God's Unmerited Favour by Raymond McGough ebook

7/27/2019 God's Unmerited Favour by Raymond McGough ebook

1/13

GODS UNMERITED FAVOUR

BY

RAYMOND MCGOUGH

1


2/13

Gods unmerited favour

By

R. McGough

Introduction

To simplify the gospel of the Kingdom of God or as it is more commonly known the good

news of the Lord Jesus Christ; the New Testament uses one word, and that word is the term

grace, we will recognize how important our understanding of this will be as we explore further

this important attribute of God, one of his many attributes. We will also look at the Old

Testaments definition of grace.

Thomas Oldens definition: Grace is the favor shown by God to sinners. It is the divinegoodwill offered to those who neither inherently deserve nor ever hope to earn it. It is the divine

disposition to work in our hearts, wills, and actions, so as actively to communicate Gods self

giving love to humanity.(1)

Before you and I can understand the meaning of grace, we must first of all experience it, for

that to happen we need to acknowledge our own sinful nature, and our need of grace. When we

come to that point of recognizing our need of Gods grace and we do something about it, by

accepting his grace. Jesus then honours us: (Matt.5:3.) Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs

is the Kingdom of heaven.

The grace of God as seen in the New Testaments understanding of it is that the word brings

together all of the benefits of God to mankind, one of them being the most important doctrine of

all salvation, all freely given to us by God. But more importantly, the grace of God is in the

invisible power he provides to those who are fettered by their own self will, and which also

brings his healing to their bruised spirit. If there is an expression to sum up the doctrine of

Salvation it can only be grace. We must also understand that it is God who makes the initiative to

bend down to his fallen race to provide salvation towards them.

I have previously said that the grace of God can also be found in the Old Testament, but thefullest fulfillment of it is in the New Testament which was made visible in Gods Son Jesus

Christ. However, we will look at the Old Testaments understanding of it. The attribute of grace

found in the Hebrew of the Bible is the word chen, which is a noun, translated as either grace or

favor.

The two most prominent words for grace which are to be found in the Old Testament are

the adjective, gracious, and the verb, to be gracious. Our adjective, channun and then the verb,chanan. Nehemiah the prophet writes in his book of the adjective, gracious, Hebrew:

channun. (Neh.9:17.) But you are God, Ready to pardon, Gracious and merciful, Slow to

anger, Abundant in kindness, And did not forsake them. He has had first hand experience of

Gods gracious acts towards him, and his people. We can also find that this word gracious is more

often than not extended to include the term compassion. (Ps. 111:4.) He has made his wonderful

works to be remembered; The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. God is very different in

his nature compared to fallen humanity. (Jonah.4:2.) So he prayed to the Lord, and said, Ah,

2


3/13

Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to

Tarshish; for I know that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in

lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. We need to look at Jonahs reaction to God

when he was given his directive of what he was to do. It was one of immense displeasure and

anger. (Jonah.4:1.) But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. Quite a contrastto Gods attitude who wanted to show compassion to the people of Nineveh. (Jonah, 4:11.) And

should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twentythousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left- and much

livestock? (Isa.30:18.) Therefore the Lord will wait that he may be gracious (chanan) to you. He

continues to wait to show his unmerited favor to the fallen in todays world made visible to us

through Jesus Christ his Son the next part of the study from the New Testament perspective.

We find the New Testaments definition of grace from the fourth gospel according to John,

but we turn to Pauls letter to the church at Corinth for its technical definition: (2.Cor.12:9.) And

he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon

me. Grace in this context comes from the New Testament Greek word, charis, (khar-ece);

Strongs # 5485; The term comes from the root expression, chara. Meaning to rejoice, and charis

causes rejoicing. The chief word to describe Gods grace which he provides to sinful mankind is

described as unmerited favor, a free gift, a blessing that is certainly not deserved.Turning to the fourth gospel according to John, he more than any other New Testament

author brings the activity of Gods grace towards mankind to the final pinnacle in his narrative of

it, describing the birth of his Son Jesus Christ to the world, God becoming man. He becoming the

flesh of a man is the significance of becoming the Incarnate one. (Jn.1:14.) And the Wordbecame flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as the only begotten of the

Father full of grace and truth. It can be said that the grace of God the Father reaches its height in

the visibility of it appearing in the birth of human flesh in his only begotten Son Jesus Christ, the

ultimate pinnacle of his grace, the unmerited favor manifested to us in his Son the Lord Jesus

Christ, he is the visibility of the Fathers grace towards us.

