FINDING GRACE NOW, BEFOREHAND

“Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help us in time of need”, Heb.4:16 

There is a usual concept that grace needs never be a real attainment, but that one should only come to believe that it is.

Grace, unless abounding and real, should never be taken into consideration unless to chase after as soon and as quickly as possible. Christians are fake in most parts of the earth and the most common doctrine we come across nowadays is the one trying to make people believe to have what they do not share in. Faith today is taken to be believing a lie and never to ground and fasten it upon real facts which have really happened or will really happen.

I find quite often this mood among the synagogues of Christianity today, that one is already saved and in due time God will remove some kind of sin they happen to be bound to. The Biblical truth is, however, that “a Redeemer will come unto them that turn from transgression, says the Lord”, Is.59:20.

Salvation is nothing but salvation from sin, from any and all kinds of sinning. “And she shall bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name JESUS; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins”, Mat 1:21. We read also, “Howbeit the firm foundation of God standeth, having this seal: … Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord (Saviour from sins) depart from unrighteousness”, 2Tim.2:19.

John the Baptist came to prepare a way for the Lord especially because people were in sin. If they were not in sin there would be no need for him to come and prepare a way at all. There was a need to have them repent, even out of fear, first, so the Lord would mean something to them who repented of all sins, dealing out what they had even, doing the opposite of stealing. Peter also preached, “Repent ye therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord”, Act.3:19. This real presence of God will not be refreshing when people cling to any sin, for if He comes as people ask Him to (as I often hear them pray and plead, even in a bondage of some kind), He will curse if He comes and when He finds sin still unconfessed or in any kind of practice. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come.  (6) And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come and smite the earth with a curse”, Mal 4:5-6. Ananias and happy Sapphira came to where God’s presence had already been real and they fell dead because of a lie, Act.5.

People quite often say they will be taken from smoking and drinking in due time, that God will take it from them as soon as they are ready to let it stand. The fact is, however, that any kind of vice or sin makes people less ready to receive and never more ready. Each day passing by is a dark step ahead for as long as they still cling to sin, any sin whatsoever. This would not be so sad unless we would not find preachers smoking themselves and some who have quit it, yet preaching “God took it away from me in the right time, long after I became a believer!” Few people know that even the devil can quit vices, just as much as he can believe to tremble.

The real growth of grace is apart from sin, after sin is fully forsaken and successfully dealt with for a change, through Jesus's power and name. To remove sin from the horizon of man is never the last step of a graceful living, but the very first. We hear Andrew Murray quite often saying that the real Christian growth is never to forsake sin, but the one into which one is able to grow after all sin is fully dealt with thoroughly and effectively - once and for all. There is a certain life to be lived and grown into after sin is left behind, anyhow, somehow, through Jesus at any cost. The most humble people are such as have fully forsaken sin, all sinning, and that for real. This Sacrifice there for us all now, is indeed able to remove sins from the people and is not like the sacrifices Jews used to burn to God in their temple of stones, Heb 10:4.

There is a Godly demand for unconditional holiness in our churches today while people keep themselves busy demanding funds, miracles, fun and enjoyment, fake praise and forced songs, singing God’s songs while bound in the strange land of sin and greed – greed both to feed unbelief as well as to maintain idolatrous practices like the love for money and praise by using God’s songs to be in the spotlight. “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land” is not firmly stated nowadays anymore, Ps.137:4.

Any genuine revival starts off when all sinning is fully forsaken – it does not end there as some suppose. Amen.

José Mateus