Mega Grace!

This book is dedicated to my wife Linda, for whose love and support I am
eternally grateful to our wonderful Lord.

You are not alone

Do you ever feel that you are all alone, no one understands, you’re the only one
who has done what you have done, you’re the only one who feels the way you
feel? I have good news for you. You are not alone. The truth is that many people
have done what you have done and many people think they are the only one
who feels the way they feel. There is an answer for all of you who feel this way.
That answer is found in the grace of God, that is, in God himself. His grace – his
unmerited love and favor – is available to you right now. Let’s explore this
wonderful grace together and see how you can receive the help of the God who
loves you.
In Acts 4.33 we read, “… and great grace was on them all.” Grace – one of the
Bible’s greatest realities. The Greek word for “great” in this verse is mega. That’s
right, mega, a very familiar English word. Megawatts. Megabytes. Mega bucks.
Mega dittoes. The word means big, large, great. And the Bible tells us in this
verse that the grace that is available to all of us is big, large, great. It is

mega grace!

“Mega grace was on them all.”
This great reality of the Bible is of overwhelming importance, for it is the only
means to salvation, but there is so much more to grace than our salvation. That is
the beginning point, like birth. Indeed it is a birth, the new birth. After birth,
though, there is a life to be lived and grace has great significance for all of life. In
the following pages we will explore God’s word to try to gain some idea of just
how great mega grace is. If we could grasp the entirety of God’s grace our minds
would probably explode. We can’t take it all in – but what we can take in is
wonderful beyond imagination. So let’s go on an exciting journey together that
will open up to us a greater experience of life than we have ever known before.
Hold on! This grace is

mega grace!

What is Grace?

Just what is grace? All of us who grew up attending church meetings probably
know that grace is undeserved love and favor. That is absolutely true. But just
having a dictionary definition of a word doesn’t mean that we know all about the
reality it stands for, or even anything about it by experience. Someone many
years ago said that some things are better felt than tellt! How true. We may know
all about grace in our heads, but until we have experienced it, and experienced it
in an ongoing way, we will never have any real idea of grace. My prayer is that
as we go on this journey together, you will come into a greater experience of
grace. I can guarantee you that if you do, you will realize that when you learned
about grace as a child you may have thought you knew all about it, but when
you have been living it day by day you will confess that you do not know exactly
what it is, but it is wonderful. We may think that God is like us, only more so:
I’m smart and he is smarter. No, he is an entirely different order of being and is
way, way, way beyond us. His grace is far greater than we can even imagine.
Before we dig into God’s word itself, let’s spend a bit of time seeing what
some of the great Greek scholars have said about the Greek word (charis) that we

translate as “grace.” The noun “grace” is related to the verb “rejoice.” In pre-
New Testament Greek it referred basically to that which gives pleasure, and thus

causes rejoicing. Then it includes the pleasure it brings and the thanksgiving that
results.1
In fact, the word is often used in the New Testament for “thanks” (Rom.
6.17, 2 Cor. 9.15).
In the New Testament the word is infused with new meaning. Hermann
Cremer writes that “it depended upon Christianity to realize its full import, and
to elevate it to its rightful sphere.”2 What is that sphere? It is the sphere of God’s
love, but not just his love in general. It is love toward undeserving sinners.
Mercy, a word with meaning similar to grace, is that which responds to the
misery of the wretched. It is pity. But grace is specifically that which responds to
sin.3 “The charis of God, the gift of his free grace that is displayed in the
forgiveness of sins, is extended to men as they are guilty, his [mercy] as they are
miserable.” It is the love of the worthy for the unworthy, of the holy for the sinful.
“The essence of charis is that it is unearned and unmerited; indeed, it is
demerited….”4

It is Cremer again who writes that grace involves no obligation on

God’s part. He adds that it “is no more hindered by sin than it is conditioned by
works.”5 Put simply, grace has entirely to do with God and what he is and
nothing to do with us and what we are.
We can go a step further. As we begin to grasp the reality of grace as we
experience it, we begin to see that grace is not a thing God dispenses, but in fact
it is in some sense God himself. God’s very nature is love, as 1 Jn. 4.16 tells us:
“God is love.” (emphasis mine) And grace is undeserved love freely given.
Francis Baudraz writes, “Grace is not a thing, but its essential significance is
simply God Himself in His goodwill towards men. The grace of God is not
something separable from God, but is a personal relationship which God
establishes between Himself and men…. In this relation God has the initiative.”
6
He then gives the example of God’s love for Israel: “The LORD did not set His
love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the
peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the LORD loved
you….” (Dt. 7.7-8) The LORD loved you because he loved you. That is grace.
We might add Ezek. 16.1-15, a bit of a long quotation that reveals just how
great the grace of God was toward Israel, and is to all who will receive it:

1Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2

“Son of man, make
known to Jerusalem her abominations 3and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD
to Jerusalem, “Your origin and your birth are from the land of the
Canaanite, your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4As for
your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor
were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt
or even wrapped in cloths. 5No eye looked with pity on you to do any of
these things for you, to have compassion on you. Rather you were thrown
out into the open field, for you were abhorred on the day you were born.
6“When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I
said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you while
you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ 7

I made you numerous like plants of the
field. Then you grew up, became tall and reached the age for fine
ornaments; your breasts were formed and your hair had grown. Yet you
were naked and bare.
8
“Then I passed by you and saw you, and behold, you were at the
time for love; so I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. I
also swore to you and entered into a covenant with you so that you
became Mine,” declares the Lord GOD.
9
“Then I bathed you with water,
washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil.
10I also
clothed you with embroidered cloth and put sandals of porpoise skin on
your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk. 11I

adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands and a necklace
around your neck. 12I also put a ring in your nostril, earrings in your ears
and a beautiful crown on your head. 13Thus you were adorned with gold
and silver, and your dress was of fine linen, silk and embroidered cloth.
You ate fine flour, honey and oil; so you were exceedingly beautiful and
advanced to royalty. 14Then your fame went forth among the nations on
account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of My splendor which I
bestowed on you,” declares the Lord GOD.
15″But you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot because of
your fame, and you poured out your harlotries on every passer-by who
might be willing.”‘”
Remember that God in his foreknowledge knew that v. 15 would come about,
that Jerusalem would “play the harlot.” Even though he knew that, he still did
what he did in vs. 1-14. That is mega grace. He has done as much for you and
me.
This matter of God’s taking the initiative is what is called in theological
terms prevenient grace. “Prevenient” means “coming before.” That is, God
initiated the provision of salvation for us before we wanted him to. He was not
reactive, responding to our cries for help, but proactive. Paul puts it best in Rom.
5.8: “But God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners
Christ died for us.” We will see more of this prevenient grace in the chapter
below on “Grace From God to Us.”
We said at the outset that God’s grace is mega grace. We begin to see
something of the reality of this fact as we think about what we have just written.
God is holy. He made man and man rebelled against him, falling into sin. People
enjoyed their sins (there is pleasure in sin, Heb. 11.25) and did not want God. Yet
God set about the task of providing redemption and salvation for them. The
mega nature of grace is really seen when we look at the enormity of the sin God
dealt with. There are close to seven billion people living in the world today. I do
not know how many lived before those who are living now, but there have been
billions of people. Someone estimates it at about 100 billion. All of those people
have sinned innumerable times. How many times have you sinned? You lost
count a long time ago, didn’t you? I did, too! Yet every one of those sins, slaps in
God’s face though they were, were laid on our Lord Jesus when he died for us.
The Holy One became sin for us (2 Cor. 5.21). That is mega grace.
Mega grace!

6
Notes

1Alan Richardson, ed. A Theological Word Book of the Bible, New York: The
Macmillan Company, 1950, 100.
2Hermann Cremer, Biblico-Theological Lexicon of New Testament Greek, Edinburgh:
T. & T. Clark, 1977, 572.
3Cremer, 575.
4Richard C Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament, Grand Rapids: Baker Book
House, 1989, 182-183.
5Cremer, 574.
6
J.-J. von Allmen, ed., Vocabulary of the Bible, London: Lutterworth Press, 1958,
157-158.

The God of All Grace

Now let us have a bit longer look at this God who is grace. We begin with
God the Father. It is 1 Pt. 5.10 that contains the words at the head of this chapter,
“the God of all grace.” This verse says that even though we suffer in this life,
God has called us to eternal glory. Eternal glory is mega glory! Paul says it this
way: “For I maintain that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be
compared to the glory to be revealed to us.” (Rom. 8.18) He adds in 2 Cor. 4.17
that our afflictions are working an eternal weight of glory for us, and he uses a
word that dramatically shows the mega nature of God’s grace. Some of you will
remember from your high school and college studies that the word “hyperbole”
in poetry or other writings means great exaggeration done for the sake of making
or emphasizing a point. Here is an example:
I’ll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like the geese about the sky.
(W. H. Auden, “As I Walked Out One Evening,” 1935)1
And we use common hyperbole in everyday speech: “I’m so hungry I
could eat a horse.” In this verse Paul writes, literally translated, that this eternal
weight of glory is “according to hyperbole unto hyperbole.” That is, the glory

that is to be revealed to us, and in which we will participate, is exaggerated
beyond all comprehension. Mega grace is greatly exaggerated. In our current
speech exaggeration is not literally true. In glory it will be true.
That is the kind of God we are involved with. Whatever the cost of
walking with him in this age may be, he will make up for any suffering a
thousand fold, a million fold, a zillion fold! He told Israel that for iron he would
give them silver and for bronze he would give them gold (Is. 60.17).
Just how great is this God who is love? Hear what he said to Job:
Who is this that darkens counsel
By words without knowledge?
Now gird up your loins like a man,
And I will ask you, and you instruct Me!
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding,
Who set its measurements? Since you know.
Or who stretched the line on it?
On what were its bases sunk?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
When the morning stars sang together
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Or who enclosed the sea with doors
When, bursting forth, it went out from the womb;
When I made a cloud its garment
And thick darkness its swaddling band,
And I placed boundaries on it
And set a bolt and doors,
And I said, “Thus far you shall come, but no farther;
And here shall your proud waves stop?” (Job 38.2-11)
That shut Job’s mouth!
We see in this passage the infinite God. Do you know what “infinite”
means? It means “having no end.” Scientists tell us that the universe has no end
or that it is constantly expanding with no end in sight. It is measured in light
years. Do you know what a light year is? It is the distance light can travel in one
year, and light moves at the speed of 186,000 miles per second. How anyone can
grasp that measurement I don’t know! If my math is correct, that is
5,869,714,360,000 miles. Over 5.8 trillion miles in one year. Keep in mind that the
sun is “only” 93 million miles away. And think of this: “…the distance to the next

