Extravagant Grace
by Kevin kainos Gitonga
Introduction
God loves you immensely. He doesn’t puff up his emotion to love you but he simply loves you out of the fullness of who he is. God’s theme for humanity is Love and this is exemplified in the greatest Common verse that we all know. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son………
God’s love for the works of creation is exemplified right from Genesis one whatever God created he saw it as good. This is not such good according to human perception but the works of creation found its divine goodness upon its inception by the creator. The works of his creation testify of his wonders and of his goodness and of his love.
However when God created man he said he was very good.(Gen 1:31) man to God appeared pleasing in all its divine implications for it was only him who could savor behold and reflect the diverse excellencies of God.
The means by which man gets to enjoy God in his fullness and in all his Excellencies iis by means of his grace. Man is created from dust and is made to be such a glorious being able to reflect savor and become like his creator.
Psalm 8:2-3 when consider your heavens, the works of your fingers, in the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that your are mindful of him the son of man that you care for him?
What is grace?
What comes to your mind when you think of God’s grace? For such a long time I thought that grace is an enablement from God to pass a tough situation so that when I pass through it I say God’s grace has enabled me to overcome this or that situation.
I came to know later that grace is God’s unmerited favor, other acronyms as I came to know means God reaching at Christ’s expense. God’s grace is not an enablement that comes to us and goes. It’s the power of God working in us on account of Christ. Its God’s ability working inside the believers life to produce the fruit of the spirit hence an evidence of Christian living.
It’s the energy of God energizing itself in us free from human manipulation but only expended as a gift undeservedly to be received by God’s people who have put their trust in him.
John 1:14”the word of God became flesh and made his dwelling among us, we have seen the glory of the one and only, who came from the father full of grace and truth.”
Jesus is the word of God who was there from the beginig . He told the Pharisees that before Moses was I am. He is the one through whom all things were made. Paul also talked of him as the one in whom we live move and have our being.
This is the one who wa made flesh and dwelt amongst us. What is this if it’s not extravagant grace? The gospel of the good news is then announced like this
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16.
Most of us probably know this verse but what about the verse that follows this?
For God did not send his son to the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him
Again God proclaims the gospel as this, that he loves the world so much that he gave his only begotten son . It does not say that God so saw the world in sin. He did not see the world in wickedness but in love, such a great and immense love that he gave up his son for us so that the sin problem might be dealt with and that we might be restored back to his love.
Romans 5:12,17 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned; For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
Sin entered the world through one man and death spread to all humanity. Now similarly in amore diverse and glorious way, life has come through one man Christ Jesus and this life spreads all over the world.
God’s extravagant grace is the ability of God in making men enjoy eternal life through the virtue of his own son who purchased for us this new life which is received by believers upon faith in what the savior has accomplished for them. The Gospel therefore gets its root from the finished work of the cross. Reconciliation is the backbone of evangelism and God’s love the theme of the gospel. The gospel proves to us that.
1. You were never separate from God.
Col 1:22-23”And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,”(Esv)
Col 1:21-23 “You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got. But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God's side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence.” (The message)
Paul teaches us out rightly that we were never separate from God apart from our minds. We were alienated from our minds and hence became enemies with God thanks to our first parents Adam and eve who as I said did something graciously on the negative to all of us.
At the garden of Eden the first couple succumbed to the lie from the serpent and were convinced that they were not like God and that they needed to do something(eat of the tree of the knowledge of God and evil) so that they could become like God.(Genesis 3). This was an acute lie presented by Satan and now the whole humanity was damned because of that great deception. Man thought that God was hiding something from him and so the first couple sought to hide themselves from God. Its not God who hid himself from them rather its Adam and eve who hid themselves from God . You and I know what transpired that humnanity ever since has been crippled in the damnation of being separated from God.
