Before the offering of Christ for our salvation, God allowed all nations to walk in their own ways, customs, and ignorance. But now, with the grace of Jesus that abounds, He requires all to repent and receive the Christ (Acts 14:16: 17:30; John 4:22).
4.1 Grace to Reconcile the World unto God
God knows mortals are weak in flesh and sinful; and are exposed to the power of Satan, and cannot save themselves. His desire is therefore “to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins…”; and by Grace to reconcile the world to himself, and not to impute their trespasses unto them (Acts 26:15-18; 2 Corinthians 5:19).
In God’s Love for the world, “[He] gave his only begotten Son, [Jesus Christ] that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). This Love that God manifests towards us is not because we love Him. It is the fact that he sent His only begotten son Jesus into a sinful world for the remission of the sins of Israel and the sins of all the world so that “we might live through him” (1 John 4:9-10; 1 John 2:2; Romans 3:25).
God “hast given [Christ] power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as [God] hast given him”. What is eternal life? It is that “[people] might know [God] the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom [God] hast sent” (John 17:2-3). Thus He has given to all mankind (Jews and gentiles alike), the same standard and condition for salvation that even a child can fulfil – i.e. TO BELIEVE IN JESUS WHOM GOD HAS SENT.
“As many as [will receive Jesus], to them (He will give] power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name”; which will be neither under the influence of the “will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). Believers who are born of God are made complete in Christ who is the head over every ruler and authority (Colossians 2:10).
4.2 Grace to Deliver From Spiritual Blindness
God sent Jesus into the world not to condemn the world; “but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17). By the “knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”, believers “[escape] the pollutions of the world” and should not entangle therein again (2 Peter 2:20). He is “the light of the world” that gives the “light of life” that delivers those who believe on him from spiritual blindness and from walking in sin and darkness (John 1:4-5; 8:12).
Brethren, God is a Spirit and if we should walk with him in truth we need to have spiritual understanding of His word and His ways and serve him in spirit and in truth [John 4:24; John 1:16-17). This spiritual discernment comes by believing in Jesus and receiving the power of the Holy Ghost that empowers one to face the challenges of the worldly regimes (John 3:5-6; Acts 1:8; 2:4; 4:31).
Jesus is thus God’s Spirit that was in human flesh that now represents the spirit of God in all those who believe by the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
4.3 Grace to Deliver From Condemnation
He that believes in Jesus is not condemned: but he that does not believe in him is condemned already, “because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God”. The condemnation is “that [God’s] light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:18-19). Those that do evil hate the light of God, and refuse to come to it lest their deeds should be rebuked (John 3:20).
However, by the end, Jesus “shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power as the King Of Kings, And Lord Of Lords. (1 Corinthians 15:24; Revelation 19:16 and 13-21; Ephesians 1:10)
5. FOOD FOR THOUGHT
