What Did Grace Mean to the Early Disciples?

So today I want to talk a little bit about watching ourselves, and as we see the day approaching, what we should be doing. And I'm just going to talk about one aspect today, and I'm going to borrow it from the new booklet that you received in the mail on grace. Because if you haven't read this booklet, you might think that you know everything there is to know about grace. We've heard about it all our lives before we came into the church. Grace was there, a word that we're all familiar with in the church. And I've studied grace a lot and understand it differently than maybe some of the world's religions teach. But there were things in this book that I never heard before that put grace into a whole new light for me when I read the Bible. So today I want to talk about one aspect of the book, certainly not the whole book, but one part of it. And over the next month or so, maybe we'll pick another part of that book out and talk about it, because there's a lot in that book that pertain to us. And I'm not sure any of us really fully appreciate what God has done for us and what grace means. You know, the Apostle Paul spoke a lot about grace. In his epistles, he talked about grace a lot. Over a hundred times in the Bible he talked about grace. And when he talked about it, he had a different understanding of it than you and I did. And the people he talked to back at that time had a different understanding of the Greek word grace than you and I do. But what he wanted for them, and what God wants for you and me, is to really and genuinely have a respect and a reverence for what he's done. Let's go back to Ephesians, or let's go to Ephesians. Ephesians 3.

Ephesians 3.

And you see as you look at the first few verses there in Ephesians 3, in verse 2, Paul uses the word grace, the grace that was given him, to be able to preach to the Gentiles, the truth of Jesus Christ, the truth of God's plan, and to open up those doors for them as God led him. And as you come down through the chapter, we come down to verse 14, where after he says these things in the first few verses here of this chapter, he says, Let me stop there and think about that word, comprehend. Let me stop there and think about that word, comprehend. We know it. We've heard of grace. We've talked about grace. You've heard sermons here. You've read articles on it in some of our public books.

But Paul says, I want you to stop and think and understand, as we'll get into it a little bit here, the people back in the first century had a different understanding of the Greek word chorise, translated grace, than we have when we hear the word grace today, that you may comprehend. That means we have to stop and think. We have to stop and analyze what do we comprehend about grace? What do we understand about God?

Because it's one of those concepts we've all heard about, and we can just take it for granted, and it can become just part of our everyday life. But we may not comprehend exactly what it is that God wants us to understand.

In verse 18, you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Paul wraps a lot into those few verses.

He knew. He knew what he was talking about. He knew what he wanted the people to understand. And when we understand what it is that God has given us, maybe much more than we have comprehended. It should be a motivator to us. It should be something that draws us closer to Him.

You know, Satan has done a marvelous job. He's done a marvelous job of making the things of God seem not holy, but seem common.

You know, all we have to do is look around us in the world today, and whether we work outside the home or go to school, whatever we do, we see something—we hear the name of God used as a common, everyday expression.

No matter where you go, you can be in the store and you hear people using God's name and Jesus' name, just as if it was any expression that you can come up with, and more so, it seems, than any of the expressions they might use. You know, years ago, you would hear euphemisms for God and Jesus Christ. Today, you don't even hear those euphemisms anymore. People just use God's name and Jesus Christ's name in vain all the time. It's become very common. It has absolutely no reverence when they say it. It has no meaning in their minds when they say it. They do not comprehend what they are saying. And in an environment like that, we could be in danger of the same thing, of it becoming too common for us, and not being able to distinguish, as the Bible tells us, the holy, the things that we should be having reverence for from the unholy. Satan's done a really good job, a really good job of minimizing the things of God. Let's go back to Leviticus 19. I'm sorry, Leviticus 10. Leviticus 10, and let's look at something that God himself instructed the priests back at the time of the Old Testament tabernacle, the physical tabernacle. What to do? Leviticus 10. And in verse 8, it says, Notice what he said as an introduction to verse 10. Don't drink wine or intoxicating drink. You, nor your sons, with you, when you go into the tabernacle of meeting, and he accentuates that with, Lest you die.

Now, it's an interesting verse because there's nothing wrong with drinking wine. There's nothing wrong with drinking intoxicating drink. But God says, when you come into my tabernacle, when you come into my temple, don't you drink wine and don't you drink intoxicating drink.

