In Genesis Four (4), you will see examples of what the grace of God means to people, as illustrated in the lives of the first four people in history...Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel.
https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/cd-cain-abel/
We will then look at helpful definitions and applications for grace and how each of God’s attributes flow down to us from and through His grace.
That’s how important and essential God’s grace is. In other words, we are enabled to experience God in all of His fullness (His nature, His character, and His attributes) through His grace.
In Genesis 4:1-16, we see the sad record of Adam & Eve’s first-born son...Cain. Cain had such a special place in history as the very first human being born into this world.
His parents, Adam & Eve, were both directly created by God, but God used the natural birth process (that He built into Adam & Eve as they were created), with the unique and special ability to reproduce (procreate) to bring Cain and Abel into the world. The Jewish historian Josephus, who lived in Israel at the same time as Christ, recorded that Adam and Eve had a total of 57 children, over their long lives.
When Cain and Abel came into the world, they had to learn how their parents had sinned against God (in the Garden of Eden) and lost their spiritual lives and their relationship with God.
They would have also learned how God offered them redemption and covered their sin with the shed blood of an animal (most likely a lamb). Adam & Eve received God’s offer and used the skins of the slain animal(s) to cover their nakedness and shame, but their guilt also needed covering.
https://lucidtheology.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/the-theological-significance-of-the-garments-of-skin-gen-321/
Within these transactions, was the foretelling (foreshadowing) of Jesus Christ sacrificing up His own holy life, for the permanent and eternal payment of Adam & Eve’s sin...resulting in salvation and eternal life. If you go to heaven, you will have the chance to see and even meet Adam and Eve, at some point during eternity.
Cain and Abel learned these things growing up and knew them well. They also knew that the pardon and forgiveness of their sin required a blood sacrifice, as a type of Christ shedding His own holy blood, while sacrificing His life for Cain and Abel on the cross.
God made it very easy for them to declare their faith in the future Savior, in shedding the blood of an innocent animal, and then offering up that blood as their temporary sacrifice for their sinfulness.
BUT...Cain refused. Out of his pride and stubbornness, He refused the grace God gave him. Instead, Cain offered fruits and vegetables up to God, that he had grown himself, representing the work of his hands...as his temporary sacrifice for his sinful nature and for the sins he had committed up to that point.
His sacrifice omitted killing an innocent animal and offering the blood of that animal up to God...as his sacrifice. So, God rejected Cain’s sacrifice.
God had already shown Adam & Eve, that pardon and forgiveness could not be experienced without the shedding of innocent blood.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=image%3A++adam+and+eved+covered+with+fig+leaves&t=newext&atb=v313-1&ia=images&iax=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fe7.pngegg.com%2Fpngimages%2F482%2F764%2Fpng-clipart-adam-and-eve-garden-of-eden-fig-leaf-common-fig-god-love-leaf.png
Adam & Eve tried to cover their nakedness (which came from their sin against God) with a garment of fig leaves they had sown together themselves (representing the work of their hands trying to cover their sin and showing their attempt to save themselves).
God told them this was insufficient and He Himself killed the first animal (the first death in history), shed its blood, took the skin of the animals, and gave the skin or skins to Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness and shame, caused by their sin of eating the forbidden fruit...specifically a trespass.
Trespass: Going beyond a God-given boundary or refusing to honor a God-given limitation.
Sin: Falling short of honoring a God-given requirement.
Adam and Eve , used the grace God had given them, humbled themselves, and accepted the garments made of an innocent slain animal skin or skins. Thereby, they demonstrated they were accepting God’s forgiveness and the eternal pardon that would eventually come through the shed blood of Jesus Christ in the future.
In faith and by faith, Adam and Eve looked forward to Christ’s shed blood and death on the cross for each of them personally, and were what we call “saved” through this faith.