nearest big galaxy, the Andromeda Galaxy, is 13 quintillion miles. That’s
13,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles.”2 That goes from trillion and skips over
quadrillion to quintillion! Does your brain hurt yet! Mine does. Our God is
greater than this infinite universe. He made it! He fills it.
Think for a moment about the creativity of God. If a person has one really
original, creative idea in a lifetime he may be called a genius. It is really hard to
be creative. But God thought of everything there is before it existed and then he
made it all out of nothing with only a few words!
I think you get the idea of the greatness we are dealing with in God. Now
think about this: this great God who is occupied with making and running the
universe – everything that exists – knows you by name, knows all about you, and
loves you. He is actively at work in your life to bring about the very best for you.
Even the difficult things in your life are being used by him for your good. Paul
writes in Rom. 8.28 that all things work together for good for those who love God
and are called according to purpose. And what is that good? Conformity to the
image of Christ (v. 29). God is making you like his beloved Son so you will be fit
for his kingdom and for Heaven. This is mega grace!
Now let’s look at Jesus the Son. Lk. 2.40 tells us that the grace of God was
on the child Jesus. Then Jn. 1.14 says that when the Son became flesh, he was full
of grace and truth. Vs. 16-17 say, “For from his fullness we have all received, and
grace in place of grace. For the Law was given through Moses. Grace and truth
became through Jesus Christ.” The eternal Son of God who had always enjoyed
the glories of Heaven and fellowship with his Father God left all that to become a
human being like us and live among us, to be exposed to sin and suffering and
sorrow, with the purpose of dying for us. This one who was full of grace gave us
grace instead of grace. That is, for the grace we already had he gave us more
grace. Mega grace!
Paul writes in 2 Cor. 8.9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that being rich he became poor for your sake that you by his poverty
might become rich.” How many of us, if we were rich, would voluntarily accept
poverty so that others might be rich? That is mega grace.
Heb. 2.9 tells us that “by the grace of God” Jesus “might taste death for all
people.” The death of Jesus was an expression of the grace of God. It was God
coming to us in the person of his beloved Son to provide for us what we in our
sinfulness, weakness, and helplessness could not provide for ourselves, but
needed desperately. That is mega grace.
And I’ll tell you a secret: there is more “grace to be brought to [us] at the
revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Pt. 1.13) More? Yes, more! Enough to get us
through eternity! Mega-er!

What about God the Holy Spirit? Heb. 10.29 calls him “the Spirit of grace.”
How is he the Spirit of grace? For one thing he is the one who manifests the gifts
of the Holy Spirit in us, and Rom. 12.6 tells us that we have “gifts according to
the grace given to us.” I promise not to throw too much Greek at you, but we
need to see that here in Rom. 12 and in 1 Cor. 12, the classic passage on gifts of
the Spirit, the Greek word for “gift” is charisma. Remember that “grace” is charis.
“Gift” is charisma. That is, a gift of the Holy Spirit is a manifestation of grace for
the building up of the body of Christ. One way the grace of God comes to us is
through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of grace.
So we see that the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are full of
grace. Their every move toward us, their every act toward us, is motivated by
love that we do not deserve, indeed, that we un-deserve. What we deserve is
judgment. What we get is mega grace. That is our God.
Mega grace!

Notes

1http://grammar.about.com/od/rhetoricstyle/a/greatesthyperboles_2.htm
2nasa.gov (converted from kilometers to miles).

Grace from God to Us

This wonderful grace that is the essence of our God, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, at some point came from him to us. We want to look now at just what he
did in bringing grace from himself to us.
We have already mentioned prevenient grace, the teaching that God took
the initiative in providing salvation for us before we even wanted him to. Let’s
unfold that teaching a bit by examining a few passages of Scripture that set it
forth. We begin with 2 Tim. 1.8-10:

Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me
his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel according to the power
of God, the one who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not
according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace,
which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal, but has now

been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who
made death ineffective and brought life and incorruptibility to light
through the gospel.
Wow! Look first at that little phrase “before times eternal.” This verse tells
us that not only did God prepare salvation before we wanted it, but he also did it
in what we would call eternity past. Remember prevenient grace? God, being
omniscient, knew from eternity that his creation would fall into sin and would
require redemption, so he planned redemption even before anything was
created. When Adam and Eve sinned, God did not have to come up with a plan.
His plan is as eternal as he is. Grace was there before creation and before sin.
Paul uses the same phrase, “before time eternal,” in his epistle to Titus (1.2).
We see this further in Eph. 1.4: “… just as [God] chose us in [Christ] before
the foundation of the world….” God chose you to be his. He chose me to be his.
He did this before he founded the world. He is the God of mega grace.
This eternal nature of saving grace is seen also in the Lord Jesus. Rev. 13.8
repeats the phrase, “before the foundation of the world,” of Eph. 1.4, using
“from” instead of “before,” and adds to it when it speaks of “the little Lamb
slaughtered from the foundation of the world.” The word “slaughtered” pictures
the fact that the Lord Jesus was offered as a blood sacrifice. It is the Greek term
for the slaughter of a sacrifice. We learn that he was so offered from the
foundation of the world. That is, this one who was eternal God chose to be the
submissive member of the Trinity, always yielding to the will of the Father. He
laid down his life in principle from eternity, and in a very real sense he laid it
down in fact, for he gave up his own will to do that of the Father. This Lord Jesus
whom we worship as full of grace was full of grace from eternity, ever willing to
die for you and me. His eternal existence has been as the Lamb slaughtered. That
is mega grace.
We see God’s prevenient grace once more in Jn. 15.16, where the Lord
Jesus said to his disciples: “You did not choose me, but I chose you….” Have you
been under the impression that one day you saw your need of Christ and his
salvation and chose to receive him and become his follower? We do have free
will and must make that choice, but be very sure that you chose him because he
chose you first. He said in Jn. 6.44, “No one can come to me unless the Father
who sent me draws him….” Is this predestination? Election is a mystery and I do
not presume to be able to explain it. I believe in free will. We can reject God. But
we cannot come to the Lord Jesus unless God draws us. Be very much aware that
your choice of salvation in Christ is a result of the grace of God.
Let’s take a look at this salvation. Paul says that we were dead in our
trespasses and sins (Eph. 2.1). He says that we were “having no hope and

without God in the world.” (Eph. 2.12) He says this about us in Rom. 3.10-18,
quoting Old Testament passages:

There is not a righteous one, not even one; there is not one who
understands; there is not one who seeks God; all have turned away;
together they have become worthless; there is not one who does good;
there is not even one; their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they
have deceived; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full
of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and
misery are in their ways, and they have not known the way of peace; there
is no fear of God before their eyes.
And in Rom. 3.23: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Look at 1
Cor. 6.9-11: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the
kingdom of God? Don’t be deceived. Neither immoral nor idolaters nor
adulterers nor homosexuals nor pederasts nor thieves nor covetous nor
drunkards nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such
were some of you….” (emphasis mine) And such were some of you! Are you
convinced yet that you were a rotten sinner without hope and without God in
the world! I am. That is mega sin. And mega sin requires mega grace. John
Newton, the composer of “Amazing Grace,” had been a slave ship captain. After
he came to the Lord he said that he knew two things: he was a great sinner and
Jesus was a great Savior. How true!
Perhaps we have never done anything that we consider so terrible as
being a slave ship captain or the other sins mentioned above. We may have
grown up in church and lived respectable lives and think ourselves to be good
people. Surely we are not so bad as to deserve hell. Even if we did not grow up
in church we are not bad people. But think about the nature of sin. Sin is open

rebellion against the God who deserves total obedience. At its root it is self-
worship, the desire to be one’s own God, to run one’s own life. Only God

deserves worship. We sin because we are tempted, and that by our own lust (see
Ja. 1.13-15). That is, we sin because we want to and choose to. Though we usually
associate lust with sexual desire, we can lust for anything, money, power, fame.
And Satan is the ultimate tempter. When we sin, however minor it may seem to
be, we are obeying Satan and our own lust, not God. There may be degrees of sin
to us, and perhaps there are in reality, but sin is sin. And the righteousness of
God requires that sin be paid for. The only way we can pay for our own sin is by
spending eternity in hell. The only one who could pay for our sin in our place is
the Lord Jesus, for he is the only sinless one who could be an unblemished lamb,

as the law of God required (Lev. 1.3, among many verses). We are all guilty of
mega sin. We all need mega grace.
And God provided that mega grace. How? We just noted that sin must be
paid for. God is a righteous God, which means that he cannot overlook sin. We
must be righteous to be in fellowship with God and ultimately to go to Heaven,
but we are not righteous. We are sinners. We cannot make ourselves righteous.
Even if we never sin again, our past sins must be paid for. If someone committed
murder, got away with it, never committed another crime, then was later
revealed as the murderer, would we let him go? No. He would be arrested, tried,
convicted, and punished for his crime. Though it may have happened years ago,
it must be paid for. And God required that sin be paid for by the shedding of
blood, by death. But we cannot pay for our own sins because the one who pays
must be sinless, an unblemished lamb.
Here is where the grace of God really comes to the fore. God himself, the
one sinned against who had every right to send us all to hell at once, instead
chose for his Son to become flesh, to be born into this sinful world and live a
sinless life in the midst of all the sin and the suffering it brings, and to give his
life as the payment for our sins. When Jesus died on the cross, he was bearing
every sin that had ever been committed and that ever would be committed. He
was bearing your sins that you have not yet committed. And mine. By dying as a
sinless victim, an unblemished lamb, he paid the price for our sins. Death is the
result of sin. Jesus had no sin, so death could not hold him. On the third day he
was resurrected from death and came out of the tomb alive. And he came out
with salvation available to all who would have faith.
And so we come to two wonderful little words in Eph. 2: “but God.” Let’s
look at the passage:

And you, being dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you
once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of
the authority of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of
disobedience, in which we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our
flesh, doing the wishes of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were by
nature children of wrath, as also the rest. But God….
But God what?
But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he
loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive with
Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us with him and seated
us with him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, that he may show in the ages

to come the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ
Jesus.
We were dead in sin. We walked according to the world’s dictates. We
obeyed the devil. We were sons of disobedience. We conducted ourselves in the
lusts of the flesh. We did whatever our flesh wanted and whatever our minds
could think up. And just in case you still think you are a pretty good person, let’s
read 1 Tim. 5.24: “The sins of some men are obvious, going before them to
judgment, but for others they follow.” We think the terrible sinners are the

murderers and rapists and thieves and drunks and drug pushers and women-
and children-abusers and on and on. They are terrible sinners and their sins are

obvious. But some of the “good” people’s sins are hidden, sometimes very well
hidden, and they come to light only at the judgment. Then it will be seen that
some of the “good” people were also terrible sinners: the haters, the resentful, the
proud, the manipulators and users of others, those secretly using pornography,
including child pornography, those who have sexually abused their own
children or those of close relatives without it ever coming out, and on and on. It
will come out at the judgment. As the Lord Jesus said, “For nothing is hidden
except that it may be revealed, nor has anything been secret but that it may come
to light.”
Are you convinced now that you are a mega sinner in need of mega grace?
Thanks be to God, we have mega grace. We just read of mega sin in Eph. 2.1-3,
but we also read of mega grace: that God is rich in mercy (remember that mercy
responds to the pitiful; rather than hating us, he pities us because of our
miserable bondage to sin and its consequences), that his love for us is great, that
he made us alive with Christ, by grace, that he raised us up from such death and
seated us with Christ in the heavenlies (the spiritual world). Why? So that he can
“show in the ages to come the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us
in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2.7, emphasis mine) The word for “surpassing” here is the
same word as “hyperbole” mentioned above. The surpassing riches of his grace. The
exaggerated riches of his grace. That is mega grace.
How do we take advantage of this grace, this salvation, this offer too good
to be true? It is very simple, and that in itself is again grace, for we could not
have done it any other way: by faith. Grace and salvation are a free gift. All we
have to do is receive. Faith receives. How could the offended God make such an
unbelievable offer to those who offended him? Because he is a mega God! He is
the God of mega grace! He pities us because we are suffering in sin and is willing
to forgive the sin if only we will turn from it to him and receive his free offer. Do
you realize that salvation is not available at any price, but it is free for the asking?
There is no work you can do, no price you can pay, to earn or buy salvation. All

you can do is receive it by faith. Faith means simply that you believe what the
Bible says and you accept the gift. I would ask you just now, if you have never
responded to this offer before and received God’s wonderful grace in Christ, will
you do so now? Just in simple faith say to God now, “Lord, I believe and I
receive. I know I am a sinner and I turn from my sin to you and accept your offer
of salvation in Christ. I accept him as my Lord and Savior. Thank you, Lord, for
your inexpressible gift.” If you prayed that prayer and meant it, you now have
the life of Jesus Christ in you and are saved from sin and hell and for God and
Heaven. Thanks be to God.
As Eph. 2.8-9 say, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and
this is not of you. It is God’s gift, not of works, that no one may boast.” You have
been saved because you responded in faith to the mega grace of God.

Mega grace!

After Salvation What?

What comes after salvation? For one thing we should obey the Lord by
being baptized (Mt. 28.19, Acts 2.38). Baptism, being lowered into the waters and
raised up out of the waters, is a picture of our having died with Christ and
having been buried with him, dying to sin, and being raised up to a new life, his
life in us. Thus it is a public testimony that you have died to your old life and its
sin and been raised up to a new life in Christ. The Lord Jesus himself, though he
was sinless, was baptized as a prophetic picture of the facts that he would
become sin for us (2 Cor. 5.21) and that he would die as sin and for sin, be buried,
and be raised from the dead. So baptism is a command of the Lord and is an
important testimony.
This matter of having died with Christ and having been raised up with
him is also of great importance in another way. Many people who are saved by
grace through faith (the only way!) start their Christian lives by trying to be good
Christians. They know they should abstain from sin and should go to church
meetings and read their Bibles and pray and give and tell others about Jesus and
so on. This is all true, but the mistake we make is that, having begun by faith, we
go on by self-effort. We try to be good Christians. The book of Galatians was
written for just this very error.
The Galatian Christians had received Christ by grace through faith. Then
they had been told by some that one must keep the Jewish law to be saved, and

they started trying to do so. Of course, the Jews themselves could not keep their
own law perfectly, so how could they expect anyone else to? Paul uses this
opportunity to teach one of the most important lessons we will ever learn as
Christians: just as we began the Christian life by grace through faith, so do we
live it. We do not live it by our own strength, but by the power of the Holy Spirit
in us. Gal. 3.1-3 says,

O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes
Jesus Christ has been publicly displayed as crucified? This one thing I
want to learn from you: did you receive the Spirit by works of law or by
the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are
you now being matured by the flesh?
In saying that the Galatians had received the Spirit and begun by the Spirit, Paul
is referring to their being saved by grace through faith. When one is saved, he
receives the Holy Spirit. That is actually what makes him alive spiritually.
Remember that Eph. 2.1 says that we were dead in trespasses and sins? The Bible
says that we are body, soul, and spirit (1 Thess. 5.23, Heb. 4.12). Our bodies were
not dead. Our souls (psychological makeup) were not dead. It is our spirits that
were dead in sin and because of sin. The only way they could be made alive
toward God was for the Holy Spirit to come into them and make them alive. The
only way for him to come into our dead spirits was for the Lord Jesus to die for
our sins, thus providing forgiveness that takes the sins away. Otherwise the Holy
Spirit, the fire of God, would have consumed us. When we are forgiven and thus
have no sin, the Holy Spirit can enter our spirits and make them alive. That is
how the Galatians began and that is how you and I began. That all took place by
grace through faith, not by self-effort. You did not save yourself.
Having begun with the Spirit, who is God in you, will you now mature
yourself by your own effort? Try if you wish. You will fail and will suffer much
in the effort. Someone said that it is not difficult to live the Christian life. It is
impossible! Instead, go on in God’s way, which is by the Spirit. What does that
mean?
It means that the way to live Christian life is the same as the way to begin
it. We live by grace through faith in the power of the Holy Spirit in us to make
real in our everyday experience what baptism pictures: we have died to the old
life and been raised up to a new life in Christ. Instead of trying to be good
Christians, we allow the Holy Spirit in us to direct us and empower us.
It is Paul again who tells us to be filled with the Holy Spirit. In Eph. 5.18
he writes, “… be filled with the Spirit.” What does it mean to be filled with the
Spirit and how does it come about?

Every Christian has the Holy Spirit living within, as Rom 8.9 makes clear,
but not every Christian knows the fullness of the Spirit. There is not a formula or
set of steps one can take that guarantees the fullness of the Spirit, for God does
not work that way. One of his greatest desires is that we know him intimately,
and the way that usually comes about is by our seeking him in difficulties – not
seeking him to get us out of the trouble, but seeking HIM, to know him more
intimately in the trouble. It comes about by our surrender of ourselves to him,
giving him full charge of our lives. He gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey
him (Acts 5.32, referring to Christians, not to the lost, which would be salvation
by works). As he becomes more and more the Lord of our lives, we will
experience an increasing fullness. Some have what would be called a crisis
experience when the Holy Spirit fills them with great power and various
manifestations. Others may not have such an experience, but will know an
increasing closeness to the Lord and power to overcome self and live in the will
of God. How it comes about is a matter of how God wills to do it in each person.
This experience of yielding to God in trial has to do with the working of
the cross that puts to death our flesh so that Christ may be formed in us (Gal.
4.19). This matter is of such importance that it will be dealt with more fully later.
Rom. 6-8 sets forth some of the principles of this life. In Rom. 6, we are
told that we have died with Christ and been raised up to a new life in him, as
noted above. That life is actually the Lord Jesus himself living in us: “I have been
crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, and the life
which I now live in the flesh I live by faith which is of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me.” (Gal. 2.20) Rom. 6.11 says that we are to consider
ourselves “dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” We live by letting the
victorious Christ live in us.
There is an important distinction that we need to make at this point. There
is a difference between sin and sins. Our sins are the wrong things we have done,
and Christ died for them so that we might be forgiven and saved. But the sins
did not just happen. They came from somewhere, and that somewhere is our sin
nature, our inborn rebellion against God that is there in every one of us. That is
what we mean by sin as opposed to sins. The sin nature is what causes the sins.
The sins are what we do. The sin nature is what we are (Prov. 4.23, Mk. 7.20-23).
We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners. The Lord
Jesus died to deal with both. The wonderful truth that Paul sets forth in Rom. 6-8
is that not only did Christ die for our sins for forgiveness, but we died with him.
That is, the sin nature went to the cross and to the tomb with Christ, but what
was raised up was a new man, not the old sinful man. We are new creations: “old
things have passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Cor. 5.17)

Paul declares in Rom. 6 that we are free from sin (vs. 3-7), and he tells us,
“So you also consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ
Jesus.” (v. 11, also noted above)
Then comes chapter 7, where we see Paul, I believe, revealing his own
struggle to live in the good of Rom. 6 by his own effort. He is trying himself to
make it work. In v. 15 he says, “For what I want to do, this I don’t do, but what I
hate, this I do.” The chapter ends with his pitiful cry, “Wretched man that I am!
Who will deliver me from the body of this death?”
Then comes chapter 8, where he shows the way of victory. It is the way of
reliance on the Spirit of God within, of grace coming through faith to enable one
to live as God wants him to live.
It is not within the scope of this work to go into a detailed study of Rom.
6-8, but the reader should pursue such a study. It has much to do with whether
or not one will know victory in his life in Christ.1
There are many other implications of becoming a follower of Christ. Since
we are dealing with grace in this work, we should certainly emphasize the fact
that a Christian is not under law, but under grace. Rom. 6.14 says, “For you are
not under law, but under grace,” and Gal. 5.18 adds, “If you walk in the Spirit
you are not under law.” What does this mean? To be under the law means that
we are in a religious system that requires us to keep certain laws, do certain
things, not do certain other things, in order to be in good standing with God or a
god. Every religion in the world is based on law, or we may say that every one is
based on works. If it is possible to be saved, it is by works, doing what the
religion requires. It may not be possible to be finally saved at any point except at
the end, and then one had better hope that he is on the good side of the god
when he dies. Otherwise it is just too bad. He wasn’t good enough.
The Christian faith is not a religion. Religion is man’s attempt to develop a
plan that will enable him to please or appease his god and be saved in the end.
The Christian faith is a relationship with a living person, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Perhaps we should say that it is a living relationship with the triune God, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. That is grace. We have been accepted by God because of
who he is and on the basis of what Christ did in dying for our sins and being
raised from the dead, not because of what we are or have done other than accept
his offer. Indeed none of us could have been accepted for what we have done, for
what we have all done is sin. We are condemned on our own merits, or lack of
them . But God accepted us. We are not rejected by him. And we do not have to
perform to be accepted by him. We are accepted. Period. A Christian does not do
good works to try to get God to accept him. He does them because he has been
accepted and wants to do them in thanksgiving to the God who loves him and
whom he loves in return. And he is empowered by the Spirit within him to do

so. That is mega grace. It is all based on what God is, pure love, not on what we
are.
I must say that I am radical at this point, or perhaps I should say that
God’s mega grace is radical. I believe that the law is irrelevant for Christians.
What does Paul write in 1 Tim. 1.8-9? “But we know that the law is good if
anyone uses it lawfully, knowing this, that law is not for a righteous person, but
for the lawless….” The Christian is not to live by the law, by dos and don’ts. He
has within him a life, the very life of Christ, that will cause him to do what is
pleasing to God as he walks in surrender to God. Someone said to love God and
do as you please.
Watchman Nee told a story that well illustrates this point:

I went, late one summer, for a prolonged period of rest to a hill-
resort where accommodation was difficult to obtain, and while there it

was necessary for me to sleep in one house and take my meals in another,
the latter being the home of a mechanic and his wife. For the first two
weeks of my visit, apart from asking a blessing at each meal, I said
nothing to my hosts about the Gospel; and then one day my opportunity
came to tell them about the Lord Jesus. They were ready to listen and to
come to Him in simple faith for the forgiveness of their sins. They were
born again, and a new light and joy came into their lives, for theirs was a
real conversion. I took care to make clear to them what had happened,
and then, as the weather turned colder, the time came for me to leave
them and return to Shanghai.
During the cold winter months the man was in the habit of
drinking wine with his meals, and he was apt to do so to excess. After my
departure, with the return of the cold weather, the wine appeared on the
table again, and that day, as he had become accustomed to do, the
husband bowed his head to return thanks for the meal—but no words
would come. After one or two vain attempts he turned to his wife. “What
is wrong?” he asked. “Why cannot we pray today? Fetch the Bible and see
what it has to say about wine drinking.” I had left a copy of the Scriptures
with them, but though the wife could read she was ignorant of the Word,
and she turned the pages in vain seeking for light on the subject. They did
not know how to consult God’s Book and it was impossible to consult
God’s messenger, for I was many miles away and it might be months
before they could see me. “Just drink your wine,” said his wife. “We’ll
refer the matter to brother Nee at the first opportunity.” But still the man
found he just could not return thanks to the Lord for that wine. “Take it

away!” he said at length; and when she had done so, together they asked a
blessing on their meal.
When eventually the man was able to visit Shanghai he told me the
story. Using an expression familiar in Chinese he said: “Brother Nee,
Resident Boss wouldn’t let me have that drink!” “Very good, brother,” I
said. “You always listen to Resident Boss!”2
Read Gal. 4.21-31, especially vs. 30-31: “‘Cast out the slave girl [the law]
and her son, for the son of the slave girl shall not inherit with the son of the free
woman.’ [Gen. 21.10] Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave girl,
but of the free woman.” Cast out the law! We are free! That is mega grace.
It should be obvious that we also have the word of God and that anything
we think we are being told inwardly will not disagree with the Bible. Satan can
speak to us, too. As we study the Bible and become familiar with it, we will be
aware if we hear something that contradicts it.
This matter of freedom from the law is of such great importance that we
need to deal with it further. We referred to Gal. 3.1-3 above in noting that we
begin as Christians by the Holy Spirit and then many try to go on in the strength
of the flesh. It is too bad that many preachers and teachers reinforce this effort to
go on in fleshly strength by telling people that they need to do this list of things
and not do that list of things, without ever teaching them how to walk in the
Spirit and live by grace, not law. What does it mean to live by grace, not law?
It means that we do not live by rules. People seem to want rules. What do
I do in this situation? What do I do in that? The correct answer is that you seek
the Lord as to what he wants you to do. Perhaps God’s greatest desire for us is
that we get to know him intimately. How does that come about? Usually by our
getting into some difficulty. Then we turn to the Lord for help. We naturally
want him to get us out of the difficulty, but he got us into the difficulty for a
reason, that we turn to him and find him IN the trouble. As we do this we learn
to know God more and more. I think you will agree that the most important
aspect of our lives is our relationships. If push comes to shove, you will find that
your loved ones are far more important than your house and your car and your
bank account and the things you are proud of. The most important relationship
we have is with God. That is where we find real meaning and satisfaction in life.
Everything else flows from that.
But there is a problem. Rules are easy and relationships are hard. That is
why religion is popular. It allows people to do a few things, follow a few rules,
and thus be in good standing with God or the god. But a relationship with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ requires deep commitment on our part, deep trust,
obedience, sometimes radical obedience. Relationships have to be worked at.

They don’t just happen. We have to get through the hard places together. You
have probably been upset with God whether you will admit it or not. I have.
That has to be taken to him and worked out. He has convicted you of sin, as he
has me, and that has to be worked out. A relationship is not keeping a list of
rules, but a living thing.
Another thing. The Old Testament, or better, the Old Covenant
(“testament” is an inaccurate translation), was based on law. God told the
Hebrews that if they would keep his law, they would have certain blessings:
good crops, no barren women, peace from enemies, good health, and so on. The
problem was that no one was able to keep the law perfectly, and it took only one
failure to bring condemnation (Ja. 2.10). And we know the shameful history of
the Israelites’ continual turning away from God for other gods, or no god at all.
In fact, God never intended for the Israelites to keep the law. He gave it, not so
that they would keep it and thus be saved, but to show them that they could not
keep it and needed something else, which turns out to be the grace of God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. So what are we to say about the Old Covenant
and its law?
Just this: everything in the Old Covenant is about the Lord Jesus in one
way or another. The Jewish Sabbath was their day of rest and is a part of the law,
in particular, the Ten Commandments. Some today who insist on the law say
that we should worship on Saturday, not Sunday, because Saturday was the day
that God commanded for rest (actually from sundown Friday till sundown
Saturday). But Jesus Christ is our rest. The Sabbath is only a picture of him (Col.
2.16-17). Why would you want just a picture when you have the real thing, rest
from your works in the finished work of Christ? Would you rather try to earn
salvation or accept it as a free gift?
Or take the Jewish sacrificial system. The law required that sacrifices be
offered daily, continually, without end, for sin and for other matters. But Jesus
Christ is our sin offering. Why would you hold to a picture when you have the
real thing, the real Person (Heb. 9.26, 10.11-12)?
The Tabernacle was the place where God dwelt among his people, and its
building was the law of God, but he was in the Holy of Holies and no one could
go there except the High Priest, and he on only one day of the year, the Day of
Atonement. He was the only Jew who went into the very presence of God. All
the rest were kept out by a white linen fence symbolizing righteousness. Only the
righteous can go into God’s presence, but the Jews were not righteous in
themselves. They were sinners, so the requirement of righteousness kept them
out. Where does God really dwell among his people? In Christ (Jn. 1.14)! He is
our Tabernacle. And what (who!) is our righteousness? Christ (Jer. 23.6, 1 Cor.
1.30)! Why would we want symbols when we have the reality?

Then there were the Jewish festivals, Passover, Unleavened Bread,
Firstfruits, Weeks (Pentecost), Trumpets at the beginning of the new year,
Atonement, and Tabernacles. The Jews were to observe these festivals every year
according to the law. But Christ is our Passover (1 Cor. 5.7); our sinless one (the
meaning of unleavened bread) (2 Cor. 5.21, Heb. 4.15); our Firstfruits (1 Cor.
15.20); our Pentecost (Acts 2.33); our Festival of Trumpets, which speaks of his
coming at the last trumpet and the awakening to a new day of the Jewish people
from their age-long spiritual death when they look on him whom they have
pierced and repent (1 Thess. 4.16-17, Zech. 12.10); our Atonement (Heb. 9.6-14,
particularly vs. 11-12); our Festival of Tabernacles, the celebration of the
ingathering of the harvest (Rev. 14.14-16) by the Lord Jesus himself, as contrasted
with the vintage of the lost (Rev. 14.17-20). Why would we want to observe
festivals when we have the reality, when we are the festal assembly (Heb. 12.23,
the correct translation)? Let us be festive around the Christ in our hearts
individually and in our midst corporately, celebrating him, not some symbol.
All these things were commanded by the law, but look at what Paul says
about this law:
Before faith came, we were kept under law, shut in unto the faith to be
revealed, so the law had become our tutor unto Christ, that we might be
justified by faith. But faith having come, we are no longer under a tutor
(Gal. 3.23-25).
Look at what the writer of Hebrews says: the law is “regulations of flesh
imposed until a time of setting things straight” (9.10). The law was a tutor we are
no longer under. The law was regulations until a time – that time has come. The
law is no more. The law was given for a time, not forever. Its purpose was to lead
us to Christ. It has done that. We have him! We no longer need the law. We are
free, brothers and sisters, free in Christ! Praise him! Don’t be subject again to a
yoke of bondage (Gal. 5.1). I tell you “that if you are circumcised, Christ will
profit you nothing. But I testify again to every man circumcised, that he is
obligated to do the whole law.” (Gal. 5.2-3) If you try to keep the Jewish law as a
Christian, Christ will profit you nothing. “You are cut off from Christ, you who are
justified by law. You have fallen from grace.” (Gal. 5.4) What does it mean here
to have fallen from grace? You tell me. We are not under law. It is irrelevant. You
are free by grace!
Consider this, you who think we must keep the law. The Old Covenant
law says not to commit murder. The Lord Jesus says not even to get angry with a
brother (Mt. 5.22). The Old Covenant law says not to commit adultery. The Lord
Jesus says not even to think about it (Mt. 5.28). If you want to keep the Old