Now, why would God say that? Well, because when you come into the tabernacle of God, and for us today, when you come to services, when you go to a Bible study, when you do your Bible study at home, you know, God would say, don't preface that with a drink.

Keep your mind clear so that the Holy Spirit can work through you. Because some of the substances we can take can cloud what we're thinking. And when we come into God's presence and when we study and when we come before God, it is holy time. Today is holy time. And God says, you know what? You leave that behind you. Priests, don't you do that? It's an interesting thing, and he really accentuates this when he says, if you do it, you will die.

And he follows it up in verse 9, saying, it'll be a statute forever, throughout your generations, that you may distinguish between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean.

You can do it the rest of the time when you're fellowshiping with people, if you want a drink, no problem. If you want a glass of wine with dinner, no problem. When you come before me, that's not the time. Distinguish between holy and unholy. Or, as we'll see later, the word unholy can mean common. Coming before God at any time is not common time. It's the time that we should hold in reverence as we come before His throne.

Well, that was the Old Testament during the physical temple. Let's go forward to Ezekiel.

In Ezekiel 44, we find the Millennial Temple that talks about how it will be built, how it will be serviced, what the people should do in Millennial time with the temple that will be operating at that time.

In Ezekiel 44, we find a similar command for the priests of that time. Let's pick it up in verse 17. And see some of the commands that God gives to the priests in Millennial times when Jesus Christ is on earth, when the temple is operating, when they go in to serve Him. And here, He talks about some of the clothes that they should wear. Verse 17, it shall be, whenever they enter the gates of the inner court, that they shall put on linen garments. No wool shall come upon them while they minister within the gates of the inner court or within the house. God is pretty detailed here of what He wants them to do. They shall have linen turbans on their heads and linen trousers on their bodies. They shall not clothe themselves with anything that causes sweat. They're coming into a place that is of God, and as they would follow His directions and what He wants them to do. Verse 19, when they go out to the outer court, to the outer court, to the people, this would be the common area because it was just the priests who were allowed to go into the inner court, but in the outer court, the people would come. When they go out to the outer court, to the outer court, to the people, they shall take off their garments in which they have ministered, leave them in the holy chambers, and put on other garments. And in their holy garments, they shall not sanctify the people. So when you go out into the common areas, wear something different. What you wear there, you wear for God in His presence. In verse 20, He even gives them how they should wear their hair. They shall neither shave nor heads, nor let their hair grow long, but they shall keep their hair well trimmed.

There are some standards that God has set for the temple at that time. Verse 21, He repeats what we read back in Leviticus 10. No priest shall drink wine when he enters the inner court.

Down in verse 23, and again He repeats why. They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the unholy, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.

There is a distinction. The things of God, the name of God, the things we read in the Bible. These are holy things that are unique to God and unique to our calling. They should never be taken for granted. They should never be considered common. Or the things that we get used to, but whenever we hear the name of God, it should conjure up in our minds who He is, what He's about, what He's done for us. When we hear the name Jesus Christ, what it's about. When we hear words like grace, it doesn't just conjure up something that we've heard all our lives, if we've been in the church all our lives, or whether we've been in another church all our lives, because grace is something that has become very common in the world and among its religions. Now let me show you here in verse 23 a Hebrew word. When it says, they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the unholy, that word unholy can mean common. In fact, in some cases, it's called common. The new King James doesn't use that word. I think the old King James even uses the word profane. Profane meaning people aren't holding it in the high esteem that it should be because it's of God. And so he says, I want you to teach, and all of you remember there's a difference between the holy and the profane. Back in a couple of chapters in chapter 42 here in verse 20, we find the same word that's translated unholy in chapter 42, verse 23. Here in verse 20, when it's discussing the physical measurements of the temple, in verse 20 of chapter 42, it says, He measured it on the four sides. It had a wall all around, 500 cubits long and 500 wide, to separate the holy areas from the common. Same Greek word, translated common, in 42, translated unholy, in chapter 44 means the same thing. Let's go back to one more verse in Ezekiel, this time back in chapter 22, and see how important this is to God. In chapter 22, of course, this is the time before Christ's return, He's talking about the ministers of Israel, the people who are teaching the people of that time, and they have led the people astray. They're not paying attention. They're not discerning between the holy and the unholy, as you read through the chapter here, but let's drop down to verse 26, and see God's conclusion on this. He says, Her priests, these priests who have been teaching Israel, who have been schooling Him in the ways of God, Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things. They've made them not important. They've made them not of consequence. They profaned My holy things. They haven't distinguished between the holy and the common. Same word used in 44-23. Nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean. They've hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so I am profaned among them.