Cain knew all this and rejected it. In his pride, he set aside the grace of God and the need for a blood sacrifice. When God rejected his sacrifice, but accepted Abel’s blood sacrifice, Cain got very angry.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=image+of+cain+getting+angry+at+god+for+refusing+his+vegetable+offering&t=newext&atb=v31-1&ia=images&iax=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fredeeminggod.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F10%2F4_cain-abel-sacrifices.jpeg
Genesis 4:2-7: Now Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door...it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
He was so angry, he decided to kill his younger brother Abel, which was the first human death in history. He knew he could not kill God, so he satisfied his jealousy, anger, and frustration by killing his brother Abel, who had a faith-relationship with God.
https://pixabay.com/ru/illustrations/%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B7%D0%B4%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9-%D0%B8%D0%B8-%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%B8%D0%BD-%D0%B8-%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C-8881498/
Therefore, Cain and Able represent how each human being who ever lives, can either accept the grace of God to have faith and do what is right with their lives or they can reject the grace of God, and live a self-righteous life, void of faith, obedience, and the covering of their sin (and sins) with the shed blood of Jesus Christ. They set aside the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as irrelevant.
One of the best examples of a human being accepting and using God’s grace to do God’s perfect will, was the Lord Jesus Himself when He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.
He was grieved to the point of sweating blood, when He asked the Father to take His cup of suffering (including His death on the cross) away from him, but he surrendered to what the Father wanted and not what he wanted in his human flesh...to live.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=image+of+christ+sweating+blood+while+praying+in+the+garden&t=newext&atbv3131&ia=images&iax=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fas1.ftcdn.net%2Fjpg%2F07%2F35%2F43%2F10%2F1000_F_735431088_udkbXSxowungFB6X14gRyigmR8MW6PLh.jpg
Therefore, He is the ultimate example to us of using grace in a particular moment in our lives (the desire and power to do God’s perfect will) to choose the Father’s will over what we would choose and want...even when our own will and desires may not be evil at all.
Jesus (who is God in the flesh...in a human body just like ours) needed to depend upon the grace of His father, to be able to endure the cross and the shame (the weight and the curse of the sin that would not even be His) and not do it through His own power...for our sake He allowed the Holy Spirit and the grace of God to help Him endure.
Hebrews 12:2: Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
If He had chosen to, He could have called on legions of powerful angels to come down and take Him off the cross, where He...as a innocent and pure human being...would have avoided the unimaginable pain and suffering, along with the humiliation and utter shame (Matthew 26:53).
John 10:17-18: For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes if from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again.
But He did not do that. By that powerful grace (the same grace available to you and me), He said, “BUT FATHER...YOUR WILL BE DONE AND NOT MY WILL.
This is grace and this is victory!
Judas Iscariot is an example of person who refused to use the grace given to him. He was in such a spiritual struggle, as God’s grace pushed on him to keep serving Christ and not turn away...but Satan kept pushing on him to reject grace, accept the money offered to him, and avoid the persecution coming upon Jesus and His disciples. When he resisted God’s grace, he made the biggest mistake in history!
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=images+of+judas+mourning+his+betayal+and+hanging+himself&iar=images&t=newext&atb=v313-1&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fbiblehub.com%2Fvisuals%2Fpics%2FLINEART_Judas_Hangs_Himself.jpg
This is grace resisted and this is spiritual and moral failure!
Each of us, as a child of God, has to make that decision, whether we want to be like Jesus and use God’s precious grace or be like Judas and resist God’s grace and inherit the consequences. Which way will you go? Which path will you choose?
Let’s explore more of what the grace of God actually is and how it works and what it means to us. Here are some introductory concepts.
...Grace is a divine attribute of God, which is always at work.
...Grace works through the supernatural power of God.
...Grace is the personal and divine influence of God, which is always at work in our lives and in the world at large.
...Grace is the supreme attribute of God that is a part of everything we do or don’t do in life.
...God’s grace working in and through us what makes life worth living.
