The Kingdom of God- 1

Subtitle:  Introduction

Various Passages.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on March 16, 2025.

As we finished the book of the Acts of the Apostles, we saw how the Kingdom of God was an important theme.  The book began with Luke describing the teaching of Jesus to his disciples, after the resurrection, as “speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3).  Three verses later, the disciples ask Jesus this question.  “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”  Of course, our Lord told them that it wasn’t for them to know the times and the seasons.  Rather, it was for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit and be enabled to take the Gospel of the Kingdom to the ends of the earth.

Let me point out what Jesus didn’t say.  He didn’t say that their notion of a kingdom being restored to Israel was ludicrous or unfounded.  He didn’t lecture regarding the kingdom prophecies of the Old Testament that they were all intended to be read only symbolically, or spiritually.  Instead, he tells them that they are not supposed to worry about the timing of God’s seasons.

Of course, the book of Acts ends in chapter 28 with two more bookend-mentions of the Kingdom of God.  Paul explained and testified to the Jewish leaders of Rome concerning the Kingdom of God.  The book then ends with the statement that Paul was “preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ…”

A person may be tempted to ask the question, “What about the Gospel?”.  However, we saw in our sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount that the Gospel is essentially about the Kingdom. 

Matthew 4:23 says, “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.”  In Matthew 4:17, Jesus taught the crowds that they needed to repent because the Kingdom of heaven was at hand, or near.  This was true because Messiah the King (i.e., Jesus) was finally in Israel.  Later, Jesus rebuked the chief priest by telling them that “tax collectors and harlots are entering into the Kingdom of God before you.”

Thus, we can see that Jesus is telling them that the Kingdom and its King are at hand.  Yet, they need to enter it.  In fact, people who appeared to be disqualified from the Kingdom were finding the way to enter into the Kingdom at that time.  Of course, that way is to put your faith completely in God’s Anointed King, Jesus.  At its essence, the Kingdom is a reference to the King that administers it.  This is what the famous beatitudes of Matthew 5 emphasize.  Those who had been persecuted and were poor in spirit were told by Jesus that they were blessed because the Kingdom of heaven was theirs.  The King was there encouraging those who had ears to hear in Israel that their ability to participate in the Kingdom was not negatively affected by these things, but in fact, it seems to be in their favor! 

Matthew clearly shows Jesus as King Messiah giving his teaching (instructions) to those of Israel who wanted to be his citizens (his disciples).  The King is hear and they could enter the Kingdom!.

Let’s look at some passages.

The King/Kindom concept in the Old Testament

Psalm 29:10 pictures God seated on his throne during the flood.  The probability that the author means the flood during the time of Noah is extremely high here, in fact, hard to seriously question.  The Flood was a scary time for humans as a whole.  However, most of life throughout most of history has been difficult and scary for the average human.  Yet, the kings and kingdoms of the world are a cut above the average human.  At the Flood, kings and their kingdoms were just as powerless as the peasants who perished with them.  While the kings and kingdoms of men were washed away, never to return, God’s rule was not touched by the great destructive chaos on the earth. 

Of course, God’s heart is touched by the great destruction.  It was precisely because God cared for humanity that the Flood came.  Wickedness had filled the earth with violence.  The average experience was a boot in the face, death of loved ones, and death of self.  God was touched by the heinous violence that was playing out everyday upon the powerless by the powerful.  

Yet, God brings a remnant through the flood so that humanity is not extinguished, and His purpose for us would be obtained.

Yes, God is angry with the wicked, but His anger is not like our anger.  Human anger does not produce the righteousness of God.  However, God’s anger is pure and gracious.  It always has the redemption of humans at its core, and it is generally triggered by our treatment of one another.

The chaos of the flood, or even the chaos of those wicked kingdoms that existed before the flood, could attack or affect God on His throne.  His rule is absolute and cannot be harmed by the rebellion of the wicked.

Psalm 47:7-9 speaks of God in the terms of a great Emperor.  He is the King of all the earth (the kings of the earth).  He is King over all things.  He has always been King; He is King today; He always will be King.  The “shields of the earth” is a reference to kings and their governments.  They are supposed to be a shield to their people, but wickedness quickly infiltrates even the best of human kingdoms.  These kings and kingdoms all answer to God.  For the Christian, there is no question that God is King over all things.  By the way, He is also presented as King of the heavens as well, but that is not the place of our concern.

So, we can speak of the Kingdom of God as the simple reality that God has always been and always will be the Sovereign over all of creation.  We can call this the Universal Kingdom of God.

We may quibble over the things that are allowed to happen within His rule over the earth, but we do so because we don’t understand what He understands.  If a person finds themselves continually blaming God for all that is wrong on this planet and in their life, they need to read the Word of God and pray for understanding from the Spirit of God.  Our minds have been shaped by this world and by our flesh in a certain way of interpreting these things.  Our ability to hear what our Creator and Redeemer is trying to teach us and say to us needs His help.  It also needs us to be humble and ask for His help.  He is our loving Heavenly Father.  We will never benefit ourselves by trying to make Him the bad guy.

