From Martin

The beauty of grace


Grace is a word that is often on the lips of Christians. Over the past weeks, it has been the subject of preaching. This is a reminder of the amazement of what grace truly is.
The word from the Greek that appears in the New Testament, is χάριν – charin. It is often render as ‘favour’. If we look at the Gospels, we find Jesus never used the word ‘grace’. It is said of Him, by Luke and John. If salvation is by faith through grace, then why didn’t Jesus speak about it? Did He preach salvation by good works then? Some religious might want to teach that through a false doctrine, where salvation is not available except through doing ‘good works’. We need to understand Jesus’ purpose was first to Israel.
Time for Scripture:

Matthew 2:5-6  “And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written through the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, land of Judah, Art in no wise least among the princes of Judah: For out of thee shall come forth a governor, Who shall be shepherd of my people Israel.”

Matthew 10:5-6  “These twelve Jesus sent forth, and charged them, saying, Go not into any way of the Gentiles, and enter not into any city of the Samaritans: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Matthew 15:24  “But he [Jesus] answered and said, I was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
As you will see, clearly, Jesus went to Israel first. This is further confirmed by Paul, that it was to the Jews first. (Romans 1:16, 2:9-10)

Therefore, did Jesus teach the Jews salvation was through the Law and good works?
This is one the most frequent misunderstandings about Isreal and the Jews. That they and their salvation was through the Law. This is not the case.
Scripture tells us why they were chosen:
Deuteronomy 7:6-8  “Do this because you are the LORD'S own people. From all the people on earth, the LORD your God chose you to be his special people—people who belong only to him. Why did the LORD love and choose you? It was not because you are such a large nation. You had the fewest of all people! But the LORD brought you out of Egypt with great power and made you free from slavery. He freed you from the control of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. The LORD did this because he loves you and he wanted to keep the promise he made to your ancestors.”
Here we see that Israel were, to use the meaning of grace, a favoured people.
Their salvation was also a matter of grace not Law:
Isaiah 55:7  “Evil people should stop living evil lives. They should stop thinking bad thoughts. They should come to the LORD again, and he will comfort them. They should come to our God because he will freely forgive them.”
Again we see from the prophet, he speaks a Gospel we would recognise, repent, and believe God will give forgiveness – freely!
So we now turn to the Hebrew understanding of the term ‘grace’. It is חן (Modern Hebrew)     (Ancient Hebrew – we will return to this later) chen.
Focusing on the meaning it conveys: beauty, mercy, refuge, strength, salvation, protection, favour, healing. You will notice words, like, salvation, refuge, protection and even healing, are now part of the understanding. How so?
Well we return to the ancient Hebrew picture above. A wall and a seed. The wall is separation. It looks the way it does because it is the wall in a tent that separates men from women. The second is a seed that speaks of continuing - a seed grows and passes on to the next generation. Why a wall continuing? This goes back to the nomadic Hebrew who lived in tents. When a family set up camp, it was in a circle of tents. The word chen to the Hebrew was seen as a continuing wall around their camp. It was within that protection they could rest and be secure. To take time for healing. To appreciate the beauty of God’s protection. To enjoy the love and care of God. To know the joy of resting with the family. To know His favour in all He provided.
This now enable us as Gentiles to see that grace is more amazing than even the song describes. Because of God’s favour – grace – we can rest in the security of our salvation. We can take ease in His protection and enjoy all the benefits and gifts that His grace brings us. This is the spiritual state we are in.
In the physical world we will have our troubles and difficulties. In these we bring them into the protection of His grace and in stillness and rest, we seek His will as to the solutions to those things. We are nomads, on a journey of faith, through the world. We are ‘camped’ in that community called Church. The grace of God is our protection and strength.
Numbers 6:24-26  “May the LORD bless you and keep you; may the LORD cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious [Derived from chen] to you; may the LORD lift up His countenance toward you and give you shalom.”