Many people think that the grace of God is simply His unmerited favor or His unconditional favor, but those qualities are really examples of His mercy...doing something for us we don’t deserve or holding something back from us, that we do deserve.
God’s mercy flows down to us from His grace (as do His other attributes), but grace itself is something altogether different. Grace is the active ingredient in all of His holy attributes, that enables us to experience His perfect nature, through those attributes.
Therefore, grace permeates His attributes into our lives. WE DON’T TAKE ON HIS ATTRIBUTES AS OUR OWN (THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE...for example we could never be sovereign or omniscient or omnipresent), BUT WE PERSONALLY EXPEREINCE AND BENEFIT FROM HIS ATTRIBUTES THROUGH HIS GRACE.
Permeate /pûr′mē-āt″/
intransitive verb
- To pass through the openings or interstices of. "liquid permeating a membrane."
- To spread or flow throughout; pervade: synonym: imbue.
- To spread through or penetrate something.
{The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition •}
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Per·me·ate ˈpər-mē-ˌāt
permeated; permeating
intransitive verb: to diffuse through or penetrate something
transitive verb: to spread or diffuse through a room permeated with tobacco smoke...to pass through the pores or interstices of.
{https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/permeate}
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Synonyms & Similar Words
Visualize grace penetrating your through soul into your inner being (your spirit) to do its work.
- suffuse or imbue: to cause (as a person) to become filled or saturated with a certain quality or principle...saturated with grace.
- pervade: to spread throughout...to spread grace throughout your life.
- flood: as in torrent...a great flow of water (grace) or of something that overwhelms...the Holy Spirit overwhelming you through grace.
- interpenetrate: to spread throughout...grace reaches every part of you.
- saturate: as in to soak or to wet thoroughly with liquid...grace saturates your entire being.
- percolate (into): to spread throughout by the process of percolation...the Holy Spirit will percolate grace through out your being, not missing a single cell.
- transfuse: as in to transmit to cause (something) to pass from one to another...the Holy Spirit transmits grace to you from the person of Jesus Christ. He passes Christ’s grace to you by transmitting it.
- impregnate: the Holy Spirit will impregnate you with Christ’s grace.
- fill (up): the Holy Spirit will literally fill you up with Christ’s grace.
- drench: to make wet...the Holy Spirit will drench you with grace.
- glut: to fill with food to capacity... the Holy Spirit will fill you to capacity with grace.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/permeate
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Grace is like gravity...that unseen force, which is everywhere holding us to the ground, where we belong. Grace is that unseen spiritual force, holding us to God’s spiritual and moral ground, and compelling us to do what is right and good in the sight of God. If you violate the laws of gravity, you get hurt. If you violate the laws of grace, you also get hurt...spiritually, morally, and may be physically.
Let’s continue to consider how all of God’s attributes flow from God’s grace to us. His grace applies these to our lives. His grace holds these attributes in perfect balance, which allows us to keep our personal attributes or character qualities in balance.
His grace is the divine influence, that makes a personal relationship with Him possible. Without grace, we could never know God personally. With grace, we can become thoroughly acquainted with Him in the most intimate ways possible.
With grace operating in us, we can do anything God asks us to do. Without grace, we could do nothing. Grace comes from our beloved Lord Jesus and so, without Him we could do nothing...absolutely nothing.
Think about the time God told Moses to raise up his Shepard’s rod and divide the Red Sea, so the Israelites could walk across to the other side on dry land.
Moses knew he could not divide the Red Sea, just by lifting up his shepard’s staff. It was impossible for him to do that. God knew Moses couldn’t do it either, but God knew He would do it through Moses, as he raised up his rod.
This is example of how grace works in us and through us to accomplish God’s will during any given day of our lives.
Next week we will explore the concept of God’s grace working as “divine influence” in our lives. His grace influences us in specific ways to accomplish God’s will in us and to do His work through us. I think you will find it fascinating!
The Lord bless you and keep you through His marvelous grace.
Gene
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