God’s Overturning Grace

I want to share a message God gave me to share in a fellowship recently. I had prayed for a long time with no message coming through. Those who know me know that I will not want to give a message just because I have an opportunity. I will always want to receive it from heaven since that is when I am sure it will have the kind of impact He purposes.

The message came just two nights before I was scheduled to speak. I will expand it beyond what the time I had to share so that the message has more examples.

God has standards, very stringent standards. His standards are never negotiable and the sentence for their breach is severe. Yet His grace is as overarching as His justice.

Let us look at a few people in the Bible who broke through His judgment to His grace and what it costed them.

 

Rahab the Harlot

As we see, she was a prostitute, someone whose sentence was death by stoning. If sex before marriage was punishable by death, how was prostitution treated? But that was the smaller issue. She was a prostitute in Jericho, a city where even the animals were supposed to be killed. I am sure that she was unwanted even there.

She was a reject even in the condemned city. Had there been an offer for the city to give one person to be saved by Israel, she certainly would have been the last one to be considered. Why? Broken marriages, promiscuity, STDs, poor moral examples, the list is endless. And no wonder her house was at the edge of the city wall. It may have saved her life a number of times after the wife or family of her customer who was a philandering and irresponsible man came yelling for her blood for killing them with hunger. Probably that was how she was having a rope handy for such occurrences. I doubt she considered rescuing any men when she kept that rope.

And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. (Joshua 6:17)

Yet she was saved! Why was she saved? Many believe it is because she saved the spies. I think it is just part of the reason she was. A prostitute is an astute negotiator and knows how to choose places which have better prospects. She is also very worldly and knows current affairs quite well. We can see that she had kept tabs with Israel for a long time and knew that Jericho was bound to fall, a thing most of Jericho also knew. Any prostitute could have sided with the spies when push came to shove. Why does this harlot then stand out?

for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath. (Joshua 2: 11b)

She recognized who the God of Israel was. She acknowledged His Lordship and was willing to submit totally to Him.

God not only saves her life and the lives of her immediate family, He gets her in the mainstream immediately. Imagine a stranger acknowledging what people who have seen God’s workings and heard His voice and walked in His provision are struggling to accept.

She gets married to an Israelite from a prominent family (Judah) and joins the line of David and Jesus

 

Ruth

Ruth was from a tribe that was forbidden to join Israel forever.

On that day they read in the book of Moses in the audience of the people; and therein was found written, that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God for ever (Nehemiah 13:1)  

Though she was not like Rahab, her forebears had sealed her fate as concerned joining Israel by sexually defiling Israel. That is why they were banned for ever from joining with Israel. And for ever is a very long time.

Somehow a backslidden family settles in Moab and does the inevitable, marry the forbidden. But they do not live long to enjoy the fruit of their rebellion and die in Moab, leaving three widows, a mother and her daughters in law.

Naomi senses that the death of her husband and sons could have been due to the sin of not only leaving Israel but in also bonding with the heathen. She plans to go back home dejected but with no baggage, let God deal with her alone without pointing out the evidence of her family’s sins.

She therefore very wisely reasons with her daughters in law why it is illogical for them to go back to Israel with her. That it would have been a waste of their youth and prospects as there was no hope for them in Israel. It must have been so convincing as one of the girls went back to her people and her gods. But Ruth was adamant. And it is her statement that I want us to connect with.

And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God (Ruth 1:16)

Look at a portion of the next verse

…the LORD do so to me…

She is telling Naomi that Moab was now estranged to her. She had started dealing with the God of Israel. Marriage was not as important as that relationship with the divine she had witnessed Naomi worship. Your God shall be my God irrespective of the cost.

Again God will never refuse such devotion. And that is the reason we also see her joining the mainstream immediately, even joining Rahab to be in the line of Christ.

 

Zacchaeus

We find Christ stopping many from following Him and on others placing ‘impossible’ demands as conditions to follow Him.

Yet let us look at this man. He was a tax collector. He was corrupt. In fact they were the official sinners in Israel. Not only were they traitors, they really exploited the authority the colonizers gave them. They did not become rich because they worked hard, they simply ‘stole’ from their countrymen. They were feared and detested in the same measure. More like the colonial chiefs and homeguards were known to have treated their people.

