THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

All scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

God is full of riches with which to bless His children. He also wants His children to have access to the riches and practically enjoy them. He made a big beautiful garden furnished with all manners of trees with goodly fruits and put only Adam and Eve there to enjoy it. The provisions were more than their needs. Although He is not wasteful, God never gives exactly what will cover our needs. He is the All-sufficient One, and He blesses according to His nature. He blesses sufficiently. All the times Jesus miraculously fed the multitudes, there were extra baskets of food left. At one occasion, the Bible says, “After they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets.” (Matthew 14:20). God wants us to be satisfied and have extra! He just wants to give us all that He has. 

Just as God made all the provisions that would be needed by Adam before He created him, so has He made available in Christ all that His children would need even before they were regenerated. Even though these provisions that are in Christ had been made available before the foundation of the world, they were not fully realized and enjoyed by anyone until Christ came to this world. John 1:16-17 says;

“For of His (Jesus Christ) fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”

This grace is the riches of God embedded in Christ. Because all the riches of God are encapsulated in Jesus Christ, He sent Him to us that we might receive all the good things He has for us. And Jesus, overflowing with God’s grace, transmits the riches of God to whoever receives Him. Jesus happens to be the fulfillment and reality of all the promises of God. God has committed everything He has into His hands. Jesus emphatically says in John 16:15 that ‘all things that the Father has are His.”  Not only that, He is the very thing God has for us because He has become everything God has. Without Him, there will be nothing to receive from God. Anyone who rejects Jesus Christ rejects God and rejects all His riches. There are some believers who are yet to accept Jesus as what God has for them. Although they believe in the Lord Jesus, they do not believe and receive Him as the answer to their insufficiencies. They therefore go around, struggling to get what God has already made available to them in the Person of Jesus Christ. They abandoned the garden to till the ground, and by the sweat of their face, they eat bread. They, knowingly or unknowingly, reject the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Let it be known that there is no blessing captured outside Christ. The life outside Christ is a life of toil and sorrow. The earth, although a little bit relieved, is still under a curse. The only way therefore for God to help His children is to take them out of the world and bring them into Christ to enjoy abundant life. The apostle says in Colossians 2 that in Christ are hidden all the treasures, therefore you should not be beguiled with enticing promises that are not in Him. Verse 8 directly says you will be plundered and suffer loss by looking away from Jesus Christ to find help somewhere else, where, of course, there is no help. Your completeness is in Christ Jesus and there is nothing else you need outside Him. Everything that pertains to life and godliness is contained in Him. 1 Corinthians 1:30 lists some of the things that God has made Christ become for us. It says;

“But by His (God) doing you are in Christ Jesus, who (Christ Jesus) became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.”

Christ Jesus is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption! 

Christ Jesus has become all the spiritual blessings God has for us. There is nothing more that we need. 

In addition, Christ has also become the physical blessings that we need. Moses told the Israelites in Deuteronomy 8:18;

“But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you POWER TO MAKE WEALTH, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.”

(Emphasis added). 

And in 1 Corinthians 1:24, the apostle says;

“But to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ (is) the POWER OF GOD.”

(Emphasis added). 

So Christ is also responsible for our wealth. 

However, the devil lures so many away from Christ lest they enjoy the full riches God has for them. He presents to them the shadow of things and deprives them from the reality. Both in spiritual matters and physical things, he will want man to devise a means other than what God has made available so as to bereave them of their enjoyment and at the same time have the grace of God frustrated. Meanwhile, for our sakes, Christ who is full of the riches of God emptied Himself for us and became poor so that we can have all that He has and become rich in all things, spiritual or physical. 2 Corinthians 8:9 says;

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”

Although the overflow of His fullness is enough for us to receive grace upon grace (John 1:16), He chose to pour all that He has so we can be exceedingly rich, perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 

Accept Him as the provision for all your needs and “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ will be with you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:28).