Infinite and Timeless Grace

Grace - such a positive word! The archaic definition of grace is best: it's mercy - divine intervention on the behalf of mankind, by being lenient when the creature deserves punishment. Grace cannot be bought for if it was, it would be indulgences. Those are the things which sinners do, or money which can be paid to reduce the penalties. The ultimate grace is divine pardon for crimes against God.

In the world there are two laws: the Law of God and the law of sin (Rom 7:25). We serve one or the other. There are no "laws of apathy or unconcern"! The two laws boil down to complying with the will of God, or the will of Satan. God is satisfied with our willingness to do his will. We are free agents to do God's will or not, but by default, if we don't desire to do that, we do Satan's will. 

Mankind's desires are from the heart. We can do God's will because of God's Laws, or we can obey the same Laws because that is the heart's desire. If we desire natural things such as pleasure, wealth, or beauty more than God's will, that is sin - choosing Satan's will rather than God's.

Satan is content with undermining God. Although by disobeying God, we obey Satan, who is content if we worship ourselves. He prefers that we think of ourselves "as gods" (Gen 3:5). God didn't really think that we would "be as gods". That was deception on the part of the Serpent. God did know, though, that mankind would consider ourselves as gods. 

Deception is perversion of the truth. Truth is absolute; there are not different versions. Anything less are versions of falsehoods which are manners toward deception. It matters not how mankind comes to sin, it is sinful regardless, be it of our own conscience or by deception. We have an obligation to test everything and compare it to the will of God (1 Thes 5:1). We are to "test everything and hold onto what is good."

The test is whether it's our will be done or God's. If it's our will, the obedience is to the law of sin. If it's God's will, then conversely, it is the Law of God. God's grace is demonstrated by not having to meet the letter of the law but be willing to submit to his Law (Rom 7:6). Therein Paul spoke of the Christian's "new spirit".  The "new spirit" comes with the help of God's Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit was not new on the day of Pentecost. David had the Holy Spirit (1 Sam 16:13). David was willing to do God's will rather than his own and Satan's will. David was a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22).  As such, David was willing to follow the Law of God, but instead, he followed the law of sin with fornication with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah. Jesus spoke on this dualism:

Mat 26:41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

God came in the flesh to empathize with mankind. He was tempted by Satan just as we are. His Spirit was willing, and his flesh weak. However, Jesus's Holy Spirit overcame the law of sin. He demonstrated that if he can overcome temptation, we can as well!

David wrote Psalm 51 after he failed God so miserably.  Look what David asked of God:

Psalm 51:1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

Paul sought God's mercy. He knew of God's grace thousands of years before God became flesh. He besought God to "Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin (Psalm 51:2). David not only understood the concept of grace, realized it was from God, but also knew it was by the blood of Jesus because he described the propitiation for sin (Rom 3:25).

The grace David asked for and received was because he repented, and foretold of God's grace:

Psalm 51:3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. 5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Note that David didn't come to God with an excuse of how he always tried to obey. He came to God and confessed. He didn't say he would work off  his sins or start obeying commands better. He asked for God's mercy, and indicated it was by grace with his words "lovingkindness" and "mercy"!

Grace was there for David, but was there even before that! If we study Gen 3, we find the first offenders of the Law of God. Adam and Eve disobeyed God's command. Afterward, they were ashamed and attempted to cover their own sin with fig leaves. God accepted their guiltiness, and replaced the ineffective fig leaves with effective skins, available by the blood and death of an innocent animal. This was the first act of divine grace to cover sin. Adam and Eve didn't have to work it off. They were, however, willing to please God. Their making of their own covering displayed that willingness, and God provided the redemption - paid for with a life. That was grace then, and the same grace as in the New Testament.

Later on, Abraham received God's grace. For the sins of mankind, Abraham in obedience to God, was willing to sacrfice his son Isaac to God. He gathered the wood and prepared the sacrifice but after his willingness to do so, God provided the sacrifice. An innocent ram paid the price of the sin but it was really God's grace (Gen 22)!

Therefore, throughout the Old Testament, the Word had grace at the creation. We should always remember that "the Word" is God who later became flesh (John 1). The Old Testament was not a different God with different Laws. In fact Paul testified to that:

Rom 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Gal 5:14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Jesus himself said the same thing about his purpose:

Mat 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 

The Law is the metrics on how to love God and others. "The Law" to which this referred was not the rules and regulations called Mosaic Law but the Ten Laws written on stone for a reason - to be everlasting. It's not the letter of the Law which is pertinent but the willingness to please God in an attempt to obey the Law.  David coveted, deceived, and murdered to get his will. Because he repented, although he failed on keeping the Law, he demonstrated by contrition that he was willing to do God's will. His willingness, just as Abraham's, was accounted to him as faith. 

Rom 4:3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

How did Abraham believe God? By obeying his request to sacrifice Isaac. He trusted God - faith. That faith was of the same efficacy as our own, if not more. Scripture compares everyone's faith to Abraham's who had great faith:

Rom 4:16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all...

Paul told of God's grace with Abraham! If the Old Testament was not all about faith, why would Paul even say so? In fact, grace for all times were "the mystery of God"/"the mystery of Christ".

Rom 16:24 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. 25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, 26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith...

The preaching of Jesus Christ was the mystery, "kept secret since the world began". Paul relayed that mystery with verse 24: "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ". Salvation was always by grace, and "to all nations". It was never only a Jewish thing but for all mankind. Adam wasn't Jewish, and grace was for him too. Abraham wasn't Jewish, and it was for him as well!

I rest my case! God has one covenant - that of grace. There were never and are no other covenants. Neither did God govern differently in different ages. Hence, there was only the dispensation of grace. Sure, others thought there was another way but there was only salvation through Jesus:

Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name (Jesus)under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

We know Abraham was saved because Lazarus was in his bosom (Luk 16:22) which is in heaven. How did Abraham get to heaven? By faith. Faith in whom? In Jesus's name! Hence, salvation was always through, and by, the grace of Jesus. Some believed before he died, and others afterward. Greater faith is accepting Jesus's grace before it happened than afterward.

The doctrine of a covenant of works and grace is from the deception of Calvinism. For them sola gratia is misapplied as only for the New Testament. It was always, and only, by grace, The Law was for conviction - so that we know that we're not blameless. Never was anyone saved by works. It was always by grace. To know it is by grace, we need the Law. Hence, Jesus fulfills the Law since his sacrifice was by grace!