John.1:16. For of his fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. John instructs us

that the grace of God comes from his fullness. He does not give from the impersonal nature of his

separateness from this world; on the contrary he is very personal, he, and the Son are one thatmakes him very personal. (Jn.14:11.) Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or

else believe me for the sake of the works themselves. We can go as far as to say, God meets our

needs in the person of the man Jesus Christ, God, and man, his Son, our Lord, providing to us his

power, and provision. To know the grace of God towards us is to know the love of his Son Jesus

Christ as fully as our spirit and intellect can receive or intelligence. (Ephes.3:19.) to know the

love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

(i) Gods unmerited favour

The Apostle Pauls interpretation of Grace

Paul really knew from his encounters with the living God the experimental life of grace,

because he experienced it in his life, as can be seen in his letters of the New Testament. He was

the first apologetic of the faith. His interpretation of grace was through experience, and the

3


4/13


5/13

God sets forth as propitiation by His blood, through faith to demonstrate his righteousness,

because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed. The

very undeniable fact is as we can see from the above texts which states that we have received

Gods grace by the one man Gods Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. The grace which is spoken of here

was acquired by the death of the crucifixion of Gods Son, Jesus Christ, upon the cross, and thenraised to life by his Father on the third day. Access to this grace can only come from our Lord

Jesus Christ. Furthermore; the doctrine of grace is developed further under Pauline thought, andtheology, described as the grace of God, which can be seen in the gift of one man, which is also

seen as the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ. So powerful is the love of God released towards

us in the person of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, it enabled him to victoriously triumph over

Gods judgment brought about by one mans disobedience Adam, effecting the whole human race

for generations to come until Gods Son our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world. Praise God!

(Rm.5:15.) But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by one mans offense many died, much

more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.

We can also say that the salvation afforded to us is of Gods gracious free will of unmerited

favour summed up in one word his grace towards us. (Ephes.2:8, 9.) For by grace you have been

saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, (9) not of works, lest anyone

should boast. It can also be said that the unmerited favour of which we enjoy comes from the

initiative action of the one triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by showing kindness, andlove to us, which is of the grace of God, further to that, he rebirthed our spirits by the gift of the

Holy Spirit to provide eternal life for the future, and energize us to please him in our earthly lives.

(Titus.3:4-7.) But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,

(5) not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us,through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, (6) whom He poured out

on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, (7) that having been justified by His grace we

should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

(ii) God reforms his church

From roughly the end of the third century A.D. onwards the doctrine of Gods grace

towards all humanity had been almost lost to the traditions of men, and legalistic rules to beobeyed at all costs in order to gain salvation, the ecclesiastical trappings of the earthly church. It

was a time of dark despair for lesser mortals as viewed by the Roman Catholic Church Hierarchy,

but all was not lost, God already had someone in mind to revive his Church.

The person whom God had in mind was born into the world in 1483 A.D. who would

later on become a Roman Catholic Monk; little did he know of Gods plans for him. It was while

he was studying that the Spirit of God came upon him giving him the proper interpretation of theApostle Pauls chapters in the New Testament upon the subject of Gods grace to all. From that

tiny beginning Martin Luther would become to be known as the earliest reformer to start the great

Reformation of the Roman Catholic Church of the 16th century A.D. But regretfully instead of

listening to the truth of God, they excommunicated him, who promptly started a church under hisown name, but that was not his intent, he had wanted to see his own church come under the

reformation of Gods Spirit.

