When we consider just what Jesus did for us on the cross to redeem us out of death in our sins, our hearts overflow with thankfulness for His infinite mercy and grace although we are totally undeserving.
Topic: grace
In finishing up our series on God’s grace, it’s important to remember that it is certainly God’s grace alone through which we are saved out of death in our sins – His saving grace, and His grace is sufficient for us to carry us through whatever we might encounter in this life – His sustaining grace. Along the way, God’s grace is perfecting us day-by-day into the very image of God’s Son Jesus – His sanctifying grace. Finally, throughout this life and our eternal life to come, God’s grace is and will forever be poured out in infinite measure upon His children who have believed on the Name and Gospel of Jesus for salvation – God’s securing grace.
Our salvation is a three-fold process. We are justified (our eternal life is secured) by God’s saving grace through Jesus’ death on the cross in our faith in His resurrection. This begins the second phase in which we are being perfected into the very image of our Savior Jesus through God’s sanctifying grace.
sustaining grace, God will always provide for our needs and give us the strength we need to sustain us through times of hardship. Jesus Himself confirmed this truth in His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:25-34). Yet we must be careful to note that God never promised that we would not encounter troubles in this life, but that by His infinite grace He will always sustain us through them.
Recall from our previous study that the people of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah, and that God therefore relented from the destruction of the city that Jonah had foretold in his brief prophetic message. Here in Jonah 4 we see that Jonah was highly displeased with the compassion God showed toward the Ninevites, forgetting the compassion God had shown to Jonah himself by rescuing him out of death through His sovereign provision of the great fish that swallowed and preserved him. God’s mercy upon Nineveh is not at all what Jonah expected, and he didn’t hesitate to tell God exactly how he felt about it.
In our study of Jonah so far, we have seen God’s relentlessness in His pursuit of Jonah when the so-called “Reluctant Prophet” tried to run away from God’s call for him to go to Nineveh. Then we saw God’s faithfulness in rescuing Jonah out of death, and Jonah’s gratitude for God’s mercy. Now in Jonah 3, we see God’s infinite grace and mercy not only upon the prophet he rescued out of death, but also upon the Ninevites to whom God called Jonah to preach a message of repentance. God’s grace is particularly manifest in that He knew the Ninevites’ repentance was only temporary in their fearful response to Jonah’s prophecy of their destruction.
Paul wants us to recognize how blessed we truly are as believers. Paul provides some foundational truths about our faith and works to help us understand how these truths can help us grow stronger as disciples of Jesus Christ. God has blessed us with our salvation through Jesus Christ. He has blessed us in our relationships. He has blessed us in our families, both at home and in our churches. He has blessed us with a new identity in Christ. He has blessed us with an eternal inheritance. Paul wants us to follow his lead and give praises to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because He “has blesses us in Christ with every blessing in the heavenly places”.
All of us are wretched sinners – even King David who was called a “man after God’s own heart” yet was a wicked adulterer and murderer. Nevertheless, God is willing and able to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness as David himself wrote in Psalm 51 – his beautiful prayer of repentance.
