DIVINE FAVOUR

Romans 5:1,2; Ruth 2:13,14; Ephesians 1:6,7; Ruth 4:9,10; Deuteronomy 33:23

The thought of favour was before us on Lord’s day and again in the prayer meeting, and I was wondering if we could consider this now. It is wonderful to see that God has in mind that the result of receiving the gospel is that we come to the point in Romans chapter 5 where we have favour: “our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom we have also access by faith into this favour in which we stand”. Favour must be closely related to grace. I think other translations translate it ‘grace’ and you can understand that; it is the divine heart. Everything that is to be effected in our hearts is because matters have begun in God’s heart, and God would desire that we should be in a position where we should be in His favour. How blessed that is.

I wondered if Ruth gives us an example of one finding favour. I was thinking of how she comes to the place where Boaz is, and where everything that she needs is supplied to her according to what he has in mind. She asks for favour, “Let me find favour in thine eyes, my lord”, and then there is the favour in which she stands. She emphasises for us what we all need to keep being reminded of, that we have no right to divine favour at all. That is you and that is me; we have no right to divine favour at all. The description, ‘a sinner’, would equate to it, and you see the dreadfulness of the condition of the sinner in Romans. The apostle in writing the epistle goes to some length to show how far we are from deserving anything from God’s side, but how blessed it is that Paul could say, “by whom we have also access by faith into this favour in which we stand”. So that Ruth, as reached and blessed and helped and encouraged by Boaz, comes to this place where she can stand in favour. But think too of the personal attention of Boaz to her: he would reach her parched corn, he would provide for her, he would ensure that there would be everything for her blessing.

How wonderful that such favour is available to us as we lay hold of it by faith: it is “through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom we have also access by faith”. There is no other entrance to it, no other claim on it; everything is by faith. How wonderful it is that what God has provided is available from His side, the fulness of the blessing in His heart towards us, and we can lay hold of this by faith because of the way in which the Lord Jesus has gone. We are justified, set up in the presence of God with nothing that can be held against us, no charge against us. How blessed that is. So that we can stand there in His presence; we can stand before God. Man away from God cannot stand before Him. You think of how that will end up finally, when all who are not saved will flee from before His face (Rev.20:11). But now we can stand, and as we stand there is something for His own praise because “we boast in hope of the glory of God”. It has often been pointed out what a contrast there is between chapter 3, where we “come short of the glory of God” (v.23), and chapter 5 where “we boast in hope of the glory of God”. The glory of God is towards us; the glory of God is seen in an area in which we can stand. We have this example in Ruth as she came into that blessing which she knew had been provided for her. In the previous verse, Boaz refers to “the God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to take refuge”. Here is in type someone in the safety and the security of all that the glad tidings can provide for them. I trust that we should all feel that, and be encouraged and blessed and kept as a result.

But then there is the favour of persons who have been taken into favour in the Beloved, which Ephesians brings before us, and that of course brings before us the attractiveness to God of One who was given that title, the Beloved. You might say, it does not need to be explained; we do not need to be told who this is, because we know that it is God’s Beloved: there can only be One. How fine it is to see God’s view of Christ; how fine it is to see that He is the One who has been so acclaimed by God Himself. We have seen it at His baptism, we have seen it at the mount of transfiguration, we see it in His resurrection – “raised … by the glory of the Father”, Rom.6:4. We see it in the place that He has now at God’s right hand. How blessed it is to see that there is One who is “the Beloved”. But then God has “taken us into favour in the Beloved”, so that we are clothed in the worth of that One: we are seen before God in the blessing of that One. We have our place and standing before God that is according to the One in whom we are taken into favour. How wonderful and blessed that is! We are reminded, of course, that it is all because of His work; we are never to forget that, “in whom we have redemption through his blood”. How wonderful it is that His blood is always in the sight of God. Everything that might be a charge against us has been removed, everything that held us has been taken away, so that we are redeemed. We are in liberty before Him and we are secured for Him “in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of offences, according to the riches of his grace”.

Again, we can see in Ruth that she had no rights; she had nothing that would give her any right to have part with the people of God: yet she is brought into the fulness of favour on the ground of redemption. Boaz is a figure to us of the One who is the Beloved, in all the excellence of the mighty man of wealth, and in all the excellence that relates to One who has all that is necessary to secure us and bring us in. Boaz could say, “moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife”. What right did she have to be in Israel? She had full right because in type she had been “taken … into favour in the Beloved”; she was associated with Boaz, the mighty man of wealth. What right do we have? We look at ourselves and we see there is no right there, but we rejoice as we look at the Lord Jesus and we see Him in all His glory. We see Him, not only in His glory to us, but what He is to the Father, and we see that the Father would delight to call our attention to His love for Jesus, for “he has taken us into favour in the Beloved”. Everything set up before the eye of God for His pleasure is entirely according to the excellence of the Lord Jesus.

There is a challenge for us as we come to Naphtali. It is fine to read of Naphtali because he is “satisfied with favour”. But are you? Am I? In Daniel you see one who had the whole favour of the world available to him, its whole favour – think of that! The world’s favour surrounded him and despite that, he was not moved by it. He was satisfied with divine favour; he was satisfied with what there was from God’s side. How wonderful that is, in the face of a world that might attract us by its favour. God’s favour would attract us by its grace, and we can see an example in Daniel of one who was satisfied with divine favour. Because of where his heart was, he was not looking for favour from any other direction or from any other source. As our hearts are attached to the One who is the Beloved, each one of us will be helped to have a growing appreciation of what the Father sees in Christ, and be in the enjoyment of what it is to be in that favour.

May we be encouraged and helped in this for His name’s sake.

Word in a meeting for ministry, Edinburgh

19 June 2019

David C Brown