The Banner over God’s love is Grace.

” Your Grace still amazes me, your Love still a mystery.“ These words from this song speak to the depths of my heart and soul.

” You are right to be amazed by my grace. My grace is the starting point in the entire creation process. It is the engine which keeps the whole of my creation going and it covers the wonderful, glorious conclusion of my process to bring my kingdom about. While you are already amazed at my grace you, like most of my children have not yet plumbed the full depths of what it truly means, because it is an attitude which is so foreign to the self-centred attitude of mankind in general. So it has been and still is my purpose to continue to introduce you and all who read this to new and greater insights as to what my grace is all about so that as you respond, you will be more and more amazed.”

As we tackle the next section of John chapter 6:34–59, I want to deal with it in two sessions. The golden thread that has been running through the text till now has been the word “belief” or faith. In the first paragraph from verse 35 John repeats the word believe three times. But in this paragraph he brings the full impact of that to a point out.

Can you see that? In verse 37 Jesus states, “ All that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” He then goes on to say that what he is speaking about is access to eternal life; verse 40. Stop and consider the full impact of what that statement is saying. If we take these words at their full meaning then our entrance into eternal life depends entirely on God.

Yet we have been continually reading about the key response that each person that was accepted by Jesus had is belief. So here is the conundrum. On the one hand God has chosen His people even before he has created them. On the other hand from our perspective we will not be accepted into eternal life unless we exercise faith or belief.

Perhaps verse 44 throws some light on to this apparent mystery. “ No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me, draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” If we stand back and ponder this mystery, we may see that while we have the responsibility of responding to God’s revelation and actions, the whole process is under his control. This is what I call the “truth in tension”. The truth lying in tension between two apparently opposite ideas.

Standing back again to get a better perspective, there is one word that comes to mind that covers this whole process. That word is Grace. The whole concept of God’s grace is perhaps so foreign to our human nature that we find it difficult to fully take it on board.

So this is how I understand it. God has a plan, a magnificent plan, which includes every person that he has created. Within that plan he has created a people who will eventually become part of his kingdom into eternity. You and I are part of that plan. He has a specific plan for each one of us. Your eternal destiny has already been determined as part of that plan. However it is necessary in some mystical way for us to buy into that plan, as it were and to receive this blessing of being part of his chosen people – by faith. The only action from our perspective is that we need to respond by receiving what he wants to give us. It’s just that – a gift. Any effort on our part to do something to enable us to be part of this great plan is counter-productive and acts against the whole concept of grace.

But you say to me, if the destiny of each person has already been determined, why would it be necessary for us to be witnesses to this fact, to go out and share our faith and take this message, this incredible message to the ends of the Earth? The closest that I can come to an answer to that question is that, that is the way God has determined that his message should be spread. In just the same way as he has determined that for him to give us eternal life as a gift is necessary for us to receive it by faith before it is activated, as it were.

The huge and basic difference between Christianity and all the other religions is this whole concept of grace. God has done it all! We only need to believe and demonstrate that by receiving. Go and digest this fact. I have been struggling to do that the whole week. May our dear Lord bless you all till next week.