5


6/13

Gods unmerited favour which is summed up in the one word, grace, waits for eachgeneration to rediscover that all they need to live the Christian life to the full is to be

found in Gods grace towards man. It is in the very grace of God that we find the

power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to grasp how to become more like our risen

glorified Lord, Jesus Christ. (2) Quote. Even evangelicals need to be reoriented

from time to time. Philip Yancey, Scott Hoezee, Chuck Swindoll, and Jerry

Bridges have provided the evangelical community- and all Christians, for that

matter- with life transforming treatments of the liberating truth of the grace of

God to help us in that process.

We see what the grace of God meant to Paul in his conversation with Timothy inhis first letter to him. (1.Tim.1:13, 14.) It is in Pauls testimony to Timothy in which we

find the goodness of Gods grace towards him. This unbelievable goodness of Gods

grace is extended to all who accept his Son Jesus Christ as Lord, believable, and yetunbelievable the mercy God wants to extend to man through the grace of his Son, our

Lord Jesus Christ. although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a

violently arrogant man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. (14)

And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are inChrist Jesus.

Grace, that is, Gods unmerited favour is available to the whole of mankind, while

they still live, and breathe under Gods control, with his limitless patience towards everyman and woman, to allow them to consider the claims of the gospel of his Son Jesus

Christ upon them. The very same claims he has upon you, and me. (1.Tim.1:15-17) This

is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptances, that Christ Jesus came into the world tosave sinners, of whom I am chief. (16) However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in

me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to

believe on Him for everlasting life.(17) Now to the King eternal, immortal invisible, theonly God who alone is wise, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen. Patience and

longsuffering as God sees it can only be described of him alone, because it is infinite, and

eternal, as he is, gracious in his grace towards us.

The highest moment of the manifestation of Gods grace towards us must be whenhe stooped down to the earth in the person of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who

becomes a man, but he is both God and man, but no longer has the power as one who is

God. What an astounding humiliation for the one who is God to be stripped of his powerto please his Father on our behalf, nothing like it had been seen before, and never again,

this plunges the depths, and beyond of both the Father, and the Sons magnanimous

favour towards us, which is not merited by us in any capacity, commonly known as ourLords Incarnation, God becoming man and God in the flesh, and it can be said it is the

greatest sign of Gods unmerited favour towards us or one of the earliest signs of. The

Apostle Paul often spoke of it in his contributions of his writings to the New Testament.

See his second letter to the church at Corinth. (2.Cor.8:9.) For you know the grace of ourLord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you

through his poverty might become rich.

(iv) The mercy that God provides through grace.

Everything in Pauline thought and theology, especially salvation comes under theheading of grace, including our Christian life. Most importantly relating to the Pauline

6


7/13

theology on grace, another aspect of it comes under the sub heading of our Christian life

is consecration, and sanctification of each individual disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ of

which Paul exhorts the practical side of in his letter to the church at Rome: we can seethis in its universal world wide application to Gods people wherever they are.

(Rom.12:1.2.) I beseech you therefore; brethren, by the mercies of God, that you

present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is your reasonableservice. (2) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing

of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of

God. The mercies of God of which you and I enjoy can be said are the cornerstone ofwhat Paul has already said in His letter to Rome. Gods mercies in which he supplies to

us through his grace, as revealed towards us in the person of his Son, our Lord Jesus

Christ is the proper instrument to interpret the next three chapters of Pauls letter to the

saints at Rome, (Rom.9-11.) which has met with controversy from some areas. As hasbeen said earlier, consecration is for our bodies. It is not an airy fairy idea or a heavenly

celestial concept with no substance, grace should affect the whole of our lives not

something that is remote in our imagination. But it is inappropriate to analyze or study

the remaining doctrines outside of the doctrine of grace; they are all under its banner, thedoctrines of predestination, election, assurance, apostasy, and glorification, and much

more.The very centre of Pauls doctrine of grace which we find in the gospel of God or

Gods unmerited favour which also finds its expression in the good news of God finds an

expansion of this in Pauls letter to the church at Rome, (Rom.8:28-30.) And we knowthat all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called

according to His purpose. (29) For him He foreknew, He also predestined to be

conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

(30) Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called, whom He called, these Healso justified; and whom He justified these He also glorified. All of these come to us

from the unmerited favour of God which is under its umbrella.

Gods tremendous promise has brought, and brings comfort and great encouragement

down through the ages to the believers of every century, that everything works for our

good, because of our love for God, once again the mercy and the goodness of God that hecontinues to shower upon us. Further elaboration of that is the fact that nothing will ever

separate us from God. (Rom.8:37, 39.) The assurance of the assuring words of God that

he will finish the work he started within us, marvelous is his mercy, and compassion to

behold.However in the continuing three chapters of Romans the apostle Paul introduces the

idea of predestination, and then stretches it to include election, that which has caused

down through the centuries great debate. What was the significance behind his words,when he used the phrase: For whom He foreknew, He also predestined, Whatever the

interpretation surely the only one to think of is that he, and she, whom he already knew,

before anything was, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, the LordJesus Christ, the goal he set in motion for every believer, sanctifying them into the one

body, known as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, which every believer is a member of

introducing the doctrine of sanctification, and to then be resurrected on the final day,and

then glorified with our Lord, totally beyond our human reasoning to grasp hold of , but

7


8/13

our spirit rejoices immensely at the prospect, what we have here is reality, not a dry as

dust academic Biblical Theology.

I was given a sound piece of advice from one of my tutors at college quite a longtime ago, and it has stuck with me, there is no such thing as a closed systematic theology,

you cannot stick God in a book, and close the covers upon him, the Bible is there for us

to get to know him, and through his Spirit, he speaks to us outside of it, because he isoutside of it.

The will and purpose of God is worked out in his method of sanctification of the

present life, and the church, and carries on into the life to come in the new bodiesprovided to us, raised, and then glorified ( Rom.8:30.). Moreover whom He predestined,

these He also called; whom He called these He also justified; and whom He justified

these He also glorified. A note of caution in regard to Pauls ideas on the doctrine of

predestination, he did not intend it to be thought of as coming from a god who must causehis control to be absolute over the individual person, our God is not like that. We can see

that in the previous text from Pauls letter to the church at Rome, he speaks of being

called by God, with that being the case the response of accepting Gods calling is down

to the individual.We can say, with confidence that the doctrine of predestination is experienced by

Gods people who know him experientially through his grace or unmerited favour whichpredestination is part of which he bestows upon them.

(v) Gods grace an active part of the Christian life.

From the very beginning of our conversion to Christ Jesus the unmerited favour of

God will be active in each of us until we are called home. Grace is not static; it is active

in all who commit themselves to God. Grace is always active in the believer Godsunmerited favour being shown to others, through each individual believer, from that we

can see God is always active in the believer, illuminating his favour upon them like light

shining in the darkness of this world. No where else in the New Testament than theApostle Pauls first letter to the church at Corinth is this better expressed concerning the

active dynamics of grace in the believers life.( 1.Cor.15:10.) But by the grace of God I

am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantlythan they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore from the

Apostle Pauls point of view, although he was laboring for the sake of the gospel of Jesus

Christ, it was not really him that was doing it, but the grace of God compelled Him. How

do we understand this? I think a good analogy would be to think of the Apostle Paul as anearthen vessel with the active dynamic grace being in him, driving him on for the

purposes of God. I think we can safely say that this is an indirect reference to God the

Holy Spirit, who resides in the spirit of every believer. He works to bring Gods graceinto our lives, he executes or initiates in the beginning at the moment of conversion our

salvation, part of Gods grace, and mercy towards us. To some extent it concerns

predestination, and election, but not the whole picture. The apostle Paul was veryChristological, that is to say, that in his theology, closely entwined with Christology, as

far as he was concerned, almost everything, I would go so far as to say, in his view

everything is related to Christ, particularly the doctrines of predestination, and election

taking the centre stage.

8


9/13

(vi) God the Father elected us in and through His Son

Having ended on the note of predestination, and election under the grace of God orhis unmerited favour, we will now look at his process of the divine election, and also look

at the other contributors of this doctrine outside of Paul to the New Testament. But we

will look at it primarily as being chosen by God through his Son the Lord Jesus Christ.This marks out the believers as being the recipients of Gods unmerited favour, the

choice is of Gods, not because we deserve it or have earned it, only because he loves us.

Jesus is recorded by the Apostle Matthew vocally speaking upon this doctrine,(Matt.24:22.) And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for

the elects sake those days will be shortened. Now we turn to what the apostle Paul

taught upon the subject: (Rom.8:33.) Who shall bring a charge against Gods elect? It is

a God who justifies, he also writes of the election to the saints at Colosse.(Col.3:12.) Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies,

kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering;

The greatest exposition of our predestination, and election, in my view, is found in

the Apostle Pauls letter to the saints at Ephesus. (Ephes.1:3-14.) When reading thispassage of Scripture one cannot help but notice its highly Trinitarian content, that is to

say, what is on view here is the three persons of the godhead, each equally God in theirown right, but still one God, but that is another study.

We still have under consideration Gods doctrine of grace or his unmerited favour of

which believers receive the blessings of on a daily basis. I have already said earlier, theinitiative of the grace, which we have already received, comes first and foremost from

God the Father; the idea of it finds its root in Him, as does everything, infact everything

of this passage points to him, he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, (1:3,)

provided to us his redemption, (1:7,) given to us his divine seal, (1:13.) Equally asimportant, all of these blessings from God the Father are provided to us in his Son Christ

Jesus. Although the whole idea of Gods unmerited favour is provided to mankind finds

its root in him, his choice is to reveal it in, and through Christ. The same idea is carriedinto Pauls letter to the church at Colosse, continuing the theme of everything that God

does is in and through his Son Jesus Christ, concerning creation, and redemption ( Col.1:

15,16.) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. (16) For byHim all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible,

whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through

Him and for Him. Therefore, although the whole plan of the doctrine of grace proceeds

from God the Father his choice is to reveal it to mankind through his Son Jesus Christ.What is unanimously agreed in the passage under consideration is the origin of

choice belongs to God of those whom he has chosen for himself (1:4,) just as He

chose us in him before the foundation of the world, He, is God the Father, Him, is hisSon, Jesus Christ. God the Father planned it, executed through God the Son, Jesus Christ

by the help of God the Holy Spirit. God had already chosen those who would be his,

which is covered by the doctrine of predestination, who they are is left to his knowledgeof them, who will be revealed, when they respond to the preaching of the gospel of the

Lord Jesus Christ. Not everyone will be saved, because God does not force himself upon

anyone. See the Apostle Pauls first letter to the Corinthians: ( 1.Cor.1:18.) For the

word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved

9


10/13

it is the power of God. We must never think of God the Father and the Son working

separately, both work along with each other in harmony. Not only has the Father chosen

us for himself, he has also adopted us in and through his Son Jesus Christ. (1;5.) having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the

good pleasure of His will, When we think of God, we must also think of the three

individuals, not necessarily in that order, but each of them make up the trinity, God theFather, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, commonly known as the godhead or the

one triune God. All three are involved in the grace that is forwarded to us.

(vii) Whom God already knew.

What is the foreknowledge of God as he sees it? We can only look to his wordto be able to supply the answers, especially, once again the Apostle Pauls letter to the

church at Rome. ( Rom.8:29.30.) For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be

conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

(30) Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these Healso justified; and whom He justified these He also glorified.

The inescapable conclusion from the beginning of the passage is the fact that notall will meet the remit of the first clause of the sentence, For whom He foreknew,

because it only concentrates upon those who voluntarily have accepted Gods Son Jesus

Christ to be Lord, and which is the only course open for Gods predetermined plan toconform them into the image of his Son. Therefore, the Apostle Paul is focusing upon

Gods plan for his elect, which also indirectly speaks of those who have chosen not to

believe. It is upon this basis of what God already knew in regard to who would accept or

reject his Son Jesus Christ as Lord the former he has destined for glory.But down through the ages from the 16th century A.D. onwards a number of weak

interpretations of Gods word have come to the fore. The thoughts of the hyper

Calvinistic views on predestination are one of them. But would Calvin agree with it? Wewill never know. They reject the above conclusion; foreknowledge according to their

thinking is on personal terms with no acknowledgement to Gods intervention of choice

to provide his salvation to us on his previous knowledge of our decisions. The hyperCalvinistic interpretation on predestination is very extreme adding on things I believe are

in error. We have the idea coming from their conclusions that because God has already

chosen the elect, there is no necessity to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that

somehow or other God through his Spirit will speak to them individually on a personalbasis, because he already knows who they are. I agree God will speak to individuals on a

personal basis, but that is not the only way he works, it also denies the great commission

that our risen Lord gave to his apostles. Evidence of this is found in the gospel accordingto Matthew: Matt.28: 18-20. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority

has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. (19) Go and make disciples of all the

nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you

always, even to the end of the age. The reality of living in the Spirit of God can be seen

here, you can feel Him speaking to us through the various passages of Scripture that has

been under our scrutiny.

10


11/13

Why, while studying the teachings concerning the doctrine of Gods grace do we

look at the thoughts of men upon the subject? To hear what the Spirit of God had to saythrough them, to uplift our spirits, and guard them from error.

However; a rebuttal of the extreme views of the hyper Calvinistic understanding of

predestination came from the Theologian Jacob Arminius born 1560 and died 1609 hiscontribution to the debate became known as Arminianism which holds the view that the

hyper Calvinistic interpretation of predestination is in error, because it only offers

atonement to a limited few. The Arminius stance on predestination is that our election isaccording to the predetermined knowledge of our faith, which is possessed by God who

provides us with the belief to believe that his Son, Jesus Christ died for the whole world,

making his grace, something you find hard to resist. Arminius accepts the possibility of

falling into apostasy, that is, denying the claims of Christ upon the life of a believer, afteraccepting them, and moving away from faith.

Is it possible to loss faith? I do not believe so, but it is possible to show a form of

godliness, that requires neither faith, nor salvation. We can read of this in the Apostle

Pauls second letter to Timothy: 2.Tim.3: 2-5! (2) For men will be lovers of themselves,lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful,

unholy, (3) unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self control, brutal, despisers ofgood, (4) traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, (5)

having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

The passage just mentioned from Pauls Second Letter to Timothy is proof that not

every believer who confesses Jesus Christ as Lord is in any shape or form genuine, but

that is another study.

Turning to the doctrine of Gods grace for the whole of mankind the question must

be asked what part will Gods own people Israel have? The argument being grace is forall, even although the individual is free to choose his own path rejecting the offer of

grace, but we are talking about a whole race of people, who have rejected the gospel of

the Lord Jesus Christ, who formerly belonged to God under the Old Testament, if we areable to phrase it as such? What are we to therefore make of Gods sovereign will and

purpose of his saving grace for the whole of the human race? Are we really sure, and

positive about the outcome of our faith, can God really be trusted? We need to ask the

question of how Gods people the Jews, and the Gentiles all fit together under the Lordsplan of salvation, an integral thread of the Doctrine of Gods grace. Paul the Apostle

addresses such vexing questions in his letter to the believers in Rome, although it takes

three chapters to sufficiently answer in detail what the remedy would be, the remedybeing Gods mercy. (Rom.chs.9-11.) See Pauls Letter to the believers in Rome:

(Rom.11:30-33.) For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have obtained mercy

through their disobedience, (31) even so these also have now been disobedient, thatthrough the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. (32) For God has committed

them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. (33) Oh, the depth of the

riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments

and His ways past finding out! He, that is Paul, addresses the issue at hand, whilewriting to the believers in Rome. What is of chief concern are both the disobedience of

Gods own people, the Jews, and the Gentiles, including the rest of the nations in the

11


12/13

heart, and mind of Paul. He first addresses their disobedience towards God that is, the

Gentiles, and other non Jews, who are believers. He further as a Jew himself converted to

Christ makes an astounding claim that it is through his peoples disobedience Godschosen race, that they have received mercy. Israel will always be Gods chosen people;

the church is the vine that has been grafted on to the true Israel, like the Apostle Paul who

was converted to Christ the Messiah. Even although, even now Israel was still continuingto be disobedient, when seeing the mercy afforded to the Gentiles by God that at some

point they may be provided with the same quality of mercy. But going back to what Paul

had said earlier, (11:26, 27.) And so all Israel will be delivered, as it is written: TheDeliverer will come out of Zion; And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; (27) for

this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins. Not all of Gods chosen

race will be saved, the Apostle Paul does not teach it in his letter to the church at Rome.

(10:2, 3.) For I bear them witness that they have zeal for God, but not according toknowledge. (3) For they being ignorant of Gods righteousness, and seeking to establish

their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. You therefore

cannot have a right relationship standing before God, unless you come to him through

faith alone in Christ. When the apostle uses the word all, he is meaning it in the sense heused it for the Gentiles (11:5, 25.) (5) Even so then, at this present time there is a

remnant according to the election of grace. (25) For I do not desire, brethren, that youshould be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own estimation, that

blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

There will be a huge turning of Gods own people Israel to Christ, once the fullness of theGentiles is reached. However; both Jew and Gentile including the whole of humanity

God destined to be disobedient towards him in order that he would show mercy on all.

( 11:32.) For God has shut them all up to disobedience, that He might have mercy on

all. The challenge that continues before us is the fact, which will always be the case,until we are called home is the battle of our faith against our unbelief. The conclusion of

chapter eleven turns our eyes to the greatness, and the glory of the omnipotent eternal

God. (11:36.) For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be gloryforever. Amen. Our response is to fall on our knees in worship giving Him all the praise

and the glory.

Salvation comes from Gods grace, otherwise known as his unmerited favour,

that is, the doctrine, we are studying, believing or belief to believe Gods salvation, which

comes from his grace, is another doctrine, which is under the doctrine of his unmeritedfavour, commonly known as his grace. There is more to discuss concerning the doctrine

of Gods grace, which he affords to us, making it visible in the person of his Son, the

risen. Glorified Lord. Jesus Christ. A note of caution, the study of Gods word is not toinflate our oversized intellectual egos, rather bring us closer to God with the help of God

the Holy Spirit in making us more like his Son, our risen Lord. Jesus Christ in the lives

we lead on earth. By this very same grace that God has given to us, he has providedSpiritual gifts to each of us, but not to be used selfishly for our own ends, they are for the

edifying ,and building up of the body Of Christ ,which we are members of being his

church. The Apostle Paul writes of this in his first letter to the believers at Corinth.

(1.Cor.12:7.) But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit ofall. Almost an echo from the Fourth Gospel from the pen of John, the apostle of Jesus

Christ. (Jn 1:16.) For of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. We who

12


13/13

have received the grace of God must in turn show that grace to one another, who are in

the body of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, which is his church.

Bibliography

(1) P106. Truth Aflame. Author. Larry.D. Hart. Publisher .Zondervan.

Scriptures from the New Spirit Filled Life Bible

New King James Version. Publisher. Thomas Nelson.

2013

13

God's Unmerited Favour by Raymond McGough ebook

Documents

Transcript of God's Unmerited Favour by Raymond McGough ebook