They haven't paid attention. They've taught the people something different than what God intended. They didn't discern between the holy and the common. And too many times they made what is holy very, very common. And so grace falls into the same category with the name of God and with the name of Jesus Christ. You can go onto any website. You can probably turn on any Sunday morning program. You're going to hear, Grace, grace, grace, grace, grace.

But you're going to hear a different grace, you will see, than what we read in the Bible and what the people at the time of Paul and the first century would have thought when they heard the Greek word chorise that is translated grace. Now, there is, you know, when we study the Bible, and we've talked about this in the past, we've heard about the home Bible studies last year, we talked about methods of studying the Bible.

And that in order to study, study is different than reading, different than meditating, different than hearing a sermon. It can incorporate all of that. But when you study the Bible, you have to go outside. Sometimes you have to understand what was being said at the time that it was written. You know, we've said many times the Bible was written to people of an agricultural background. When they heard about sheaves of wheat, they knew exactly what it was. We might have to look up and see what does a sheave of wheat look like. When they heard about grapes and pruning grapes, they knew exactly what was being talked about.

We might have to look it up and say, what does pruning grapes have to do with anything? So we have to do a little bit of study to understand some of the physical examples that God gives us so that we can understand the spiritual. We know some of those others. We've talked about them. I mean, Jesus Christ and God are very good about giving us the physical that we like. For instance, we talk about sheep, right? And shepherds. The people back then understood what sheep and shepherds were. We read about them and we get to know, well, these are what sheep do, these are what shepherds do.

They're a picture of God's people. We read some of the parables, and, you know, God gives us a very plain example. We can understand today if someone told you that there was hidden treasure in your backyard, what would you do? Hidden treasure that would set you up for the rest of your life, you would sell all that you had to go get that hidden treasure. Or the pearl of great price. And we can identify with that and realize that God has given us so much more important than the hidden treasure or the pearl of great price.

Are we willing to sell all that we have? Are we willing to sacrifice what we have? Because we count that and comprehend it as important as it is. And so, when God gives grace, and uses the word grace, translated from the Greek word chareis, C-H-A-R-I-S, it's not surprising that when Paul talked about that, he would use a physical example of what was going on in society at that time that the people would immediately understand, this is what happens physically, what happens, and they could take it and translate it into, this is what happens spiritually.

And in the book on grace, again, this is one section of it, but I wanted to speak on it today, and I'll speak another time on something else, but this is just one small part of this booklet. I want to read to you, the light in Jacksonville was better, so I may stumble through some of this, I want to read to you from pages 72 and 73 of this booklet on grace, because in it they give a very good example of what chareis was back in the days of Rome. For those of you who have read this, you will find this familiar, those of you who haven't read it, I hope it whets your appetite to go and look in the book and read it all, because it's unlike anything you've read before.

Now, this example comes from a book written by a Randolph Richards and Brandon O'Brien. The title of the book is, Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes, Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible. I think it's a book I'm getting. But here on pages 162 to 164, they explain what grace was like in the first century, when the people hearing Paul speak or reading his epistles, what they would think of. And he gives kind of a physical example of it, so we can see what happened in the Roman society and the society of that time.

Okay, it says, Imagine a young baker named Marcus in the town of Philippi. Marcus learned to bake bread from his father. The family business stretched back to the founding of Philippi five generations back. Marcus's family was, consequently, one of the founding fathers of the Baker's Guild. When his father was young, okay, so this predates Marcus, okay, it goes back to his father. When his father was young, a fire destroyed the family bakery. Marcus's father went to a wealthy widow, a cloth merchant who was also from the province of Lydia, to seek help.