However Gods love and infinite incessant pursuit of humanity inorder to t#restore us back to him proved to us that God has never been separate from us apart from our minds in which we could’nt enjoy a meaningful relationship with God until the fullness of time Jesus was manifested in the likeness of the sinful flesh and brought peace between us and God by his physical body through which he condemned sin(Romans 8:2)
2. The gospel tells you that you are included in God
Ephesians 1:4” even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love”
You were chosen in God before the foundation of the world. Pretty interesting, isn’t it? You existed in the blue print of God before the world began what a wonderful reality to behold!
The psalmist elsewhere proclaims the plans of the Lord stands firm forever, the purposes of his heart throughout all generations(Psalm 33:11)
The plans of the Lord indeed stands firm forever, I think forever starts from Go and ends with God. Forever finds its proper definition in the realm of eternity and what God had for us is that we may be found in him and the only way this could happen is if we are found in Christ. I believe Christ is not the plan B of God but he is actually the one chosen from the beginning that we should be conformed into, Elsewhere Apostle Peter puts across an explicit insight into the gospel.
1st Peter 1:20” He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you”
The gospel did not start with Christ death at the cross rather it started from God, I believe that the gospel is not simply about the forgiveness of sins but is about us being found in God enjoying a meaningful eternal life. The goodness of the Lord is so immense and the payment of our sins such an overpayment that the purpose of the gospel may be realized in us enjoying eternal life.
3. The Gospel tells you what God can do and not what you can do: the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to them who believe.
Jeremiah 31:31-34” The Lord says, "The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32 It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a husband to them, they did not keep that covenant. 33 The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 None of them will have to teach a neighbor to know the Lord, because all will know me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the Lord, have spoken."”
The old testament dispensation was full of faults, not because of God but because of his people who had become stiff necked and actually it’s the people who didn’t honor the covenant God made with them , the climax being the children of Israel being taken into captivity because of their great apostacy. The northen kingdom of Judah were captured by the Babylonians and the southern kingdom of Israel were captured by the Assyrians..
The Lord promised that he will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and this covenant will not be according to the one he made with their forefathers. This covenant is going to be new and not like the old. The Lord says that in this covenant , he will put his laws within the hearts of men, he says that he will right his own laws within their hearts. This speaks about Jesus as you may remember Jesus said that he has not come to abolish the law but to fiulfill them(Mat 5:17)
If you and I are in Christ then we have fulfilled the law and we are living in the fulfillment side of life.
The Gospel shows us what the Lord God can do and has done for us in Christ Jesus hence the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for those who believe. The gospel is not th power of your obedience or of your prayers. We pray because God has enabled us and because we are sons of God. The Old Testament gave us work to do so that we could approach God and earn or deserve blessings. The new covenant though is not like the old in that in these new commandment God has done and accomplished everything on our behalf of us.
The Gospel tells us of a God who is alive and living in us by faith. The gospel is the word of God’s grace; Acts 20:32. The gospel is what Paul preached and presented people as mature before God. He gives his testimony in Colossians 1 and he says Christ in us the hope of glory.
Christ; your identity
Christ in you the hope of glory. Christ is your identity. You are no longer defined by behavior pattern but by Christ who is in you. You have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus (Eph 1:3)
Christ has redeemed you from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13) If you are in Christ you are of the uncursed generation, you are above reproach and Christ has been made your banner of victory.
You have been given a perfect spirit in Christ. (1st John 2:20) you need no more anointing than the one that you have received indelibly upon your faith in the finished work of the cross. Let me put it like this, there is nothing like getting closer to God. God has made you closer to him than he has ever done, you are in Christ in God, but I say like this, there is something like getting to know more and more what God has done for you in Christ Jesus.
Your life has been hidden with Christ in God far from the reach of the enemy. (Col3:1-3) Seek therefore the things that are above where Christ is sited at the right hand of God. You are an Eagle stop crawling therefore with chicken. You have mounted with wings like eagles see things the way God sees. The truth is that when God looks at you he sees Christ in you, he sees you righteous and forgiven and he doesn’t count your sins against you. This is not a license to go on sinning but to love God more and to open up your faculties to behold and be transformed by his glory.
You are blessed indeed. You are highly favored, Christ in you the hope of glory!
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