Even today people in charge of collecting taxes fall in the same trap. Many are wealthy not because they earn good salaries, they simply are in a position to access resources that are either punishing the payers of the taxes or the government that should be collecting them.

It is clear that Zacchaeus fit that bill perfectly. He was rich but he was a society reject.

No wonder he could not afford to visit Jesus even at night like Nicodemus. He knew that people would have had issues with his presence. And that is why he looked for a tree just to be able to see Christ pass by. He had heard of Him for long and desired to have just a glimpse of this Man.

When therefore Christ invites Himself to a party at his house he decides to take the bull by the horns. He sees an opportunity of a lifetime that he knew he did not deserve and does something nobody else has been able to do.

And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. (Luke 19:8)

Consider the implications of his confession. He first becomes half as rich as he formerly was. Then he opens himself to public scrutiny. Come for anything I have defrauded you and I will return it to you fourfold. If that is not an invitational to poverty, tell me what is. I am sure he had defrauded most of the people of Jericho, even some tax-collecting staff who served below him. Only Samuel the prophet opened himself to such scrutiny because his cleanness was not in question. What did he think?

But what then happens? He joins the mainstream immediately. No other ceremony is required. No go and sin no more. No go and do something to satisfy religious obligations.

And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. (Luke 19:9)

Do we have other examples? The Bible is replete with them. They are people who used violence to enjoin themselves with God and His people. They were outside God’s boundaries but literally broke the fence by force of their devotion of confession and/ or doing.

Daniel and Nehemiah were eunuchs who were as removed from the mainstream of Israel as the Canaanites, yet we have books bearing their names. Daniel is among the select three God cites for prayerfulness and devotion. Yet what was his secret?

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself … (Daniel 1:8) and that as a young man

We see something similar when we read about Nehemiah.

The Gibeonites used deception to save their skins yet we see Saul being punished for killing them.

Cornelius represented an oppressor yet we see God Himself sending Peter to share the gospel with him and his family and friends.

The Ethiopian eunuch in Acts was doubly disqualified, being a eunuch and a foreigner yet Philip is called from a very successful set of revival meetings to explain the gospel to him.

Let us come to the conclusion of this matter. What does God look for that He will break His own standards to accommodate?

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37)

God’s grace encompasses all. I am the only one who can disqualify myself from the reach of His grace. What I am before I meet Him doesn’t count for much once I have made the connection properly. In fact that is the whole purpose of grace. He bears the cost of connecting the searching me to His saving grace. The only thing I do is the hardest thing anyone can do, leave all to make that connection.

Though the message does not look at that aspect with more detail, I want to emphasize that it is the deciding factor in the whole transaction. Many started like the few we have highlighted but due to the fact that their baggage was still sticking on them they lost out on the connection.

Lot was joined to Abraham for a long time but lost it when he chose the greener pastures instead of allowing his elder do so for him, suddenly detaching himself from his cover due to his independence.

Judas occupied a select place many who joined Christ never occupied as we see in Acts 1, yet for love of money (I may say comfort or future security) became accursed and the example.

Gehazi was to inherit Elisha’s ministry as he had been the one most exposed to his ministry, yet he not only lost the opportunity but became leprous for not being able to refuse the willing and forceful support of a rich and influential man.

Ananias and Sapphira must have connected to ministry to sell their property, yet the same property became the death of them plus a benefit of shame.

And this is the reason I will hasten to add that that connection must transform me in TOTALLY. Nothing in me will remain the same. Rahab left her trade, Ruth left her all, Zacchaeus forsook his wealth. In fact all who made that connection did not just leave, they LOST all, and that by choice.

I write this because a breed of preachers is mushrooming that teaches a grace without standards. That I can access it by simply attending their church. That I can access it by sending a ‘seed’ to them. That my behavior after the ‘connection’ is not important because God’s grace is richly abundant. That Christ’s blood covers even willful sins. You wonder whether they have written their own Bible to spew such perverted doctrines.

Grace that is not transformative must be a word from hell. When Christ said that we will know them by their fruit He simply meant the transformative production of His grace. When John the Baptist talked about bearing fruit showing our repentance he meant the same thing.

Grace reaches far and wide, then draws near so that it can transform.

God Bless you