Covenant law, then you are obligated to keep every law the Lord Jesus gave, too.
You can keep from killing someone, but you cannot keep from being angry at
someone. You can keep from committing adultery, but you cannot keep from
thinking about it. The law the Lord Jesus gave is harder to keep than the Old
Covenant law. You cannot keep the law, Old Covenant or New.
Finally, keep in mind that the New Covenant equivalent of the Old
Covenant law is love. The Lord Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you,
that you love one another.” (Jn. 13.34) Paul wrote in Rom. 13.8, “Owe no one
anything but to love one another, for the one who loves the other has fulfilled the
law,” and goes on to say in v. 10, “Love works no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore
love is the fulfilling of the law.” Paul wrote, “For all law is fulfilled in one word,
in ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'” (Gal. 5.14) James adds, “But if you
fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as
yourself,’ you do well.” (3.8) And Paul touched one of the high points of the
Bible when he wrote, “And I show you a yet more surpassing way,” then went
on to pen that magnificent chapter on love, 1 Cor. 13. And isn’t it interesting that
it is the Old Covenant itself that says, “You shall love the LORD your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Dt. 6.5), and, “… you
shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19.18), and that the Lord Jesus quoted
these very verses in answering the question, “Which is the first commandment of
all?” (Mk. 12.28)? In his report of this encounter, Matthew adds that the Lord
Jesus also said, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the
prophets.” (22.40). Love God and love your neighbor and you will keep the law
without knowing it.
Obviously our freedom is not a license to do just anything: “For you were
called in freedom, brothers. Only do not take the freedom as an opportunity for
the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Gal. 5.13) If you love, you will
not hurt others, or God. My beloved brothers and sisters, don’t get hung up on
the law. God is all about his beloved Son, the Lord Jesus, not about the law.
Christianity is Christ, not the law. The law is for those who don’t keep it (1 Tim.
1.9). Love one another. And always remember that the one who is love (1 Jn. 4.8,
16) lives in you and is your very life. This freedom to love is mega grace!
Under grace we are free from the bondage of sin because we are not trying
in self-effort to be good. We are walking in the Spirit (Gal. 5.16-25). We have
already quoted the last half of Rom. 6.14. Here is the whole verse: “For sin will
not lord it over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.” Sin will not lord
it over you.
As we walk with the Lord, we find that grace abounds. In Rom. 5.20 Paul
writes, “For where sin increased grace superabounded.” Grace superabounding
is mega grace! Because he wrote that, apparently some said that we should sin

more so that grace could abound more (Rom. 6.1). Makes sense, doesn’t it? Ha!
That is what is called presumption. If you sin, God will forgive you, but if
because of that you think you can sin any time you want to and God will forgive
you, you are presuming on the grace of God and putting yourself into a very
dangerous position. God will deal with such presumption. You do not want to
go there. In rather strong fashion Paul said of such a thought, “Let it not be! How
can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Rom. 6.2) The whole point is not that you
can do anything you please, but that there is plenty of grace to go around for
whatever the need may be. God’s grace is not limited. It is infinite.
This brings us to one of the Bible’s great statements about grace, found in
2 Cor. 12.9. Paul had been describing some of the wonderful spiritual experiences
he had had, experiences apparently beyond what virtually any other person had
had, with few if any exceptions (see Num. 12.6-8). Having had such experiences,
Paul would have had great temptation to be proud. Because of that God gave
him what Paul calls “a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to strike me, that I
might not be puffed up with pride.” (2 Cor. 12.7) In v. 8 Paul says that he asked
the Lord three times that the thorn might leave him, but God’s reply, in v. 9, was,
“My grace is sufficient for you….” Paul would have to bear the thorn and God’s
grace would be sufficient for the trial. We do not know what Paul’s thorn was. I
am satisfied myself that it was severe eye trouble (see Gal. 4.15, 6.11), but there is
no way to be sure. That is not the point though. The point is that whatever the
difficulty, God’s grace is sufficient. What is your thorn? God’s grace is sufficient.
It is mega grace. It will never run out.
There are so many other aspects of grace that we could emphasize. Let us
note just one more along the lines we have been considering. Heb. 4.16 says,
“Therefore let us come with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive
mercy and find grace for timely help.” God’s throne is a throne of grace. If we
were to come before a human king to ask some favor, perhaps we would be
expected to bow down to his majesty (huh!), even to grovel. We might be
expected to say great things about him in order to get on his good side (see Acts
24.2-3). We might have to bring him some gift to get something in return. Very
few if any human kings have thrones of grace. But at God’s throne, though we
would surely bow down, it would be in glad worship of the one who has given
his all for us, the one who serves his people rather than exploiting them. And
what can we bring to God to get something out of him? Nothing. Nothing except
the fact that we are in Christ who saved us and qualified us to appear before this
throne. As the great hymn “Rock of Ages” says, “In my hand no price I bring,
Simply to your cross I cling.” We have nothing God needs, and the only thing we
have that he wants is ourselves with our love for him. Do you have great needs?
Go to the throne of grace. Pour out your heart to the one who loves you so much

that he gave his only Son to die for you. His throne is a throne of grace, of mega
grace.
One matter which poses the need of timely help for all of us is temptation.
Satan knows each one of us well and knows exactly how to tempt us to sin. He
knows our weaknesses. How do we overcome temptation? Again, it is by the
power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. When temptation comes we turn to him and
yield to him. One verse of Scripture that is a great help in temptation is 1 Cor.
10.13: “No temptation has taken you except what is common to man, but God is
faithful, who will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but will
with the temptation also make a way of escape that you may be able to endure.”
What is the way of escape? “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; The
righteous runs into it and is set on high.” (Prov. 18.10 mg.) Run to the Lord.
James has a very helpful passage on temptation. In 4.1-8 he says that the
source of our temptations is our desire for pleasures. He has harsh words for
those who pursue the pleasures of the world instead of the Lord, and these can
be Christians as well as the lost. James gives a word that is of such great help in
strong temptation: “But he gives a greater grace.” He goes on to say not to be
proud, to submit to God, to resist the devil (and he will flee from you), to draw
near to God (and he will draw near to you). He gives a greater grace! We saw mega
(great) grace in Acts 4.33. We saw mega-er grace above, and now we see mega-er
grace again. Greater grace! Is God’s ordinary grace not enough? As if there were
such a thing as ordinary grace! Then he has a greater grace. Is his mega grace not
enough? Then he has a mega-er grace. Of course, all grace is the same with the
infinite God, but you see the point: you will not experience anything that God’s
grace is not sufficient for. If it calls for a greater grace, he has a greater grace.
Praise him! Mega-er!
Another aspect of our walk with God is that there are works for us to do.
We were dealing with Eph. 2.1-9 in the last chapter. Let’s continue by looking at
v. 10: “For you are [God’s] doing, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which
God prepared beforehand that you should walk in them.” Yes, God saved you
for your own sake, because he loves you, but he also had a larger purpose in
mind. We all need to be a part of something bigger than ourselves to have a
meaningful life. We were not made to live for ourselves and will find no lasting
satisfaction in doing so. We were made to live for God and he has work for us to
do.
What is this work? That is a matter of the will of God for each individual.
As you walk with the Lord, study his word, fellowship with his people, and avail
yourself of good teaching, you will grow in your relationship with him and will
begin to have leadings from him as to what you should be doing. And spend

time in prayer, seeking the will of God for your life. In his own time and way he
will make it known.
An important passage of Scripture in this regard is Rom 12.1-2: “I urge
you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritually logical worship. And
do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the
mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, the good and acceptable and
perfect.” In the Old Testament the Jews were commanded by God to offer
sacrifices to him for various reasons. Christ is our offering for sin and there is
nothing we can do in that regard – the finished work of Christ. Another of the
offerings was the whole burnt offering, which symbolized complete surrender to
the Lord, a life lived wholly for him. The Lord Jesus was obviously a whole burnt
offering, and the “living sacrifice” that Paul speaks of in Rom. 12.1 answers to the
whole burnt offering. You are to present your whole self and life to God to be
lived for him by his living in you. You are to be a “living sacrifice,” not a slain
one, although he does call some to die for him.
Then you are to avoid being conformed to this age, the time in which we
live as it involves the world. All of us think as the world thinks to some extent,
for we are saturated in it by our friends, our entertainment and news media, our
schools and jobs, virtually everything – even the checkout line in the
supermarket! The way to separate oneself from this way of thinking is not to
separate oneself physically from the world, for the world is inside all of us, but to
have the mind renewed. That is, as you study the Scriptures, deliberately take
note of what it says is truth and contrast that with what the world says.
Memorize passages that give you a new way of thinking. Think on them and
pray over them. Read Phil. 4.8 and follow its instruction. As the Holy Spirit
works in you through this approach you will find your thinking being renewed
and your life being transformed as a result. One of the very best passages in this
connection is Phil. 2.5-11. Vs. 5 begins, “Have this way of thinking in you which
also was in Christ Jesus….” Read the rest of it by yourself. Read it prayerfully
before God.
These matters of what to do after salvation, how to live, how to be God’s
person, will unfold in your life as you walk with him. He has a plan for you and
he will make it known. That is part of his mega grace.
Mega grace!

26
Notes

1There are many good books on this subject of Rom. 6-8. Four that are excellent
are Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life, Norman Grubb, God Unlimited, Ian
Thomas, The Saving Life of Christ, and Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian’s
Secret of a Happy Life.
2
I located this quote at the following web site:
http://www.pilgrimscribblings.com/2008/02/resident-boss.html

