Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see
(Amazing Grace)
We sing of God’s amazing grace in our lives, but do others see that grace operating in them? The word grace in the Hebrew is made up of the letters Chet (Fence, to separate, private) and Noon (fish, darting, activity, life). In part one, we found that the first mention of grace focused on the story of Noah, “But Noah found grace”, and it is important to note that Noah in the Hebrew is spelled with the same two letters in reverse. These two letters numerically equal 58, and as I looked at other words with the numeric value of 58, His grace has become even more real to me. I do not just say “by the grace of God” any longer, because when you start adding puzzle pieces of words with the same value, grace is bigger than we can imagine. When I look at what the Hebrew letters mean, tie in the numeric value, and then come back to scripture, I am always left in awe of who God is and what He wants to do in our lives, as well as what He has already done for us.
58
There are numerous words and phrases tied to this number, so I will not be sharing them all, just the ones that have drawn me in relation to the word grace.
Father is splendor – Right out of the box, the number 58 leads us right to the Father and his splendor and goodness. Grace comes from Him, it originates with Him and His grace, we also display His splendor.
To enter, lead to, to bare – Jesus went to the cross, to bear our sins, to lead us to the Father, so that we could enter His kingdom.
To Separate, distinguish, mark, to see – When we accept Jesus, we become separated from the world, we are marked with His blood and bare witness of Him for others to see.
Garden, Park – Why do we need grace? Because of what took place in the garden.
To Surround, to cover – We see not only does the definition of grace hold the idea of the hedge of protection, but it is also found in the numeric as well.
God’s Assembly – Without grace, we can not be counted among God’s Assembly, to be His we must accept that amazing grace.
The brightness or fiery splendor of Yahweh upon Sinai, in the tabernacle, in the temple. It was on the mountain where Moses prayed and said, “If I have found grace in Your eyes”. It was then that he was given the blessing that Aaron and the priests were to pray over the Children of Israel.
Pledged or Bound – Grace is a contract between us and our Savior. We are pledged and bound to Him through His grace.
Love – What greater act of love than for Jesus to lay down His life for us, providing that grace for us.
Rest or Comfort – Jesus Himself told us to come to Him and He will give us rest. His rest, His grace truly is amazing.
And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon Him. Luke 2:40
Jesus was every bit human as we are. He was born just as we were. He knew human sorrows just as we do. Like Noah, Moses, and David, He walked in the favor and grace of His Father. Being human, Jesus relied on the grace of His Father, just as we rely on the grace given to us by Him. He provided the completeness of grace for us on the cross. When He said, “It is finished”, the gift of grace was made available for all of mankind. Even those who people would think are so outside of God’s grace that they would never be able to attain it.
Meet Saul of Tarsus. Saul was a tentmaker and a Pharisee. Saul was so rigid in the law of Moses, that he rejected the idea of Jesus as the Messiah. Saul was so anti-Jesus that he watched over the coats of the men who stoned Stephen thinking that it was a good thing that had happened. So good in fact that as the KJV reads in Acts 8:3 As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison. But that was not enough for Saul, and he went to the High Priest obtaining letters to bring back men and women from Damascus. The bible says that he “breathed out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1) What happened next was nothing short of a miracle.
On the road to Damascus, Saul literally had a come to Jesus meeting. [3] And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: [4] And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutes thou me? [5] And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutes: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks (a sharp, pointed instrument, an ox-goad. Farmers used these sticks to strike the back of the legs of a stubborn ox forcing the animal forward) [6] And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. [7] And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. Acts 9:3-7
Saul had a transformation moment of grace, and like many who had been touched by God before him, received a name change to Paul. The very man who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, who became one of the greatest advocates of grace, was a man who was feared by first century Christians. He went from killing the followers of Jesus, to calling people to the cross.
In the book of Romans Paul points out that the New Covenant in Jesus involves grace and not works that the Gentiles are grafted into the body of Christ and drives home that point that we can not use grace as an excuse to sin.
Romans 6:1-2 [1] So then, are we to say, “Let’s keep on sinning, so that there can be more grace”? [2] Heaven forbid! How can we, who have died to sin, still live in it?
Be honest. Have you ever found yourself in a position faced with a choice, to sin or not to sin? Think of it like having an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. The angel is telling you, “You are a child of God. This is a sin. Turn away from it. Go the other way. This is not for you.” And the devil’s argument is quite simple, “It’s okay, you’re under grace. You can do this today and ask for forgiveness tomorrow because God says He is faithful to forgive.” What choice did you make? Did you use grace as an excuse to sin since God is faithful to forgive? Or did you stand firm, rooted, and grounded in Christ and not give in to the temptation? 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, No temptation has seized you beyond what people normally experience, and God can be trusted not to allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. On the contrary, along with the temptation He will also provide the way out, so that you will be able to endure. When we stand faced with temptation, He gave us a way out, but what does that mean? Grace, grace is our way out of temptation. He tells us in 2 Corinthians 12:9 but He told me, “My grace is enough for you, for my power is brought to perfection in weakness.” Therefore, I am very happy to boast about my weaknesses, in order that the Messiah’s power will rest upon me.
When we are weak, and are close to giving in to sin, we can breathe a sigh of relief because He has provided us a way out of the temptation to sin by His grace. He becomes strong in our weakness and we can stand in that grace, in the power of the cross and can tell the devil to pound sand, that we will not be led into temptation. We declare like Jesus during His own time of temptation, “It is written”, and we pull out the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God and we stand. This does not mean that we are not going to sin. We are still human in a fallen world, so it is going to happen. I am talking about deliberate sin and then using grace as justification to do it. We are called to be set apart from sin, otherwise, what Jesus did on the cross was for naught. It is up to each of us to take inventory of our own life. We can lie to others, we can lie to ourselves, but we can not lie to God. He knows what lies in our hearts. He knows ever single sin that is in the open and that is hidden in secret. When we are saved, it is by grace and it is by grace that when we mess up and do sin that we can cry, Abba, Father I messed up again. And He is faithful to forgive each time we ask. Grace is a precious gift, not a get out of jail free card. The closer I draw to Him, the more it pains me when I do sin. I can see myself with that hammer in my hand, nailing Him back on that cross, because He bore my sins upon Himself. None of us will ever be good enough, and we don’t have to be because HE IS.
This video is a compilation of photos that I have taken, put to the song "Grace Flows Down" by Christy Nockels. I recorded this and put it to video with the photos specifically for this post. This is the first type of public worship with my voice that I have done in years, but my voice of praise will no longer be silenced. Come, let us sing to Adonai! Let's shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation! Let's come into His presence with thanksgiving; let's shout for joy to Him with songs of praise. Psalm 95:1-2
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