Julia Lydia loaned the father the money. Okay, I'm making you understand, right? So listen closely to my words. I'm reading them as I go to. Julia Lydia loaned the money to rebuild the bakery. Thus began an enduring relationship. The type is very small, so in my defense. Okay, so what we have here, let me give you the scenario, okay? We have a family, and it's not like today where if we lose one job, we can go out and find another job, right?

Their family business was a bakery. That's what they had always done dating back to five generations. That was what the family did. Son after son after son learned the profession, and that's the way they made their money. Devastatingly, devastatingly, back at the time the father was young, the bakery burned down. The family found itself in a tough situation. They didn't have the money to rebuild the bakery.

Their livelihood was over. There was nothing else they could do. So the father at that time went to a wealthy widow who was known as a patron. They called him back at that time. Explained the situation to her, and she was willing to loan the money, or to give the money, I should say. That gift that she gave was Carice. C-H-A-R-I-S. The same word translated grace. She knew that Marcus's father had absolutely no ability to repay that loan. And she didn't give that— I won't strike the word loan— had no ability to repay what she had given him.

She gave it to him out of the goodness of her heart to help him rebuild what it had so it could go on. So we see in this first paragraph here a patron, a lady, who wasn't the bank, who wasn't just giving a loan, but she was willing to give the Carice to someone. Marcus was the client. He accepted the Carice and thus began an enduring relationship. There wasn't a relationship, necessarily, between the two before, but when he accepted Carice from her, the relationship began. Okay. Let's go on. Today—now that was Marcus's father—today, here several years later, today Marcus sells all his bread to Lydia, including all of the members of her extended household, plus all the other friends, the various merchants with whom Lydia does business.

These customers give Marcus all the business he and his young sons can handle. He sells his bread at a reasonable price, and his family makes a good, though modest living. Lydia assures that no one takes advantage of anyone. So here's the relationship. Here it is. Your past father took the Carice from Lydia. And here's Marcus. He's living in this relationship that his father began because it's an enduring relationship. He remembers, he knows, that if Lydia hadn't given him that Carice, they would be out of business.

Who knows what they would be doing? When he took that Carice, he became part of her circle of friends, if you will, her part of circle of business associates, and they all worked together. And so there was enough among all the other clients that she had that was able to keep him busy. And so he baked bread for all those clients in that circle of friends with Lydia being the patron.

It was a family, and the family supported each other, and the family kept to the rules that the patron set.

There was the aspect of gratitude, lasting gratitude, and the aspect of this is a relationship, not a one-sided relationship, but a two-sided relationship. You give me Carice, and I accept it. There's something I do for you, too. Okay, let's go on here. Three years ago, the barley sellers raised their prices. All the bakers panicked. Naturally, Marcus asked his patroness to help. She invited the patron of the barley merchants to dinner. During a civilized meal, Lydia mentioned her friend Marcus and his difficult situation. The two patrons discussed how they could best help their friends, arriving at a fair price for barley flour. Lydia did what was appropriate as the patron of Marcus the baker.

