through spoken or the written words, but also by exhibiting the new life He gives us. We can proclaim what we used to be before grace came to us and what God has done for us afterwards.
As children of God and as different members of the body of Christ, He has given each one of one or more spiritual gifts with which we can serve one another (1Pet.4:10,11). These gifts are not for us to exalt ourselves with, but they come along with the responsibility to serve others in the way God has called us to, whether through speaking the words of God or through any other form of service.
The apostle Paul lived from moment to moment trying to keep his conscience clear towards God and people (Acts.24:15,16). That would be a right response from those who have understood the grace of God towards them. This means not only that we would make every effort not to hurt God or people, but also that if it happens, we would confess our sins to God and receive forgiveness, and also we would apologise to people we have hurt and seek to set things right.
In all this, we ought to press on towards perfection (maturity, completeness) (Heb.6:1). We want to do things better every time, and we want to become better every day at doing everything. We know that we are not going to be sinlessly perfect while on earth, but we want to be going in that direction. That is what will demonstrate that we are recipients of unmerited favour from God.