Is God a God of grace first? or is grace the exception?

[Behold]

God is very interesting.

 

He gave the Law to lead you to His Grace.

 

He wants to give you eternal life for free.

 

His love is unconditional.

 

One of the most interesting things He ever created is the ability that you have to perceive beauty.

You've seen a beautiful flower, sunset, landscape, mountain range, .......on and on.

HE created this innate ability you have, so that you recognize beauty.

This same trait, is God's.    You can tell, as ......just look around you., or look up.   As God created the solar system as a big box of colors and beautiful LIGHTS.

God has this thing about LIGHT.

His entire universe and His entire Kingdom is all about Light.

 

 

[Tzephanyahu]

7 minutes ago, Isaiah43:25 said:

This is more or less my understanding and thoughts as well. Which is probably why this pastor's original comment prompted my question here.

Amen, then we're on the same page.

In some people's zeal for grace and mercy (either for themselves or to "sell" the Gospel to others) they get unbalanced and God becomes a bit of a soppy pushover in their eyes.  This is not like Yahweh of the Bible though.

Unless we first fear Yahweh, we cannot love Him properly and truly.  If we first love Yahweh, then there is no room for fear after and such people will struggle with His Word - favouring a passage here and there rather than the whole in context. 

Truly, the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of Wisdom.  And a God of Justice will make more people repent than a God of Grace - for where is the incentive in the latter?

Love & Shalom to you.

[john1]

1 hour ago, Isaiah43:25 said:

God is a God of grace first.

Romans chapter 11 verse 32

For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

 

Romans chapter 2 verse 6

God "will repay each person according to what they have done."

 

1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 13

their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's work.

 

Malachi chapter 3 verse 18

And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.

 

But Jesus said if you want to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven you must be servant of all.

So God still wants us to show LOVE and  MERCY.

[Behold]

35 minutes ago, Tzephanyahu said:

 

In some people's zeal for grace and mercy (either for themselves or to "sell" the Gospel to others) they get unbalanced and God becomes a bit of a soppy pushover in their eyes.  This is not like Yahweh of the Bible though.Unless we first fear Yahweh, we cannot love Him properly and truly.  If we first love Yahweh, then there is no room for fear after and such people will struggle with His Word - favouring a passage here and there rather than the whole in context.  Truly, the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of Wisdom.  And a God of Justice will make more people repent than a God of Grace - for where is the incentive in the latter?

 

The "fear" of God you are posting about, is not to be  related to being afraid of a Type of God who has  Thunderbolts in one Hand and a Pipe Bomb in the other, ready to cast them at someone for forgetting to pray 4x toward Mecca,  yesterday.    This God who would require that nonsense, would be the fake one......Allah.  He is the one that demands of you this type of fear that you are very close to describing as something that The Father of Christ demands.

The real God, as CREATOR, demands respect "God is NOT MOCKED"... However, with regards to the born again...  the type of "fear" that the bible is talking about is a sincerely deep reverence .....its a specific type of GRACE INSPIRED AWE..

The scripture says....>"work out your salvation with fear and trembling".......yet, Its God who has worked it out already, using Christ's blood.   So, the fear and trembling, ...this idea is not related  to  you cowering under a bed, dripping sweat from irrational fear.  But instead, its the heart of a believer that has an understanding of the Grace of God that is so overwhelming, that they just want to thank Him and thank Him and thank Him for the Cross.

It is the Grace of God that leads people to Him.  Not Fear.

The only time fear (in the Christian Sense)  is an appropriate method to use on someone, is to cause an unbeliever to fear going to hell.  Thats a good fear.  Thats a smart fear.   Jude 1:23 talks about the Preacher who is so zealous to keep people out of hell that he tries to pluck them out using words of FEAR.   It can be done.

Jesus on the Cross is the Grace of God that leads people to God.....>Not Fear.

The Holy Spirit causes the inner heart of a person to see God's Love on THE Cross that is wanting to forgive them, and they kneel and God says....>"welcome SON-DAUGHTER".

This is not fear driving them to their knees....this is God's  GRACE Kissing their Heart.