So Marcus is going along. Everything's going along fine. He's baking bread. He's got plenty of business. Lydia's happy. Her other clients are happy. He's happy. They've got a living going. She's not asking for repayment of Carice. She knows. I gave it to you. But then you have this relationship with me. But he runs into a snag down the road. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, barley flour increases. What do I do? This is a large problem, and Marcus can't solve it himself. So what does he do? Does he panic? Does he get to spade? No, he goes to Lydia. And Lydia, as the patron knows, is her responsibility, then, as the giver of Carice. And the leader of this family, if you will, I need to solve this problem. It's my problem, too. I have to solve. I have to give Marcus what it is that he needs in order to continue his business. It's in the interest of him, and it's in the interest of everyone else. She is watching out, and as things occur then and as things occur later in life, Marcus knows, I'm not going outside to look. I'm going to Lydia. I'm going to my patron. She'll help. And sure enough, she does. Going on. Of course, such relationships that were created from Carice, of course, such relationships were two-sided. Last year, one of Lydia's slaves awakened Marcus in the middle of the night. Lydia needed a favor. She had received special guests, and she was planning an elaborate dinner party for some wealthy families of Philippi, for which she needed special bread to serve at the important banquet. She needed Marcus to cook something special. How could he refuse his patroness? It took all night, but he made sure the bread was ready. Now, he could have said, now wait a minute. Now wait a minute. I don't want to do that. I really expect me to stay up all night and do this. I mean, come on. I've been baking bread for all of your associates, and everything is going along fine. But he realized there were times in life that she wanted something as well. And he understood it's my responsibility to give her what she needs. Look what she did for my family way back when. Whatever she needs, I'm willing to do. I'll give up that night's sleep. I'll give up whatever it is, because it's that important as part of the relationship created by Carice between patron and client. One more paragraph from this book, kind of explaining a little bit about what we've read here in this example. It says, the rules for what was expected of a patron and a client were not painted on Roman city walls. The rules for the truly foundational institutions of society, like family and patronage, went without being said. Everyone knew what the proper behavior was. A good patron solved the problems of his or her clients assisting with trade guilds, business disputes, refinancing loans, and easing tensions with city elders. The patron did favors for the clients, who then fell under the circle of influence and protection. In return, the client was expected to be loyal, that is faithful, and was sometimes asked to do things for the patron. And so we see this cycle. And when Paul would use the word Carice, when he would talk, people in Rome knew exactly what it meant. It wasn't like grace today. Let me give you a definition of grace today that I pulled off of a random website. When I pulled up what is grace, they all would say about the same thing. And this is what grace today means to the world around us, and probably still sticks in our mind a little bit. The grace of God. Grace is favor, unmerited favor. Salvation comes by grace. Grace is, therefore, God's unmerited favor. His goodness toward those who have no claim on, nor reason to expect divine favor.

The principal manifestation of God's grace has been in the form of a gift. That's actually a pretty good definition of what the world thinks. You can see, though, it's all one-sided. It's all about what Jesus Christ did for us. There's absolutely nothing in grace that would talk about what the appropriate response to Carice is.

Yet in the Roman mind and in the first century mind and in Paul's mind, the people who would read Carice hear it as Paul talked about it and read about it in his epistles, they would immediately know this is a two-sided relationship. If we, when you accept the Carice, you have a responsibility to the patron. It isn't business as usual. You give up prior life to become what the patron expects you to be when you expect that gift.

Now, just one more section here from the booklet. This is on page 70. Again, this is just one small, small part of this booklet. This comes from a book titled Paul and the Greco-Roman World, a handbook, published in 2016. This is from page 206. It says, once that social contract of Carice was established, a new set of dynamics came into play. The new client was expected to show respect and gratitude to the patron, to render certain services to him, and to support his political, economical, and social activities. You're going to accept Carice from me? I'm going to save your life. I'm going to rescue you your life. Then what your job in return is, if I accept it from you, then I accept what you believe. I accept what you want me to do, your social, political, economic outlook. What did the patron do for his client? The influential patron protected the client's economical, social, and legal interests by letting him profit from the patron's social connections and by allowing him access to the patron's resources. In short, the new client might receive needed funding or other important benefits, but he was now in a lifelong relationship with the patron. A lifelong relationship with the patron who expected a certain mindset from his clients, as well as acts of gratitude.

Now, I dare say, in a world that has made grace very common and all about Jesus Christ, and we have to do nothing in return, we're told, that hearing what the first century people would think about grace would come as a shock. For those of us who have studied grace, and we've talked about it here before, not so much of a shock to us, but to know that there was a system in society that was so symbolic of what Paul was talking about, in a spiritual sense, should open our eyes to what grace is and what God expects of us. It wasn't anything simple. It wasn't anything that we might just think, oh, Jesus Christ died for us, and we know that's a magnificent thing, a magnitude that we may yet need to comprehend, how important that is, that really without Christ's death, we are all dead men. We're living today, and when our breath expires, or when we take our last breath, that would be the end of it, because that's what we've earned. And as Paul wrote his letters and as he talked about what was going on in Rome, and he's talked about grace, it became clear to them that we all have incurred a debt that we can't simply pay.

But Jesus Christ paid it. He paid it. And he's the only one who could pay it. And there's only one way for that debt to be paid, and that's with Jesus Christ. And for everyone in this room, and everyone hearing this message, and others around the world who have been called by God, when we accept that carise, there's a responsibility that is incumbent on us. It isn't just all about Jesus Christ. It is all about Jesus Christ and the fact that he's the patron, and he's the only one. The only one who could pay that debt for us and rescue us from death.