A Word of Exhortation

We noted above that we can presume on the grace of God, presuming that
he will forgive us, so it is acceptable for us to sin. “May it never be!” writes Paul
(Rom. 6.1-2). There are other exhortations in Scripture about how we should or
should not respond to the grace of God. In 2 Cor. 6.1 Paul writes that we are not
to receive the grace of God in vain, and then he quotes Is. 49.8 from the Greek
version of the Old Testament: “At an acceptable time I listened to you and on a
day of salvation I helped you.” That is, when we receive the grace of God, we are
to realize that we need to walk in it now, to take advantage of what God is
offering now, not putting it off. Now is the time. Today is the day. We have no
promise of tomorrow. We have no promise of the next second! God’s grace is
intended to save us and then to enable us to walk with the Lord, but we must
accept it by faith for it to do its intended work. Do not receive the grace of God in
vain, that is, to no purpose. Let it fulfill its purpose.
In Eph. 3.23 Paul writes of “the stewardship of the grace of God.” Do you
realize that you have a stewardship over everything you have (it is all God’s
gift), that you are expected to care for it and use it wisely under the direction of
the Holy Spirit? We always think of money when the word stewardship comes
up, and that is true, but we are also stewards of the grace of God. What are you
doing with the grace you have received? Are you letting it enable you to walk
with God and to grow in him? Are you letting it make you usable to God in
ministering to others? We are reminded of the slaves who received five, two, and
one talent (a measure of money) from their master when he was about to go
away for a while. When he returned, he commended the first two for investing
his money and doubling it. They heard him say, “Well done.” But when the last
one confessed that he was afraid he would lose his talent and had hidden it in

the ground, the master condemned him for not using the talent: “Evil and lazy
slave…. Take from him the talent and give it to the one having the ten talents.”
What are you doing with the grace God has given you?
Heb. 10.29 conveys a strong warning: “How much greater punishment do
you think he deserves who has trampled under foot the Son of God and has
considered as common the blood of the covenant by which he was made holy,
and has insulted the Spirit of grace?” The writer is dealing with those who go on
sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth (v. 26). So doing is
trampling under foot the Lord Jesus. It is considering his precious blood as a
common thing with no value, though that blood made them holy (that is, set
apart for God). It is insulting the Spirit of grace. Willfully sinning after receiving
grace from the Spirit of grace is insulting him, as well as the Son of God and his
blood. Do not treat with contempt the grace of God by sinning willfully. That is a
very dangerous course to take. There is severe punishment for it. What might
that punishment be? I do not know and I do not want to find out. “There is a sin
unto death.” (1 Jn. 5.16) Treat the grace of God with great reverence and caution.
Along this same line is the warning of Eph. 4.30: “And do not grieve the
Holy Spirit of God….” In v. 29 Paul wrote that our words should give grace to
those who hear, and then he writes that we should not grieve the Spirit. He is the
Spirit of grace, as we just saw in Heb. 10.29, and if our words are not conveying
the grace of the one who lives within us, we are grieving him. The follower of
Christ should study all of Eph. 4.17-5.5 in this connection.
Paul writes in 1 Thess. 5.19, “Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise
prophetic gifts, but test all things; hold fast the good; abstain from every
appearance of evil.” The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of grace, as we have just seen,
and he is the giver of spiritual gifts, charisma (see the last paragraph but one of
the chapter, “The God of All Grace”). He is saying here in 1 Thessalonians that
we are not to quench the Spirit of grace by despising the spiritual gifts he gives.
Nonetheless we are to test prophecies, holding fast the good and doing away
with the bad, even an appearance of evil. Do not insult, grieve, or quench the
Spirit of grace.
Heb. 12.14-16 says,
Pursue peace with all people and the holiness without which no
one will see the Lord, seeing to it that no one falling short of the grace of
God, no root of bitterness springing up, causes trouble and by it many are
defiled, that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who for one
meal sold his birthright.

What is it to fall short of the grace of God? His grace is available to all. You who
are aware of it and have tasted its goodness, do not do anything that would
cause you not to gain all it holds forth. Indeed, if you fall short of the grace of
God, not only will you be hurt, but many may be defiled. No one lives to himself.
We all have influence on others. If you fall short of the grace of God, you may
drag others down with you. How important it is to receive with great care all
that God gives.
This thought of not falling short of the grace of God leads to the positive
side: “continue in the grace of God.” (Acts 13.43) You have come into the grace of
God. Don’t stop. Keep at it. Or as 2 Pt. 3.18 says, “Grow in grace.” We are born
into the family of God when we are born again. A newborn is a baby. He must
grow up to achieve his full potential. Growth takes time and nourishment and
exercise. See to it that you spend time reading and studying the word of God,
talking with God (not just to him), bringing thanksgiving and praise and worship
into prayer (not just requests), fellowshipping with his people, and sitting under
the teaching of godly men who know the Lord and the Scriptures. Put into
practice what you learn: don’t be just a hearer of the word, but a doer of it (Ja.
1.22-25). “Belief without works is dead.” (Ja. 2.17)
There is one final word in this exhortation. Its importance is underlined by
the fact that it is stated in both James and 1 Peter. Both are quoting Prov. 3.34
from the Greek version of the Old Testament: “God resists the proud, but gives
grace to the humble.” We all stand in great need of grace. The only way to get it
is to admit our need humbly and receive it by faith from the Lord who supplies it
abundantly. If we are too proud to admit our need, or if we are proud of how far
we have come in the Lord, we will see the supply of grace dry up. Pride is
perhaps the spiritually deadliest reality there is. How could it be otherwise when
God resists the proud? Do you want God to resist you? Then be proud. But you
do not want that. You want God to bless you. Be humble before him. He has an
unending supply of grace for the humble.

Mega grace!

What Makes it All Work?

One of my pet peeves as I was growing up and maturing was that many
Christian speakers told us what we should do, but never told us how. The “how”
is where the rubber meets the road, as they say. There is one Christian message

that I have heard about all my life as the key to victorious living, but it has never
worked for me and I have yet to figure out what makes it work. I see it in the
Scriptures and believe it, but it has made no difference to me, so far as I can tell. I
won’t go into what it is (that is not my purpose here), but just express my
frustration with the “how.”
There is a “how” to grace, and I will try to deal with it here. I say try
because even though I may be able to express what the “how” is, it still takes the
work of the Lord to make it real. One of my very favorite writers has written that
every genuine revelation of God comes through suffering. That is, God himself
must work it into our lives, not just into our heads, through the difficulties of life.
I am sure you have had the experience of knowing some spiritual truth
intellectually and thinking that you really knew it and had it in your life, and
then have God reveal it to you inwardly. It can be as though it explodes into your
life: Oh! Now I see. It has become not just knowledge, but LIFE! What I am about
to write is knowledge. I pray that God will reveal it to your heart and work it
into your life (and mine) and make it life to you.
What makes grace work (is that a contradiction?) is the cross. The cross is
the means by which everything of God comes to us. That is because everything
of God is spiritual, heavenly, and everything of us is natural, that is, what we are
born with by our physical birth. This is called flesh in the Bible (not physical
flesh, but self, what we are apart from God). It is important to see that even
though we have been born again (the new birth is spiritual) we still have the
flesh operating in us. One of the key verses in all the Bible is Jn. 6.63: “The flesh
profits nothing.” Another is Rom. 7.18: “For I know that in me, that is, in my
flesh, dwells no good thing.” That is, nothing of the flesh is of any use to God,
and indeed, it is opposed to God. One of the great mistakes we make as
Christians, sincerely devoted to God, is to try to serve him with our natural
abilities. We might call this “good flesh,” but it is still flesh and must be dealt
with. If the flesh is not crucified, it will destroy us. I do not mean that we will be
eternally lost, but that our service to God will be of little use and our own
Christian experience will be of defeat, not of victory. I know. I have done it.
We need to make a distinction between the Lord’s cross and ours. We said
that the cross is the means by which everything of God comes to us. Forgiveness
of sins and new birth come to us through the cross of Christ, as does our
crucifixion with him by which the old man is put to death. We must take up our
cross, said the Lord in Mt. 16.24, Mk. 8.34, and Lk. 9.23 and 14.27. We will deal
with the nature of this cross just below, but let me make a vital statement at this
point. Please note. In this life the cross is the next thing to the ultimate grace of
God. Why? Because it crucifies that which would destroy us. The flesh must be
crucified. Someone has written that the greatest trouble in the church comes not

from sin, but from uncrucified flesh. Please understand that the flesh will not die
willingly and will do anything to stay off the cross, including trying to serve
God.
In Mk. 8.34 the Lord Jesus says, “If anyone wishes to come after me, let
him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” It is often thought that
this cross-bearing is just enduring some difficulty in life: “Oh, that’s just a cross I
have to bear.” Make no mistake about cross-bearing. The cross has one and only
one purpose: it is something one dies on. One’s cross is not just something one
must endure, though there may be an ongoing trial involved, but something to
die on, that is, that the flesh must be crucified on. God applies the cross to our
flesh to put it to death so that his life may be released in us.
The Lord’s word that one is to deny himself and follow him shows us the
definition of the cross that we take up. It is full submission to the lordship of
Christ and the will of God, denying self where our own will conflicts with that of
the Lord. The cross may touch us deeply in the matter of the will of God for our
lives or for a particular matter. We always hear of people who are afraid to yield
wholly to God because they think he will send them to Africa or somewhere as a
missionary. In that case the will of God does require denial of self. In all
likelihood the Lord will not send a given person to Africa or somewhere, but he
may. It may involve life’s marriage partner, or the lack of one, or vocation, or
some simple little thing that has no real importance in itself, but that is used by
God to reveal the flesh and to touch it. Self denial and obedience in these
situations are the will of God and are taking up the cross. The flesh is crucified.
Christ is formed within a bit more.
The greatest example of this self-denial and submission to God’s will is
the Lord Jesus himself. As he faced the prospect of the cross in the Garden of
Gethsemane he prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, but
not my will, but yours be done.” (Lk. 22.42, see Mt. 26.39, Mk. 14.35-36) It was
not the will of the man Jesus to die on the cross, but he denied himself and
submitted to the will of his Father. He is the example for us, and we will never
have to submit to anything like what he faced in the cross.
The cross may also come in all kinds of difficulties, from life’s tediums to
its greatest tragedies and hardships, but its purpose is not to make us suffer
needlessly, but to put the flesh to death. The Lord Jesus bore the cross for a short
time, but the bearing was not the point. The dying was the point, and so it is with us.
But out of that death of the Lord Jesus came resurrection, life indestructible, and
salvation available to all, and this is why God applies our cross to us. He wants
us to experience resurrection life, but the only way to resurrection is death. The
cross is God’s method of putting to death what is of the natural, of the flesh, so
that his resurrection life may be released in its place.