Edited November 22, 2019 by Behold

[Alive]

I agree. Awe.

Throughout my entire experience with the Lord, what I have seen of Him is a tender love.

I recall a time when I had been going through a trial and even a crisis of faith about 26 years ago.

In a moment, I felt shame and found myself crying out to God, looking to Heaven and said--"Lord, what am I doing".

He immediately showed me a vision. I saw Jesus standing next to the Father (although I couldn't see the Father that was the sense). I could see Jesus. He was just next to me on my left. I turned to him and he gave a short nod and wee smile. I heard in my head. "Its OK".

The affect of that moment can't be explained. The lingering sense was that 'everything was alright' that He was with me.

This is the Lord that I know. He is absolutely gentle and loving toward a son and I absolutely know that I don't deserve it.

These things have an affect on a person.

[JohnD]

Only that pastor knows what he meant, of course.

But I'd imagine the fact that God gives us life in the first

place is what that pastor was talking about.

[Behold]

18 hours ago, Alive said:

I agree. Awe.

Throughout my entire experience with the Lord, what I have seen of Him is a tender love.

I recall a time when I had been going through a trial and even a crisis of faith about 26 years ago.

In a moment, I felt shame and found myself crying out to God, looking to Heaven and said--"Lord, what am I doing".

He immediately showed me a vision. I saw Jesus standing next to the Father (although I couldn't see the Father that was the sense). I could see Jesus. He was just next to me on my left. I turned to him and he gave a short nod and wee smile. I heard in my head. "Its OK".

The affect of that moment can't be explained. The lingering sense was that 'everything was alright' that He was with me.

This is the Lord that I know. He is absolutely gentle and loving toward a son and I absolutely know that I don't deserve it.

These things have an affect on a person.

A crisis of Faith is the evolution of it.

Christians, most, have the idea that we are to never question God, never to wonder "what is THIS".....That God is somehow going to be offended if we question, or even have doubts.   But this is exactly what we must do, as this is proof that we are working it out, "fear and trembling", learning, getting DEEPER.   

Doubt, is the seed of a new level.   Its not the end, its the pruning that begins the next.

Faith, if it stagnates, becomes a crisis of faith.   Its like......a Jet keeps flying  as long as its going forward....If it stops, it falls from the sky.   And Faith is the same.  If we dont use it, if we dont send it to God, and use Him with out faith, then our faith rusts,  starves, dies.

This is why we must always keep our needs sent to God.   This pleases Him, and it keeps our Faith it top working order.

Using God,  keeps our faith active, and it pleases God.

Edited November 23, 2019 by Behold

[Revlori]

Hello my friend,

 

What does this mean exactly? 

Grace is God choosing to bless us rather than curse us as our sin deserves.

What would he be a God of second?

Grace would actually be the second, the first would be love. God's grace follows who he is , which is love!!!

God is love and has demonstrated that love in everything that he does. Paul compares faith, hope, and love, and concludes that "the greatest of these is love" ( 1 Cor 13:13 ).

"God Is Love." Agape [ajgavph], the love theme of the Bible, can only be defined by the nature of God. John affirms that "God is love" ( 1 John 4:8 ). God does not merely love; he is love. Everything that God does flows from his love.

John emphasizes repeated

Grace is:the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings.

What exactly are the implications of this? 

"In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace" (Ephesians 1:7).

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:8-10).

God bless ?

[Mike Mclees]

If it were not for grace we would have no hope. Grace is the work of Gods compassion for while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. 

[Isaiah43:25]

On 11/23/2019 at 7:53 AM, Revlori said:

Grace would actually be the second, the first would be love. God's grace follows who he is , which is love!!!

God does not merely love; he is love.

Revlori, I think we need to be careful on how we state this, because it can lead to a major misunderstanding as well. I highly recommend taking a look at AW Tozer's book The Knowledge of the Holy, and read his chapter on Love. It does a nice job breaking down what scripture means when it says God is love. It helped correct a lot of my theology.

If you're able to read this, I'd be very interested to know what you think of it.