But it's all about us. We can't possibly repay that debt.

But when we accept it, we enter into a lifelong relationship with God in which we are expected to follow his way. Not our old ways. Not the way it used to be. But when we accept that, then part of the carise is, you turn your life to me. To the patron.

Like I said, Paul was very aware of that. Let's look at a few things that Paul wrote here, because he's the one who spoke about carise quite a bit in his epistles. And in the book of Romans, it's a treatise on salvation. He goes from the beginning to the end, proving that all, whether they were Jew or Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, they were all sinners.

They all had earned death, and there was only one payment, only one way for that debt to be paid, and that was through Jesus Christ. But here at the end of the book of Romans, just to show that the society that they lived in, and this concept of patron and client, was very much alive. Let's look at chapter 16, the last chapter in Romans, verse 1.

Paul, as he's beginning to wind down his epistle, he says, Now it's kind of an innocuous verse, right? All of us could say, you know, we've helped someone.

But here's a translation of a word in the Greek that's been translated helper. I think in the Old King James, it's succor, s-u-c-c-o-u-r-e-r. That's maybe a little bit more descriptive, if we know what that means, than helper. But actually, the Greek word translated helper there comes from the Greek number 4368. It literally means patroness, defined as a woman set over others, a female guardian, protectress, caring for the affairs of others, and aiding them with her resources. She was kind of like Lydia Julia in our example. Here she was. She was a patron to some of the people in the church there. Paul says, she's even helped me. And he tells the church, look what she's done for you. She was selfish. She was looking out for the best interests. The patrons always were looking out for the best interests of their clients. And he says, whatever she needs, you assist her. Because look what she's done. Look what she's done for us in the church.

So they were well aware of the responsibilities of a patron, well aware of the responsibilities of a client in this environment that they live. Now let's go back to the beginning of Romans and look at a few things. We've talked about a patron. The patron gives carries.

The appropriate response of the client is to repay it with faith and loyalty. The Greek word, pistis. P-I-S-T-I-S. And often when you see grace, you might see pistis or faith really close to it because it's a give and take relationship. It's a two-sided relationship. Carise is given. And faith is the appropriate response. Romans 1, let's begin in verse 1 and read down through verse 5 or 6 here.

We have received carise. Through him we've received our life back. Through him we've received the opportunity for eternal life that we couldn't possibly by any other means have. The only thing we've earned is death. And the only one who could give us that carise is Jesus Christ. Through him we have received carise and apostleship for obedience to the pistis, to the faith among all nations for his name. We've received carise. Why? So we could be the apostles for obedience to the faith among all nations. We've received carise. Our job is to give pistis faith to our patron. And I don't need to go through, I hope, the analogy here that Jesus Christ is our patron and we are all clients of his. We have accepted that carise if we've been baptized, once we've been called, the one we've been baptized. We've accepted that carise and our appropriate response is faith and loyalty to him and to live by the rules of that association. Just like Marcus had to live by the rules of the body and the family and the clientele of Lydia. So we, our appropriate response is to live by the rules, by the way, of our patron who tells us exactly what he expects of us if we accept carise, what he expects us to do. And if we comprehend, if we comprehend the value of that gift carise, we would be motivated to do it. If we really understood carise, we wouldn't be talking about compromising. We wouldn't be talking about, do I need to do this, or can I do away with that? Does God really care if I do this? We would know, absolutely. And I'm motivated because I get and I comprehend what God has done for me. I understand the gift he's given me freely. And in response to that, I'm doing exactly what he said, and I'm going to become like him at whatever sacrifice to me that is. Carise, and knowing what it is, should motivate us. Paul goes on in verse 6, talking about him in verse 5, he says, Among whom you also are called of Jesus Christ, every single one of us who have had the same gift offered to us in this day and age. And it isn't God's will in this day and age to offer carise in the way the Bible understands it's to everyone. Only to those he calls. It's a very special time. Eventually, everyone will be offered the gift. But today, some of us. Now let's go forward to chapter 5. And with this understanding of carise and the two-sided relationship that it implies, and what the people in the first century would have heard, and what they would have understood as Paul was talking, and they got it. This man, Jesus Christ, died for us. That's an incredible gift. And if I accept it, I understand what I'm committing to. Chapter 5, verse 1. Therefore, chapter 4 talks about Abraham. And Abraham's response, appropriately, to God was pistes in faith. It was accounted to him for righteousness because he believed God to the very depth of his being. And because he believed, he did what God wanted him to do and obeyed all of his commandments, all of his statutes, all of his laws, whatever God asked. Abraham understood and wanted to please God in payment for what he had done or in response. Chapter 5, verse 1. Therefore, having been justified by pistes, been justified by faith, because we believe what God has done for us and what he's offered to us, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this crease in which we stand.

