"There But For the Grace of God..."

"There but for the grace of God go I." We all have likely thought or said these words when encountering someone particularly down in his fortunes. Usually the person has inflicted the hardship upon himself, and the thought occurs to us that our sins and mistakes could have led us to the same end.


The axiom, however, may often be more accurate when we are viewing those who have achieved great power, riches, and notoriety. Nebuchadnezzer, king of Persia, had reached such a lofty place of delusion.


"The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?" (Daniel 4:30).


God mercifully judged Nebuchaddnezzer for the king's wicked insanity, bringing him to his senses. Many rulers, however, are allowed to continue in their folly because there is no heart in them that would repent even if the living and true God brought great judgment upon them. Sadly their day will come. When considering these seemingly powerful ones, therefore, it may be more than appropriate to think or say, "There but for the grace of God go I."


The powerful, wealthy, and notable often have more opportunity to act out the delusion that exists in the flesh of every human being. "Ye shall be as gods" said Satan to Eve (Genesis 3:5). When she and Adam believed the devil and disobeyed God, the flesh of humanity became infected with a delusion that is difficult for most people to act out in many ways. The Lord brought hindrance and difficulty to the human experience in order to counter the notion of our personal divinity. We still express it in many ways, of course, but the thorns and sorrow of life in a fallen world tell us continually that something is amiss in our thinking, and even more, in our hearts.


The powerful, however, have far more reign in acting out the delusion. Their ability to control things and people, their notoriety, and their access to abundance tell them day by day that not only shall they be as gods, but that they are gods. They may not literally think in such terms, but their attitudes and actions reveal the delusion of their perceived divinity. Great and terrible destruction awaits in the future, but for now, the world seems to kneel and confirm the delusion. Ultimately, "there but for the grace of God go I" may therefore be more appropriately directed toward those whose earthly power seems to confirm the devilish notion, "ye shall be as gods."


David understood this and prayed, "Put them in fear, O LORD: that the nations may know themselves to be but men" (Psalm 9:20). We do well to pray the same for those whose very lifebreath comes from God, but who think themselves to be self sufficient. All too soon the truth will be known, and for many who proudly boast in their supposed power, influence, and riches, it will be too late. "There but for the grace of God go I."


"The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against His anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure."
(Psalm 2:2-6)

"Without Money and Without Price"

"And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves" (Matthew 21:12-13).


In a "house of prayer," the Holy Spirit moves upon and within human hearts to reveal the all sufficient provision of God, and the abject need of humanity. By Biblical definition, this is the very essence of prayer. There is no barter in this holy place, no buying and selling, and no quid pro quo that clouds the truth of freely given grace received through humble and empty handed faith. As the old hymn so beautifully declares, "Nothing in my hand I bring; only to Thy cross I cling." As the Lord Jesus even more beautifully declared, "freely ye have received" (Matthew 10:8).


"What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel" (I Corinthians 9:18).


The Apostle Paul fully understood the above truth, and also that the gospel of the Lord Jesus was a gift that had already been paid for. In full. By the Savior's very lifeblood. Thus, Paul found it to be the joy of his heart and life to preach "without charge" the freest gift ever given, which was purchased by One at the highest cost ever remitted. "The church of God, which He purchased with His own blood" (Acts 20:28).


Believers are "the temple made without hands" (Mark 14:58). Not only is there no barter in this house of God. The very house itself exists only because the temple of the Lord Jesus' body was destroyed. In His resurrection and subsequent giving of the Holy Spirit to all who believe, our Savior raised "a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (II Corinthians 5:1). The temple itself was erected solely by Divine provision and activity. Grace and truth are therefore the commodities of this abode, and they are forever the "wine and milk without money and without price" (Isaiah 55:1).


The freest gift ever given, purchased by the highest cost ever remitted. This is the gospel of the Lord Jesus. This is the exchange of His temple. This is grace and truth received by repentance and faith. And this was Paul's "reward," and our reward as we joyfully go forth to freely bear witness to the gift we have so freely received.


"What hast thou, that thou didst not receive?"
(I Corinthians 4:7)

The Treasure Chest

Of the many reasons that believers read the Bible, first and foremost is to know the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.


"Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me" (John 5:39).


I was struck by this today in my reading of Psalm 1. David depicts the godly man in this chapter who delights in the law of the Lord, walks not in the counsel of the wicked, and who will be "like a tree planted by the rivers of water" (Psalm 1:3). Only one person in all history perfectly fits this description, the Lord Jesus, and a reading of the Psalm becomes an opportunity for grateful praise, thanksgiving, and appreciation of our Savior as we see Him as the first and best expression the Psalmist's theme.


The Bible should always be read with this theme as the foundational context. Who is the Lord Jesus? What has He done? What is He doing, and what does He promise to do forevermore for those who trust Him? We either begin here, that is, with He who is "the Beginning," or we do not adequately begin at all (Revelation 1:8). The Lord Jesus declared that the Scriptures "testify of Me." Therefore, we must approach them always with the expectation that the knowledge and understanding of Christ awaits us in every book, chapter, verse, word, and letter. Certainly we will see only glimpses of His glory, and sometimes as we read, we may feel that we've seen little at all. However, consistent consideration of Scripture with the centrality of the Lord Jesus in mind will result in growing apprehension of His person and work, and the changing of ourselves into His spiritual and moral image, as promised by the Apostle Paul:


"Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Corinthians 3:18).


Very early in my Christian life, I was taught that until we have seen the person and work of the Lord Jesus in any passage of Scripture, we have not adequately interpreted the passage. If the Scriptures testify of Christ, this is true. However, I must be honest with you that despite my longheld conviction about such an emphasis, I still find this to be a great challenge in the reading of the Bible. The world, the devil, and the flesh unite to divert our attention from the holy theme, and how easy it is to read without remembering that the written Word exists to reveal and glorify the living Word.


The Lord Jesus is the Treasure of the ages, and of our hearts if we have believed. We might say that the Bible is the treasure chest that reveals "the unsearchable riches of Christ" as we open it with expectation to be illuminated by His glory (Ephesians 3:8). May the Holy Spirit who also purposes to exalt and reveal our Savior remind us often that the Scriptures exist for testimony of the Lord Jesus. Every sub-subject, as it were, will gleam and glimmer in His reflected glory as we expect the crucified, risen, and ascended Christ to shine forth from the pages of the Book devoted to the revelation of His Person and work.


"He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence."
(Colossians 1:18)