The Wonders of God’s Grace

by Ronald W Robey

Luke 5:37 And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish.

Luke 5:38 But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.

Luke 5:39 No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.

In the above passage, Jesus was demonstrating the fact that Law and Grace CANNOT mix. The Old wine representing Law, the New representing Grace. The Old man, upon trusting Christ Jesus, becomes a New man. Grace (New Wine) is bestowed to the New man (New wineskins)

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Many refuse the New Wine, saying, "The Old is better". Yet Christ came to make all things New and in His death on the cross, has done away with the Old.

Colossians 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

Ephesians 2:14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

Ephesians 2:15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

Genesis 3:16 (KJV) Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

Genesis 3:17 (KJV) And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

Genesis 3:18 (KJV) Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

Genesis 3:19 (KJV) In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

In Genesis 3:16, we see the God of all creation, who is clearly angry because of man disobeying Him, pronouncing judgment upon the first married couple who ever walked upon this Earth, and He put a curse upon the Earth as well. One man’s disobedience affected not just that one man, but the entire world and all of mankind who would be born upon the face of the Earth 

Romans 5:12 (KJV) Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

God had promised earlier in the creation story, death as the sentence to be carried out should the man and woman partake of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And just as God promised, the man and woman died that day as a result of disobedience. The immediate death was not physical, but rather it was spiritual. 

In 1 Timothy 2:14, we read: And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

Eve, being deceived, was in the transgression. At that moment that she partook of that fruit that God had forbidden, God could have struck her dead. He could have removed her life force from the face of the Earth and created another help meet for man. But, because of His infinite mercy, His unfailing love, and the Wonder of God's Grace, He did not.

God allowed the woman to live. He allowed her to give the fruit to her husband. Her husband ate of the fruit, and died spiritually with her. His love for his wife was so strong that he partook of the forbidden fruit, in spite of the fact that he knew he was being disobedient to God.

No doubt, there must have been a change in Eve’s countenance after partaking of that forbidden fruit… a change that caused her husband Adam to know that his wife was, though standing before him with life-giving blood flowing through her veins, now spiritually dead.

Jesus, toward the close of His speaking to the multitudes in what would later be known as “The Sermon on the Mount”, warned of false prophets, stating, “Ye shall know them by their fruits”. Adam must have witnessed something in Eve’s actions or expressions that instant that made him to know that his wife, the woman that God had told him to procreate with, had indeed spiritually died after eating of that forbidden fruit. For the Bible tells us that the man was not deceived, but the woman was deceived. Adam partook of that fruit with full understanding and full knowledge that he too, would die spiritually.

And so He ate, and subsequently hid from God. As God walked in the Garden in the cool of the day, the man and his wife hid in the flora, ashamed because their eyes had been opened to knowledge of good and evil. They realized their nakedness and were afraid of being seen by God.

God called out to Adam, and Adam answered. In His calling out to Adam, God was revealing the Wonder of His Grace. God, being omniscient, already knew Adam had partaken of the tree that God had forbidden him to eat from. But God, in His infinite mercy and great love with which He loved Adam revealed His Grace by calling the man and his wife out of the bushes and unto Himself. What a perfect picture of the Wonder of God’s Grace so early in the first book of our sacred book, God’s Word.

God, in His infinite mercy, manifested the Wonders of His grace. Instead of destroying man for his act of disobedience, God extended that grace toward man and allowed him to live in a world that was once perfect, but now was cursed with thorns and thistles. Man, through his one act of disobedience had lost the authority to tend the Garden in Eden where the Tree of Life was planted. Man lost the ability to eat of that Tree of Life and live forever. Man lost his privilege to care for and dress the Garden that God had placed him in. But the Wonder of God’s Grace allowed him to continue to live outside the Garden in the now cursed world.

The woman, as our text above shows, did not go unpunished. God said that because of her rebellion she would have great sorrow in childbirth. We are not told whether the man and his wife had any children while he was filling the position of Caretaker of the Garden. However Genesis 1:28 reveals that God did tell them to “go forth and multiply”. God had given them His blessing to have children, thereby showing the Wonder of His Grace even before the fall. 

The curse God gave to woman was that where there may not have been great pain in giving birth, she now would be tasked to endure much pain… “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception” Sorrow where joy may have once been. Sorrow, not just because of the stress on her body during childbirth, but also because of knowing the life every child born to her would ultimately have to face because of her being deceived and giving in to the lust of the eyes. 

Oh, how it must have torn at her heart to know what she had lost and what her children could have had if she had only been wise to the serpent's words when he beguiled her. And how she must have remembered God’s Words each time she brought forth children and experienced that “great pain” that God said she would experience through childbirth.!

But Oh, the wonders of God’s grace that the woman was given the chance to live a long life, if only outside of the Garden that she once walked with her husband and the Lord God in the cool of the day.

We read in the third chapter of Genesis how that after God sentenced mankind through judgment, God clothed man with coats of skin. We are not told what skin was used to cover the man and his wife. We do know that it was a type and shadow of a future sacrifice and covering that would be offered for all mankind through the death, burial and resurrection of God’s only begotten Son Jesus Christ.

By one man’s disobedience sin entered into the world. And that man’s disobedience brought sin and death upon all men. We are told that because of that one’ man’s disobedience, the world quickly became full of wickedness. The Bible tells us that “man’s heart was only evil continuously.” God set His heart against man and against the Earth that He had created. He decided that the world was useless to Him and that He would destroy it completely. 

No doubt, just as He spoke and the worlds were framed, He could have just as easily spoken and made them vanish in an instant of time. But because one man caught God’s attention, the Wonder of God’s Grace was shown to that man and his family.

The Wonder of God’s Grace allowed righteous Noah and his family to enter the ark and stay safe while the rest of the world, mankind, flora and fauna as well, perished in the great worldwide flood.

We are reminded of the Israelites, slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, who witnessed the Wonder of God’s Grace as God poured out plague upon plague upon Egypt. The plagues affected the Egyptians, but the Israelites were not affected. Prior to the last Biblical plague upon Egypt, the death of the firstborn of every Egyptian household and of every firstborn animal in the Egyptian flocks and herds, lambs were slain by Israelite households and the blood from those lambs put upon the doorway of the Israelite home, a type and shadow of the blood sacrifice that Jesus Christ the Righteous gave on Golgotha, the place of the skull, for all mankind. 

It was that final plague that caused Pharaoh to release the Israelites and allow them to journey away from Egypt to go worship the LORD their God. 

As they were journeying toward the Red Sea, the Wonder of God’s Grace is seen once again as God guided them by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night until they reached the Red Sea.

We all know the story… Pharaoh had a change of heart once again and gathered an army to chase after the Israelites. The Wonder of God’s Grace made a way where there was no way. He parted the waters and they walked across on dry land! The Egyptians pursued them. God caused the waters to fall upon the Egyptian army and they were drowned. The Wonder of God’s Grace had protected the Israelites and destroyed their enemies.

We read of the wilderness wanderings, how that men began to murmur and complain, God provided manna from Heaven, birds brought them food as well. And twice they were given water from a rock. And yet, they did not see the Wonder of God’s Grace even though He had clearly bestowed it.

It is no surprise that Jesus later said, “No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.”

The Israelites murmured and complained, they voiced how they wished Moses had left them alone under the hands and rule of the Egyptians. The Wonder of God’s Grace had provided for them constantly, and yet, they were not focused on God. Had they focused on Him, they would not have complained as they did and would have recognized the Wonder of God's Grace.

Moses went up on the Mount to speak with God and God gave him commandments for the Israelites to observe and follow. There were 613 commandments in all that God told Moses the children of Israel were to observe. 

It must be noted that God gave these commandments to Israel alone. He did not give them to Gentile nations. 

God’s Word tells us in Exodus 12:49, “One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you. 

God was very careful to construct His words as He spoke them to Moses. Notice He said “and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you,” and not “and to you who live among the strangers” This reveals to us that the Mosaic Law was restricted to those living in the Promised Land. 

We find further confirmation of this decree in the writings of King David,. In Psalm 147, we read:

Psalms 147:19 He sheweth His Word unto Jacob, His statutes and His judgments unto Israel.

Psalms 147:20 He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for His judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD.

God’s Law given to Israel, which was in effect from 1450 BC to 70 AD, all 613 statutes, torts and ordinances contained in that Law, was never given to Gentiles. 

We have examined only a handful of the accounts of the Wonder of God’s Grace being shown in the Old Testament. There are many, many more. It was the wonder of God’s Grace that was bestowed upon the widow of Zarephath who shared her last meal with the Prophet and we are told that God multiplied what she had. We see the Wonder of God’s Grace in the story of the Hebrew children Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego as they declared to the king “we will not bow to your image, nor worship it”. The Wonder of God’s Grace was seen in a den of lions when the man of God, Daniel, was cast in for praying to Almighty God, disobeying the kings command.

Oh, that we will have that same boldness in the face of tribulation and persecution, that we might witness the Wonder of God’s Grace as the men of God in the Book of Daniel did!

Let us move forward to the year 4 BC. The year that an angel appeared to a young virgin named Mary. We are told how that God sent His Son into the world, made of a woman, to save His people from their sin.

Oh, the Wonder of God’s Grace extended in the giving of His only begotten Son to a sin-sick world! God’s chosen people Israel were still under the Law handed down to Moses from Heaven above. They were bound to the sacrifices, the offerings, ...all ordinances, statutes and torts written in that Law.

They could not deviate from the guidelines that God had established. In Deuteronomy 12:8, we read: 

Deuteronomy 12:8 Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes.

Man could not just do whatever he chose to do. God did not give those 613 Laws to man so man could simply ignore them and do his own thing. He had to follow the Law precisely in the way that God had prescribed. Where God did allow substitutions, God revealed what those substitutions were to be. Things were to be done God's way, not man's.

But after nearly 1,440 years of the the Wonder of God's Grace being displayed in the dispensation of the Law, in an even greater demonstration of the Wonder of God’s Grace, God sent His Son, whose life, death, burial and resurrection would be the catalyst for a New Covenant with Israel. And not with Israel only, but with every nation upon the face of God’s Earth. 

Throughout His life on this Earth, Jesus Christ was manifesting the Wonder of God’s Grace everywhere He went. At twelve years old, the child Jesus amazed Rabbi’s in the Temple, answering questions concerning the Holy Scriptures. At twenty-nine He performed the first miracle man had ever seen Him do at a wedding feast in Cana. The wonder of God’s Grace is seen in His raising Lazarus from the dead, His healing blinded eyes, His casting out devils, in multiplying a few loaves and fishes for hungry crowds of thousands who had come to hear Him speak, and in the countless other miracles He performed while walking this Earth as the Son of man.

The Wonder of God’s Grace is seen in His restoring a servant’s ear after Peter had cut it off with a sword in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

And then, we come to Golgotha, that horrible hill on which the Saviour was hung. As He was dying, He revealed once again the Wonder of God’s Grace when He said, “It is Finished!”

It is true, as He said in Matthew’s Gospel, that He did not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it. And fulfill it He did. He did what no other man was able to do, He kept every aspect of the Law that applied to Him as an Israelite, born of the lineage of David.

But, we are told in Ephesians 2:14-15 that Christ, in His death, burial and resurrection, abolished the ordinances written in the Law. 

Ephesians 2:14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

Ephesians 2:15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

Abolished!  Cancelled out. Completely! Man, who has trusted and is now married to Jesus Christ, no longer has to be governed by the Mosaic Law.

Romans 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

Romans 7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

Romans 7:3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

Romans 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

In Romans 7:1-4, the Apostle Paul likened a person who submits to the Law, while married to the One who has risen from the dead, to an adulterer married to a spouse, but living in the home of another.

My Brethren, The Wonder of God’s Grace has called us out of the bondage of the Mosaic Law. We have been freed from not only the law of sin and death, but we are told that we have been brought into a New Covenant. The old is ready to vanish away, as the author of the Book of Hebrews said nearly 2,000 years ago.

Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

Hebrews 8:13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

Colossians 2:20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

Where Grace abounds, there is liberty. There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus; who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 

The Word of God has indeed freed us from the Law, never to be entangled again with its yoke of bondage. We needn’t wear that yoke, Christ wore it for us. We needn’t submit to the ordinances, Christ took them out of the way, nailing them to His cross. As the Apostle Paul wrote in the third chapter of Galatians, it is foolish for one who has begun in the Spirit to subject himself to the Law. How are we to expect Grace and Mercy from the Father, when we turn our backs on the price his Son paid for our freedom and choose to walk in ordinances that God’s Word said belonged to national Israel alone?

So many today are being told that they are lost and in need of a Saviour. This is true. So many are told that eternal life is a gift from God to man, and that the only things man has to do to receive this wonderful gift is to believe on Jesus Christ. This also is true.

The problem arises when we get the new Convert into the Church, the Convert quickly finds that, according to the pastor, there is a price to pay. The new Convert is told to keep certain of the ordinances that were given to national Israel. That God requires these ordinances to be observed by the Church members today. My Brethren, nothing could be farther from the Truth.

My Brethren, cast out the bondwoman and her son. Break away those chains that cause you to be unfaithful to the Lord. It is only when you walk away from the Law, that you will truly know the fullness of the Wonder of God’s Grace.

What is the Wonder of God’s Grace? It is all that I have mentioned previously, and more. It is the recognition of where God found us, what God offered us, what He has given those of us who have accepted that offer, and what He has prepared for us… despite the fact that we are a fallen race, despite the fact that we fail from time to time, despite all of our shortcomings. 

The Wonder of God's Grace assure us that we are accepted in the Beloved.

As we come to the close of the short message, My prayer is that it has spoken to our hearts and challenged us to be more diligent in our studies of God’s Holy Word.

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For those who may be unsure of your eternal state after this short existence on Earth, do not hesitate to make that decision today. Our Lord’s return is more nigh us that it has ever been. If you should die without Christ, you will miss the Wonder of God’s Grace, If you should die without the Lord, your only hope is to face Him in His wrath. .

God bless all who work for His eternal Kingdom!