Into this grace, this whole concept of what God is doing for you and me. More than just forgiveness of sin, certainly that's part of it. But this whole life that he has called us into, this whole body that he's called us into, this whole association with the same purpose, the way he looks out for everything that we do because he's got something in mind for you and me.

And he's very, very interested in us and has our best interest at heart. Though when Paul is talking about this, it says we have access by faith because we believe him and that belief motivates us. And when we remember the crease he's given to us, this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God, he says, you know what? Even these problems that come our way, we don't worry about them. We don't look at them as other people did. Verse 3, and not only that, but we glory in tribulations. Our patron has our best interest at heart. Our patron knows what we need to be. Our patron knows what the end effects of that grace will be that we won't even see until Jesus Christ returns and we become like him. Not only that, but we also glory in tribulations knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, character, and character hope. Hope doesn't disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which was given to us. Given to us as part of the crease. When we respond to God with faith, when we respond and we're baptized, and we bury self and separate the past from what we now become when we voluntarily take that crease and accept that gift, he gives us the Holy Spirit. For when we were still, without strength and due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for our righteous man will one die. Yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. When we were hopeless beings and we didn't even know any better, he paid the price then.

He didn't even wait for us to accept, he just did it. Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled by God through the death of his Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

We accepted the crease. He paid the price. Now we have a responsibility in turn. Strap down to verse 21. The same chapter. Paul here, as he goes through, he uses a lot of words here, he boils it down to what we have in verse 21.

As sin reigned in death, before you accepted crease, you were a different person. You didn't know it, but all of a sudden you had something in your life and you realized, I'm hopeless. My life is over.

Without crease, I have nothing. That was the past sinful life. And that sin, that life we lived, the end result was death. Only death.

Until we understood crease. Until we accepted crease. As sin reigned in death, even so crease, our acceptance of what God offers, even so crease, might reign through righteousness.

To eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. It reigns through righteousness, not the old sinful life, not doing things the way we used to do them. But when we accept crease, when we accept Christ as our patron, per se, the incumbent or the expected response is, we no longer live by this other set of rules. We live by Him because of our faith, our loyalty, and our commitment to Him. And when we live by the Word of God, it's known as righteousness. That's the appropriate response to crease. If there is no righteousness, we have not accepted crease, and we do not understand or comprehend what it is.

The world at large does not understand crease the way the Bible clearly talks about it. You and I should. And if we get it, if we comprehend it, then the appropriate response is, whatever we need to sacrifice, to become the way our patron wants us to become, we're willing to do it.

Let's go on to chapter 6 here and look at a few verses. Verse 1.

Paul answers it, certainly not.

Don't you get when you accepted that crease, when you were baptized? That meant old life was over. A new association, a new way of life, a new family that you would be dealing with. Not the old, but the new. Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

When Marcus accepted crease from Lydia Julia, he walked in a different way of life. He did things differently. He understood what her way is. He supported her with her heart and mind. He was part of her association, part of her body, and he knew that she had his best interest at heart. Whatever came his way, she would watch out for him. That was just part of the relationship that was there. Now let's go over to another one of Paul's writings here in Colossians. Colossians 3. The expected response to crease is, we walk in newness of life.

