THE MEASURE OF GRACE
THE MEASURE OF GRACE
Grace is the first ray of comfort to the soul; and though it is the subject first known and most cherished, yet the measure of it, according to God’s revelation of it, is little known.
Grace, according to popular teaching, is the undeserved favour of God in saving everyone who believes in Christ. The soul’s need defines the measure of the grace. Surely, were the grace of God no more than this, it would be marvellously blessed. But it is much more. If the grace were no more than my need required, though it would be sufficient, blessed by God, to rescue me from everlasting misery, it would not, while it saved me from all the consequences of my sins, ever have placed me in nearness to God. Having sinned, I could not restore myself to the position of innocence that Adam held. I could be a forgiven sinner, forgiven up to the last moment of my life here, and thus happy in heaven. Escape from judgment, and an assurance of everlasting happiness, is for the most part the idea which the word grace conveys to many christians. If grace did not secure to me justification and everlasting happiness, it would not meet my need. Surely God intimated in the garden of Eden, when He clothed Adam and Eve with coats of skins, that in grace He would not only clear them of their sins, but that He would clothe them afresh by His own hand, that they should not be found naked. He thus set forth that there should be something more than forgiveness — escape from a lost state; that in His grace there would be in their future position a great advance beyond that which they had lost by transgression. This intimated the measure of the grace.
[p. 380] The condition of innocence being lost, grace, in answer to the faith of Abel when he offered up the firstling of his flock and of the fat thereof, testified of his gifts, and thus he obtained witness that he was righteous. The grace was equal to the need; he was accepted of God, and his own death ensued and his condition in sin literally came to an end.
Abram was counted righteous; that is, the grace was equal to the need. He believed God who quickens the dead. There was no hope from man as he was, but God in His grace could come in and do what was entirely outside of man. “And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb: he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform”, Romans 4: 19 - 21. Thus there was a clearance of all guilt.
Now, in the case of Isaiah, in chapter 6 we find too that the grace is equal to the need. His iniquity is taken away, and his sin is purged; but this is in connection with a live coal from the altar, which indicated that the grace could only be on the ground of the action of fire in its sacrificial aspect. In none of these cases do we see that the sinner obtains more than a full clearance from his guilt. However, in the offerings in the book of Leviticus a very important truth is presented to us, namely, how the sinner can come near to God. It is, I might say, the other side now. The offerings properly are for those who keep the law. Breaches of the ceremonial law are to be atoned for, and all uncleanness, but the main intention of the offerings was to indicate the place of nearness in which grace sets the believer. There is much more contemplated than simply clearance. There was a sense of acceptance, and consequently worship within, in the holy place, for Aaron and his sons, typically the church; and without, Israel, the earthly [p. 381] people, were blessed when the high priest came out; typically Israel in the latter day, when Jesus, as Melchisedec, comes out.
From this review we gather that the blessed God did not intend to limit His grace to our need, that is, to our sins, but that He had in His heart the purpose to superabound in grace. So not only was debt atoned for, but the grace which covered it was of surpassing riches; so that not only was the man who owed five hundred pence forgiven, but at the moment he was forgiven he received immensely more; “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound”. It is like the four lepers in the siege of Samaria; they not only ate and drank, not only was the famine entirely over, but “they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it”; and from the greatest dearth they were greatly enriched. There is not only forgiveness of sins, but “inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me”.
There is great natural reluctance in the heart to reach up to any true sense of the greatness of the grace which has come to us, though our need makes us appreciate the measure of it that meets the need. Hence what meets the need is always presented to the sinner first, though in the mind of God there is no break in its blessed, endless stream. A woman who has spent all her living on physicians and is nothing bettered knows well the blessedness of grace, when in faith she touches the hem of His garment. Beautiful to a degree was her faith, and she finds the grace is equal to her need; she is well, but she did not want to add to it, nor to learn the extent of the stream of blessing which had healed her. When she comes to Christ, she falls down before Him and tells Him all the truth; now she finds that the grace which cured her is very much greater; she learns the One who is the fountain of grace, her soul is affiliated to the [p. 382] Saviour. This is a pattern of the way I part company with my old self to be with Christ. The leper that returned in Luke 17 not only lived, but was consecrated by coming to Christ.
The great fact is gradually disclosed that not only is the sinner to be forgiven, but that he is to be made meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. The sense of need is the only true condition of an awakened soul, and therefore the relief of that need is the one thing desired; but there is much more in the grace of God than to relieve the need. True, there must be a full clearance of all guilt before the awakened soul could have any rest before God; and when the grace is known to this measure, there is unspeakable relief, and hence a tendency to conclude that, as grace had conferred so much, no more was to come, because no more was needed for the salvation of the soul.
Now if grace were to stop there, simply having met the measure of man’s need, God’s share and delight in the saved one would be overlooked. God in His love delights that you, once a sinner, on believing on Him, should be not only justified, but fitted to be in His own presence for His own pleasure, which is infinitely greater than your own. The tendency is to regard grace only as it affects the sinner, and to omit the satisfaction it is to God to have us as His children with Him; “the excellent, in whom is all my delight”. Blessed God! Thy love desires my company and would share Thy joys with me. And this love is shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit which is given unto me. If I were not justified, it is evident that the holy God could not allow me to draw near to Him. Hence justification is, as it were, a definite step in the history of grace; but justification is not the measure of grace. I require to be justified first; the distance between me and God is not removed till then; I am not reconciled to Him until then; and He is not free to show His favour to me until then. It is because of this that forgiveness of sins or salvation [p. 383] is so often regarded as the limit of the grace. God desires to have me for Himself, to be a companion of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a member of His body. Hence His grace superabounds over the sin. If I have lost anything by sin which was a glory to a man, that is not restored to me in grace. Grace gives me something infinitely better, not to suit the man that was, but to suit me as brought to God. The grace of God does not reinstate me in the paradise lost by sin, but sets me in a much greater one. I am forgiven, like the prodigal, for all I have done, but nothing that I have squandered is restored to me. I get something entirely new; and I am made, as he was in figure, quite new, and fitted for the immense exaltation to which I am raised by grace. The prodigal was not restored to the land, as a Jew would have expected, but he was received into the father’s house with a favour and distinction never accorded to any one before; and this was all simply of grace. True, he had to be reconciled and kissed before he could be prepared for this immense excess in grace, that is, the measure of the grace beyond the need.
Thus with the thief on the cross; as soon as grace could be declared, he not only finds that he is saved by grace through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom his heart can cling; but when he asks for the brightest hope for a Jew — to be in His kingdom which he had forfeited — he is told that a far greater height awaits him. Jesus says to him, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” — transferred from the depth of moral degradation among men, to the glorious height of association with the Lord in the greatest place. To this wondrous height grace raises the wretched sinner, and fits him for it. Nothing of the old thief remained except his identity; but entirely new he was with Christ in paradise. Thus Paul in spirit entered into that blessed place, and was there received, as one at home in the innermost circle there. He heard there the secrets of God, which he was not allowed to tell to men. Surely he [p. 384] was well qualified to tell us that we are made to sit in the heavenlies in Christ, and, seeing that so much grace has been shown to us, that in us might be displayed in the coming ages, “the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus”. And thus only we arrive at the measure of the grace of which we are to be the expositors, as I might say, in the coming ages.
The Lord lead our hearts more and more into it, for His name’s sake.