We have emphasized the trials that we experience in life. These trials
come our way for the purpose of putting to death the flesh and forming Christ in
us. We have a choice of submitting to God in these difficulties, which is his will
for us, or resisting him and trying to get a way out of the trial. Sometimes we
even become upset with God, thinking that his job is to get us out of our trials.
That is not true. His job is to conform us to the image of his Son. As we submit to
his lordship, his will, in these situations, the cross does its work. We decrease.
Christ increases.
A little historical background will help to make clear the impact of these
words of the Lord on the early readers of Mark’s gospel. Nero was Emperor of
Rome from A.D. 54-68. He was tyrannical and apparently insane, even
murdering his own mother to protect his rule. In A.D. 64 Rome was largely
destroyed by fire. Rumor had it that Nero was responsible, and Seutonius, an
ancient historian, states outright that he was. Nero began to fear for his own
safety as Emperor, so he blamed the Christians for the fire and launched a
persecution of them. Tacitus, a Roman historian who lived about A.D. 55-120,
writes,
A great crowd of Christians was convicted both of arson and of hatred of
the human race. Not only were they put to death, but put to death with
insult, in that they were either dressed in the skins of beasts to perish by
the worrying of dogs, or put on crosses or set on fire; and when daylight
failed they were burnt as lights for the night.1
This quotation makes the words of the Lord more understandable. The
Roman Christians were thinking of death, not life’s hardships, when they saw or
remembered Christian brothers and sisters hanging on crosses, and then read in
Mark’s gospel the Lord’s statement, “Let him … take up his cross and follow
me.” To be a disciple in Mark’s world was a matter of life and death.
The teaching that discipleship is like messiahship is at the very heart of
the gospel. Every Christian must follow his Lord to the cross. Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, who died in a Nazi concentration camp, expresses this concept in
these words:
If our Christianity has ceased to be serious about discipleship, if we have
watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly
demands and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian
existence, then we cannot help regarding the cross as an ordinary
everyday calamity, as one of the trials and tribulations of life. We have
forgotten that the cross means rejection and shame as well as suffering.

The Psalmist was lamenting that he was despised and rejected of men,
and that is an essential quality of the suffering of the cross. But this notion
has ceased to be intelligible to a Christianity which can no longer see any
difference between an ordinary human being and a life committed to
Christ. The cross means sharing the suffering of Christ to the last and to
the fullest. Only a man thus totally committed in discipleship can
experience the meaning of the cross….
The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every
man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world.
It is the dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with
Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ
in union with his death – we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins;
the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life,
but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When
Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.2
Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and
happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ
calls a man, he bids him come and die. How does this dying on the cross with the
Lord Jesus find practical expression? We have already touched on it. We all have
a flesh nature, a self nature, that is in rebellion against God. Even after the new
birth we find this desire to go our own way within us. God’s means of dealing
with this nature is to put it to death by the application of the cross. He is not
interested in improving our flesh, but in replacing it with his own resurrection
life, and he does this by means of the cross. The hardships of life, the sufferings
that we endure, of any kind, are not accidents, but are the dealing of God with
our flesh. Most of us immediately try to find some way out of a trial. We have the
idea that God’s main job is to get us out of trouble and to make us comfortable
and happy. No, God’s purpose is to use that trouble to touch our flesh, to put it
to death. Our response to trial should not be to try to squirm out, but to turn to
the Lord and submit to him in the trial, asking him to let this difficulty
accomplish its purpose in us. This submission is the taking up of the cross.
The marvelous thing about this working of the cross is that it is not for its
own sake, just to work death to our flesh. It is to release the life of God. We said
above that the dying is the point of the cross, but it actually goes one step further.
Resurrection life is the point. God is not just trying to put us to death for its own
sake. That crucifixion of the flesh is the pathway to resurrection life. If we are
born again, we have the life of God in us, but that life is encased in a husk of
flesh, just as a seed is encased in a husk. Only when a seed falls into the ground

and dies (it is the husk that dies) does the life in it come forth and produce fruit
(Jn. 12.24). This is God’s principle of producing life. Resurrection life comes out
of death. So it is with the Christian. The life of God is within us, but the husk of
flesh must be put to death so that the life may be released to produce its harvest.
The Lord Jesus puts it this way in Mk. 8.34-35:
If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his
cross and follow me. For the one who wishes to save his soul-life will lose
it, but the one who wishes to lose his soul-life for my sake and the gospel’s
will save it.
This soul-life is the natural life we are born with, the flesh nature, the husk of
flesh. If we try to hold on to this, we will lose even what little we have, namely,
this natural life. If we are willing to let go of our natural lives and let God apply
the cross to them, we will find in the end that we have saved them, raised up
from death in resurrection life, and in the process the life of God will have been
released in us, producing an abundant harvest of his fruit in our lives.
This crucifying of the flesh is a lifelong process. We gain victory over the
flesh in practical experience little by little. Rom. 6-8 is quite clear that we have died
already with Christ, but that death has to be appropriated and worked out in us,
and that is the process.
Another way of looking at this issue is found in Rom. 8.28-29:
But we know that all things work together for good for those who love
God, for those called according to purpose. For those whom he foreknew
he also predestined to conformity with the image of his Son….
These verses show the positive side of the crucifixion of the flesh. That
crucifixion is not what God is really after. It is only a means to an end. That end
is conformity to the image of Christ, the forming of Christ within us (Gal. 4.19),
the increasing of our capacity for Christ by the removal of the flesh. John the
Baptist said, “That one must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn. 3.30).
The key to this matter is really our way of looking at it. If we see hardship
only as a pain we have to endure, or as something God ought to take away, we
will never get the good out of it and God will have to keep taking us around that
mountain again and again until we do get it. But if we can recognize what is
going on and yield to God in the trial, not trying to get God to get us out of it, but
accepting what he is trying to accomplish in it, we will begin to progress. There
will be a gradual, probably, but continuing crucifixion of the flesh and forming of
Christ within.

One more chapter that I see as one of the high points in Scripture as to
how God works is 2 Cor. 4. Beginning at v. 7 (and elsewhere in 2 Corinthians)
Paul refers repeatedly to the death he experiences daily (see Lk. 9.23 – die daily –
and Rom. 8.36) and says that he is always carrying around in the body the death
of the Lord Jesus (v. 10), always being delivered to death (v. 11). The result: “So
death works in us, but life in you.” (v. 12) The death of the flesh that we
experience as we yield to the working of the cross produces the life of God in us,
and it is not just for us, as we usually think in our self-centeredness, but that life
may work in others. We experience the death, but we gain resurrection life from
that death and it ministers to those around us. That is the secret to ministry: die
daily.
I wrote above in the fourth paragraph of this chapter that the cross is the
next thing to the ultimate grace of God. The ultimate grace is that life of God,
resurrection life, that comes out of the dying, and especially as that life ministers
to others, even if we sense only the dying. It is not just for us. It makes us for
others.
What does all this have to do with grace? Let us look again at 2 Cor. 12.1-

I will not quote the entire passage, but it would be helpful for you to read it
now. Paul tells about his being caught up to the third heaven, to paradise, and
having visions and revelations and hearing inexpressible words. These
experiences could make him very proud. Very, very proud. So, Paul says, God
gave him a thorn in the flesh to keep him from being filled with pride. He even
says that this thorn was a messenger of Satan. He says that he asked God three
times to remove it. God’s answer was, “My grace is sufficient for you” (v. 9). The
point is that whatever God may do in our lives to crucify the flesh that would
destroy us, he will also give sufficient grace to endure the trial and to gain what
God is after in the trial.
And more: the trial itself is an expression of grace, for it is crucifying what
would destroy us, as we just said. When we are sick and need medicine or
surgery, we do not want to taste bitter medicine or undergo the pain of surgery,
but those treatments are grace. Though they may hurt, they will make us well or
even save our lives. I have heard of people who said that cancer was the best
thing that ever happened to them because it turned them to God. Notice: even
the cancer, and not just the cure, can be grace if it drives one deeper into the
Lord. That is mega grace. Mega grace applies the cross to the flesh and saves us
from ourselves, our greatest enemy.

Mega grace!

1Matthew Black, ed., Peake’s Commentary on the Bible, London: Thomas Nelson
and Sons Ltd., 1963, 1054.
2Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, New York: Macmillan, 1963, 98-99.

What About Works and Rewards?

One of the most important doctrines of the Christian faith is that of
justification by grace through faith alone, with no reference to works.
Christianity would not be Christianity without it, but just another religion telling
people to do such and such to be saved. The wonderful truth about our God is
that he is the God of all grace who saves us because he loves us if we will receive
by faith what he has provided for us. There is absolutely nothing you can do
about your salvation except to accept it by faith. We hear of the finished work of
Christ. This is what that is referring to. He has done all the work necessary to
provide salvation.
But then we read in the Bible of works and rewards. Just what is that all
about? One of the most frequently repeated statements in the Bible is this one
that says we will be repaid for our works, whether they are good or bad. There
are at least six verses in the Old Testament that say this or ask a question about it
and at least eleven in the New Testament. We will quote one Old Testament
verse and list the others. Then we will turn to the New Testament.
Jer. 17.10 mg. reads,
I, the LORD, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give to each man according to his ways,
According the fruit of his deeds.
Other verses are 2 Sam. 3.39, Ps. 28.4, 62.12, Prov. 24.12, and Eccl. 12.14.
In Mt. 16.27 the Lord Jesus says, “For the Son of Man will come in the
glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will repay each one according to
his work.” Taken by itself, this statement sounds as though the Lord means that
we will be saved or lost according to our works. This thought continues with
Paul in Rom. 2.6 and 2 Tim. 4.14 when he quotes Ps. 62.12 and Prov. 24.12:
“[God] will repay each one according to his works.” Then we come to 1 Cor.
3.10-15 and we begin to see what is being taught. Paul says that he has laid a
foundation for the church and that foundation is Jesus Christ. Then he says that
whatever each Christian builds on that foundation will one day be tried by fire. If

our works amount to wood, hay, and straw, they will be burned up, but if they
amount to gold silver, and precious stones, they will be proved by the fire. Those
whose works are proved will receive a reward. Then v. 15 really answers our
question: “If any man’s work be burned, he will suffer loss, but he will be saved,
but so as through fire.” So we see that we are dealing with rewards for the Lord’s
people according to their works in this life, not with whether or not one is saved
or lost. One is saved by grace through faith alone. One is rewarded according to
his works.
Paul continues in 2 Cor. 5.10 to tell us that “we must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive back the things done through
the body, according to the things he has done, whether good or bad.” He is
writing to Christians and is telling them there are rewards in the coming
kingdom for the Lord’s people, according to their works. It should be very
sobering to us to know that we as Christians will have to appear before the
judgment seat of Christ, not to be saved or lost, for that is settled, but to give
account for what we have done with the mega grace he has given us in this life.
Also very sobering is Peter’s word in 1 Pt. 1.17-19:
And if you call Father the one who judges without partiality
according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time
of your stay [on earth], knowing that you were redeemed not with
corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your futile conduct handed
down from your fathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb
unblemished and spotless – of Christ.
This word does not mean that we are to be afraid of God as though he were an
angry God just hoping we will do something wrong so he can punish us. Rather
it refers to the fear of God, that awareness of what God can do to wrongdoers,
but more especially to the fear of hurting God by sinning against him because we
love him, as we would fear to hurt someone in our family whom we love. And it
refers to the reverence in which we hold God and the things of God. We have
dealt with Heb. 10.29 in a different context, but it applies here also: “How much
greater punishment do you think he deserves who has trampled under foot the
Son of God and has considered as common the blood of the covenant by which
he was made holy, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?” Peter bases his
exhortation on the fact that we have been redeemed with something of the
highest level of holiness, the precious blood of Christ, shed because of what we
have done. How can we treat such high holiness lightly or even with contempt?
Live your life, not afraid of God, but in holy fear that you will trample on
something holy. God give us grace indeed.

In Rev. 2.23 we read Christ’s warning to the church in Thyatira: “… and
all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts [see
Jer. 17.10, quoted above], and I will give to you, each one, according to your
works.” You are aware that the seven churches in Asia symbolize the entire
church, seven being a number of completeness, and that the Lord Jesus is
walking among these churches looking for the testimony of Jesus. He finds no
fault with only two churches, and he fully commends only one. All of them that
he finds fault with are warned of various judgments if they do not repent and
turn away from their evil deeds. This is his word to Thyatira, and thus to all in
the church: “… and I will give to you, each one, according to your works.”
In Rev. 20.12-13 we read of the great white throne judgment of God after
the millennial reign of Christ and the final rebellion of Satan and his followers:
And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the
throne, and books were opened, and another book was opened, which is
the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things written in the
books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead who were
in it, and death and hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they
were judged, each one, according to their works.
These people are not Christians, for all Christians will have been either still living
at the beginning of or raised from the dead before the millennial reign of Christ.
This verse shows us that the lost as well as the saved will be judged, and
punished according to their works. The punishment will fit the crime, we might
say.
The final reference to this subject in Scripture is found in Rev. 22.12:
“Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me, to repay each one as
his work is.” When the Lord Jesus says he is coming quickly, he does not so
much mean that he is coming soon, though other passages indicate that, but that
when he does come, whenever it may be, it will be lightning fast with no
warning. There will be no time to get ready when it happens. You are ready or
not and that is it. Be wise – make sure you are ready now, for even if the Lord
does not come in our lifetime, we will all die, which amounts to the same thing.
We will have to face the Lord as we are at that moment. I do not mean that if we
happen to sin just before we die, we will be in trouble, and if not we will not be,
but that how we have lived our lives up to that point is what matters. Remember,
we are not dealing with salvation, but with reward. Watch and pray. Be ready at
every moment.
So we see that Christians are forgiven for their sins and saved by the free
grace of God to those who have faith, but then there are rewards for our works in

this life. Just what does the reward consist of? We surely do not know entirely,
for there are depths in God that we have no idea of, but the Scriptures do tell us
something about rewards. We read of the crown of righteousness, laid up for
Paul because he had fought the good fight, finished the course, and kept the faith
(2 Tim. 4.7-8); the crown of life, waiting for the man who perseveres under trial
and loves the Lord (Ja. 1.12), and who is faithful unto death (Rev. 2.10); and the
unfading crown of glory, prepared for elders who shepherd the flock as servants
and examples (1 Pt. 5.1-4). Wonderful rewards, these, especially if they are to be
cast before the throne in worship and thanksgiving. What greater reward than to
have something to give to the Lord in gratitude for all he has done for us? Well –
there is a greater reward.
In 2 Cor. 11.2 Paul writes, “I am jealous for you with God’s jealousy, for I
betrothed you to one husband to present you a pure virgin to Christ.” In New
Testament times betrothal was similar to our engagement, but it was more
legally binding. If a betrothed couple ended the betrothal, it was considered a
divorce even though they had not been married or lived together. We see an
example in Joseph when “he decided to divorce [Mary] quietly” when she
became pregnant after their betrothal, but before their marriage. Of course, the
Lord intervened in this case, telling Joseph in a dream that he should marry
Mary because her baby was of the Holy Spirit.
The point is that we have been betrothed to Christ. We are to become his
bride and his wife. We should have the same desire as Paul to be presented to
Christ a pure virgin. One of the more wonderful passages of Scripture is Rev.
19.6-9:
And I heard something like a voice of a great multitude and something
like a voice of many waters and something like a voice of strong thunders
saying, “Hallelujah, for the Lord our God the almighty reigns. Let us
rejoice and be glad and give the glory to him, for the marriage of the little
Lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. And it was given to
her that she might clothe herself in fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine
linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.” And he said to me, “Write,
‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the little
Lamb.’”
This great announcement comes at the end of this age when Christ is about to
return. We see that those who have made themselves ready by their righteous
deeds in this life are allowed to clothe themselves with the wedding garment for
the marriage supper as the corporate wife of the Lamb. Then she will reign with

him as the wife of the King for a thousand years, and then into eternity. Can we
imagine a more intimate and beautiful picture? Lord, hasten the day!
Mt. 22.1-14 tells the story of a marriage feast given by a king for his son.
When the invited guests would not come, the king said they were not worthy
and sent his slaves out to bring in anyone they could find, evil or good, and the
wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in he saw one man
not wearing a wedding garment, and he asked him, “Friend, how did you enter
here when you did not have a wedding garment?” The man was speechless and
the king had him thrown out with harsh words, “When you have bound him
foot and hand throw him out into the outer darkness.” I believe Jesus spoke the
next words himself, rather than the king in the story: “There will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth there, for many are called, but few chosen.”
There is much dispute about the meaning of this story with regard to the
man who did not have a wedding garment. Many say that he was not a saved
man at all, but was found to be an interloper, as with the weeds and wheat in the
parable of the Lord Jesus. If this is true, the outer darkness the man in Mt. 22.1-14
was cast into was hell, but I do not believe that is true. At the end the weeds in
the kingdom will be separated from the wheat. This seems to me to confuse two
different periods. The separation of saved and lost (wheat and weeds) occurs at
the very coming of Christ (Rev. 14.14-20, where the saved are harvested and the
lost, the grapes, are picked and thrown into the winepress of the wrath of God).
But the wedding feast occurs in the kingdom on earth after Jesus has touched
earth and established his millennial rule over the earth. No unsaved person
could be there. Those who are alive but lost at the return of Christ are cast into
hell at that point (Mt. 25.41, where the lost, the goats, are not nations, but
individual Gentiles). The outer darkness the man with no wedding garment was
cast into was the darkness outside the wedding hall, not hell.
Some might object that a saved person could not be weeping and
gnashing his teeth at the return of Christ. Oh? We looked at 1 Cor. 3.15 earlier in
this chapter. Let’s quote it again: “If any man’s work be burned, he will suffer loss,
but he will be saved, but so as through fire” (emphasis mine). What does it mean
that a Christian, absolutely stated here as saved, will suffer loss? It means he will
lose something in the millennial kingdom of God on earth by not having woven
his wedding garment. He will lose the opportunity of sharing in the marriage
feast of the little Lamb and of reigning with him in the millennium as his wife.
He will miss that most wonderful of blessings in that age: the highest intimacy
with Christ. I believe there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth at that
realization. This is the millennial kingdom. It is in Rev. 21.4, after the
millennium, that all tears are wiped away. We are trained now by reigning over

our circumstances and by carrying out our assignments from the Lord. Those
who do not accept this discipline will suffer loss in the kingdom.
That, I believe, is the primary reward of those who weave their wedding
garments in this age by their righteous deeds. And do not forget that regarding
the crowns of righteousness, life, and glory mentioned above, the Lord Jesus
said, “Hold fast what you have that no one take your crown.” (Rev. 3.11) Those
crowns can be lost (compare 2 Sam. 1.10). Watch and pray, that “you may be
counted worthy of the kingdom of God.” (2 Thess. 1.5; see also Lk. 20.35)
Some of you will be worried at what has just been dealt with. You will
think that you could never be good enough to gain such a reward. You are
absolutely right. But remember, this work is about mega grace. You cannot live
well as a Christian and attain the kingdom and be a part of the wife of the Lamb
any more than you could save yourself. It is all by grace. You will not get there
on your own. Christ will get you there if that is your genuine desire and you live
in obedience to him, knowing that you will have failures along the way, but
knowing also that the God of all grace will forgive the failures, even use them for
our good, and knowing that you are not trusting in your efforts to get there, but
in his grace and almighty power. You have to try. You cannot just sit there and
wait for God to pick you up and move you. But you do not trust in your trying,
but in his coming into your trying and making up for your weakness. That is
mega grace.
In Mt. 20.1-16 the Lord Jesus told a parable that expresses this truth better
than anyone else could ever say it. The parable is about the landowner who went
out at 6 a.m. to hire laborers and promised those hired a denarius (the usual
wage for a day laborer) for their day’s work. Then he went out at 9 a.m., at noon,
and at 3 p.m. and hired others, telling them he would pay them what was right.
At 5 p.m. he went out again and hired more. At 6 p.m. the laborers were paid,
from the last hired to the first. The last, who worked one hour, received a
denarius, what the landowner had promised those hired at 6 a.m., so those latter
supposed he would give them more. But when they were paid they got the
denarius they were promised. Then they complained about their treatment. The
landowner said to one of them, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not
agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go. But I wish to give to
the last as also to you. Or is it not permitted me to do what I wish with what is
mine? Or is your eye evil because I am good?” Jesus closed the story with the
words, “So the last will be first, and the first, last.”
What is the point of the story? It is that yes, we are called on to work for
our reward after we have been saved by grace through faith with no works of
our own, but when the end of this age comes and the Lord passes out the
rewards, we will find that the entirety of our lives has been lived by grace. If you

live to be a hundred and work for God fourteen hours every day of that time,
when you get to the kingdom you will find that God does not owe you anything.
It is all grace. It is all a gift. Why did you work for God in the first place? Grace.
Why were you able to persevere to the end faithful to God? Grace. Do you really
think you had anything to do with it? Well yes, you did. You had to trust and
obey. But, brother, sister, it is not your trust and your obedience that will get you
there. It is all grace, the mega grace of God.
Let us close with the words of the Lord Jesus in Lk. 12.32: “Don’t be
afraid, little flock, for your Father delights to give you the kingdom.” And of the
Father through Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you.” Won’t you kneel just now
at the throne of grace?

Mega Grace!

Copyright © 2011 Tom Adcox. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced or transmitted in any means without the express written permission
of the author.
Old Testament quotations: Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN
STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975,
1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
New Testament quotations are the author’s translations.

Mega Grace!

Blogs