Colossians 3. Let's pick it up in verse 8. The Scriptures we often read around Passover time and Unleavened Bread, the next Holy Day season that we'll come into. Let's pick it up in verse 8 here in Colossians 3. He is talking to this Gentile church that would have understood what crease was to. Now you yourselves are to put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthily language out of your mouth. Don't lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds. And you've put on the new man. You're no longer that last person. Now you've entered into a new relationship, and there's an expectation of you. You've put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. And in that new association, there is neither Greek nor Jew. We don't segregate and say, I'm not going to talk with that person because he's a Greek, or I'm not going to talk with that person because he's a Jew. All part of the same body, all part of the same unit, all have the same patron. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free. But Christ is all and in all. He's the patron. Everyone in that body, when they accept his chorise, become like him. And he is patron to them all. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering. These are the ways of life that your patron, when you accept his chorise, expect us, expect all of his people to be doing. Bear with one another. Forgive one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these, put on agape, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you also were called, in one body, and be thankful.

And you can go on and read the rest of that. When God calls us, when we accept chorise, he puts us in a body. And he works with us through good times, through bad times, through trial, through tribulation. He's always our patron. He's always there. He promises, whatever you need, call on me. But live, as part of your responsibility, you live in accordance with the gift that you've been given. Let's go back to Ephesians. We were in Ephesians earlier this time. Let's look at chapter 2. Chapter 2 of Ephesians, verse 4. God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace. By chorise, you have been saved. Couldn't do it on your own. Can't repay the gift. It's not a loan schedule or an amortization schedule that you repay, freely given to us. Made us alive together with Christ by chorise, you've been saved, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his chorise in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. His chorise isn't over. We'll see more of it as he returns, and as time goes on, and as we live our lives as good clients to our patron. Verse 8, for by chorise you've been saved through pistis. The world would want to say, just end that verse 8 right there, for grace, by grace, you've been saved.

But that's not what it says. For by chorise you've been saved through pistis, through faith, through loyalty, toward the life that you live, toward your patron, and how you act, react, behave in that association that you've entered into.

And that not of yourselves, he says, is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship. He's made us alive. He's given us life. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Good works are expected. Good works don't save us, but good works are part of the appropriate response to chorise.

And in verse 11, just the first two words there, therefore, remember.

Kind of a key word in all of our lives, right? Remember who we were. Remember what God has done. Remember what God has done for me. What my life is. And what it would be if I didn't know that it would literally be over. And I accepted chorise. And what is accepted to me? If I comprehend what chorise is and what's been done, it'll be a motivator.

It'll be a motivator, and sometimes we need to stop and remember. Stop and remember.

And then we might see things a little more clearly, just like we need to maybe stop and comprehend some of the things we've talked about today, some of the things you'll read in this booklet.

So Paul, as he talked to the first century world there, and he used the term grace a lot over a hundred times, they knew exactly what he was talking about. They saw his life as an example of chorise, that he was willing to go through anything because he appreciated what God had done.

He saw himself as he's been unworthy of that chorise, but because he saw what God had done for him, he was willing to go through everything that we read about in the Scriptures.

And he counted it as all joy, glory to God to do it. He understood in Romans 12 verse 1, he was saying this, and it should have an impact on us as we look at what God has done for us.

He says in Romans 12 verse 1, a very familiar verse, 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 reasonable service.

How reasonable is it when God has saved us that we would be willing to give our lives to him in whatever he asked, whatever he asked us to overcome, whatever he asked us to do, that we would be willing to do it if we comprehended the gift that he has given us.

You know, that's not all of grace, but grace is our life. We live under the grace of God. He knows every one of us. He knows exactly what we need to do. He has our best interest at heart. And in this grace that we stand in, he's looking to see, do we respond in kind? Will we grow? Will we change? Do we count it the greatest blessing that it could possibly be, what God has done for us?

Let me conclude in 2 Peter.

2 Peter. 2 Peter. He came to understand what grace, what chorise was as well. And that it wasn't just a limited thing that maybe we've all grown up with and even is still in the back of our minds that Jesus Christ is just kind of happy with what we do and that he doesn't expect us to live by every word of God. He does expect it and it is our reasonable service if. If we believe and if we're responding in kind. 2 Peter 3, let's look at verse 17. You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware, lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked. Now we should be well aware of what the error of the wicked in the world around us is today. That God doesn't really mean what he says. And when he says something, it's okay if we do it 50% or 75% or 90%. No, that's the error of the wicked.

Do it as he says, when he says, and with your heart, that you don't be led away with the error of the wicked, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever.