Grace is not made available only. It has been fulfilled.
“But now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life.” Romans 6:22, NET. God removed from humankind the disgraced sinful spirit, the sinful life, through his Grace, Jesus Christ, on the cross at Golgotha. He replaced it with the new, perfect, and honorable spirit, life, of his Grace, Jesus Christ. The new human spirit, or life, is righteous in Jesus Christ because he is humankind’s righteousness from God. Humankind received it by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ while he was in the body here on earth. It becomes a personal experience for all who trust Jesus Christ. “There is no distinction. “Romans 3:22, NET.
The righteousness from God does not come through our faith in Jesus or by believing in him. Our righteousness From God came through the faithfulness of Jesus. This is how the above verse reads in Greek. God sent Jesus to save the world. Jesus remained faithful to his mission; therefore, by his faithfulness, he justified humankind. Now, humankind stands free from the condemnation by the Law. The undeserved righteousness from God is ours by trusting Jesus that he has accomplished everything needed for our justification and salvation. In Jesus, we stand qualified to spend eternity with God. So, it is by “Grace,” Jesus Christ, or not at all. Biblical scholars maintain and teach that God made Grace available to humankind through the body of Jesus Christ. This implies that God only intervened in human history through his Grace, Jesus Christ.
However, God did not intervene in human history through Jesus Christ. Instead, he gave humankind a new life and history, the holy history of his Grace, Jesus Christ. God accomplished it by removing sin from humankind through the body of his Grace, Jesus Christ, on the cross at Golgotha. Grace is not something God made available only. Grace is our sure possession here and now. If we are in Christ, we are in Grace.
The sinful humankind had to die eternal death as the wage for sin committed in the garden of Eden. It died in the body of Jesu on the cross. Accordingly, sinful human history ended on the cross at Golgotha. Now, the yielded believers have new life and new history. The old humankind, descendants of the first man Adam and their history have died on the cross at Golgotha. The new humankind, through Jesus Christ, has new eternal history and is free from sin’s dominion. This is not a possibility dependent on our performance. The new life and history are our present reality in God’s Grace, Jesus Christ.
To be continued in the next blog.