God is our King, but He is much more than that.  In some ways, it seems obligatory to trumpet the kingship of God and argue against anything that appears to diminish it.  However, I ask you to bear with me for a few moments.  When it comes to God’s Kingship compared to anyone on earth or even the devil, His Kingship cannot be questioned.  But, when it comes to contemplating all that God is, His Kingship is a subset, or facet, of Who He is.

If you start at the beginning of the Bible and walk through it (concordance queries will be quicker), you will go a long way before you run into the concept that God is King and that He has a kingdom.  Think about the picture in Genesis 1 and 2.  In chapter 1, God is presented as an all-powerful Creator, Artisan, Craftsman Who brings all things into existence.  Humans can create things that didn’t exist before, but we cannot do it like God does.  We merely assimilate matter that already exists and already has properties conducive to the effect we want.  God, however, is the One who made that matter and gave it the properties that it has.

Yet, God made humans to be His image-bearers on the earth.  This concept from Genesis 1 is fleshed out further in Genesis 2.  God is presented not only as Adam’s Creator, but also his Father.  He brings Adam into existence.  Men and women can do a similar thing today through procreation.  However, our method is a shadow of God’s absolute power to create a human being.  Adam is to bear the image of his Heavenly Father by giving himself to the purpose that his Father gave him, and by doing it in a matter that is like his Father.  This is why we see relationship, communication, and care happening throughout the passage.  Adam’s Heavenly Father even  obtains a bride for him.  Thus, Adam’s fathering of the children he produces with Eve is to be a reflection of God’s greater Fathering. 

There are kingly aspects to who and what a father is.  However, it would be a strange father who ran his home solely as if he were the king of it.  If he made everything become about how the kids could serve his purposes, and even treated their disobedience and defiance in the same way that a king would treat such from a rebel citizen, then that would not be a good parent.  He would essentially be a tyrannical man imaging that God is a tyrant, which isn’t true.  It would be a false image.  No, a father has a much more complex identity then to simply call him king.  God is King of all things, but He is far more than that.  He is something far grander than that.  He is our Heavenly Father.

First Corinthians 15:24 and 28 speaks of Jesus and part of his purpose.  His is going to abolish all rule, authority, and power.  The idea is clarified in verse 28.  When all things are subjected to Jesus, then he will also be subjected to the Father, Who has subjected all things under Jesus.  The rulers, powers, and authorities that are subjected to Jesus are both human beings and spiritual beings.  In the end, no one but God the Father will have rule, authority, and power.

Yet, notice the end result that is highlighted in verse 28.  The point is not about God becoming the only King, Kingdom, Rule, Authority, etc…  The point is about God taking His rightful place as the “All in all.”  The Father is our everything, which is so much more than our King.  We could even say that He is so much more than a Father.  He is our Everything.

I will point out that the word for subjected here simply means to take your proper place under one who has authority and power.  It is put in a passive form.  Thus, it points to something being done to human power, spiritual powers, and finally Jesus.  Yet, we should not see that as something that is necessarily forced.  The wicked will have their rule, authority and power forcefully taken from them.  However, the righteous and the Lord Jesus do so as volunteers, even as sons, glad to do the will of the Father at the time of His choosing.  Paul is looking far ahead into the final state of all things.  Humans will not rule and have authority over each other.  This picture is not about domination and subjugation.  In fact, it is about destroying all such warped imaging.  It is about all things being in harmony, taking their proper place, with God and not about establishing God as King over all things.

What you find in Genesis is that the use of king and kingdom is used of rebellious humanity.  Genesis 10:10 tells us that Babylon was the beginning of Nimrod’s kingdom.  His name means rebel.  Even his city building is reminiscent of Cain’s city building as he went into the land of Nod in Genesis 4.  These are not righteous men.  These are men who are trying to accomplish something in the face of God, in rebellion to God’s purpose and plan.  Kings and kingdoms arose among the wicked.  Yet, God knew that this would be.  He would use this sinful concept of power and authority in order to teach humanity a better way.

If you think about it, humans were given dominion over the earth by God.  However, there is no concept that we would have dominion over one another.  It was the sinful rebellion of humanity in league with fallen spiritual beings that created a world of “better men” harnessing the lesser men for the glory of humanity.  This realm of kings and kingdoms subjugating one another is, no doubt, at the heart of God’s description of the pre-Flood world.  “the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”  Later in the same chapter, we are told, “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.”

The sinful rebellion of mankind creates a sinful warped concept of authority and power.  What should have been a godly dominion over the earth turns into an ungodly domination of one another through violence.  This was not God’s purpose.  He never designed humanity to be ruled by our betters (an aristocracy).

Before we go any further, I want to take a few moments to stop and flesh out the difference between authority and power. 

Authority refers to the right that one being has to give commands, create things, possess things, etc.  If you think of the word “authorize,” then you can begin to appreciate that authority among humans is a reference to certain rights we have.  Where do these rights, authorities, come from?  All authority comes from God.  He is the foundation of all authority.  We can know this is logically true when we ask what gave God the right, the authority, to create all that He has?  The answer is that He did.  If anything that was created has any authority, it received it from the Creator who is the ground of all authority.

If you imagine the right you have over your own body, mind, and possessions.  It is God who alone can be the foundation of that right.  Authority is a moral concept of a person’s right.

Let’s now add the concept of power.  Those who have authority (let’s say to have a child) may not have the power to do so.  A man chained in a prison may have a God-given right to marry a woman and have children, but he lacks the power to be able to do so.  On the other hand, a person may lack authority and yet, have the power to do whatever they want.  It is not too hard to come up with examples of that.  However, not all power is about that kind of force.  The serpent in the Garden used the power of persuasion, deception, lies, and temptation in order to interfere in a relationship in which he had no authority.  Powerful beings and powerful people tend to step on the authority that God has given to others.

When God rescued the people of Israel from Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, it was connected back to His promise to Abraham.  God promised that He would make a nation out of Abraham.  That nation would be His chosen vessel to bless the nations.  However, any nations that cursed Israel would be cursed by God.  When Israel comes to the promised land of Canaan, they are the invading Kingdom of God that God is using to confront the extremely wicked societies that lived there.  If those nations, people, would recognize God’s hand upon Israel and respect it, they would not have to be cursed.  Think about Rahab in Jericho.  She respected God’s close connection to Israel and chose by faith to throw her lot in with Israel.  God blessed her because of that.

Of course, the Old Testament historical books and the prophetic books present Israel as failing in its mission to bring the light of God’s justice to the nations.  Even the line of David is depicted as a fallen tent, a fallen dynasty. Yet, God promised through the prophets that He was going to raise up an Anointed Servant of God.  This servant would succeed where Israel had failed. 

The book of Isaiah is a great place to see this, although there are many examples.  Read Isaiah 42:1 and the following.  “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My Chosen one in whom My soul delights.  I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.”  This is the true purpose for which God raised up Israel in the first place.

Previously, in Isaiah 9:6-7, Isaiah prophesied of a special child that would be born.  This child would have titles that are incredible: Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, and Prince of Peace.  We are then told, “There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.  The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”  This special son of David would raise up the fallen tent of David and fulfill what those before  him had failed to do.  This is what Jesus is announcing when he shows up.  He is not announcing the overall truth that God has always been the King of heaven and earth.  He is announcing that the Kingdom that would be brought forth under King Messiah had arrived.  God was fulfilling His promise to the people of Israel.  It was time for them to follow that King into the Kingdom.

We are going to stop there for today.  However, I want to ask you this.  Have you put your faith completely in Jesus?  Are you living your life for Him and His purposes?  Of course, it is easy to say that we are.  However, life has a way of testing just how resolved we are.  This is why we gather on Sundays and other days.  This is why we pray together, read the Word of God together, and fellowship with other Christians.  We are being tested all the time and we are going to need more than just our own strength to continue to trust the Lord Jesus.  Don’t delay.  Press into the Kingdom of God by putting all of your trust in Jesus and the message He gave to His disciples.

KoG 1 audio

The Character of God- Part 7

Subtitle:  God is Faithful Truth

Exodus 34:6-7.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 19, 2025.

Today, we will look at the fifth description of God’s character.  God is faithful truth!

With this sermon, we will bring this series that looks at the character of God to a close.

God is faithful truth in the Old Testament

The Hebrew word used here is emeth (em’ eth).  Modern Hebrew says emet.  It means truth, but by extension, it means the dependability and trustworthy nature of that which is truth.  Thus, it is sometimes translated as faithfulness.  At its root, the concept is one of stability or firmness.  You might picture the old hymn, My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less.  It speaks of Christ as the “Solid Rock” and states that all other ground is “sinking sand.”  That is a very biblical picture and is at the heart of this word today.  Are you building your life on Christ the solid rock, or are you building on anything else, which is sinking sand?

Truth is a foundational concept.  To believe that something is true when it isn’t true is to discover many unexpected ways in which your underlying beliefs do not uphold your actions and steps.  I might believe that I am a 7 foot 2 inch all-star basketball player.  However, that will not change the reality of what would happen if I tried to play against NBA players.  The reality of what I actually am will be crushed by the reality of what those NBA players can do.

Our thinking is powerful, but it doesn’t change the truth; it doesn’t change reality.  It can, however, change how I respond to reality.  My thinking can powerfully change me, if I properly respond to truth.

On the other hand, to believe that something is false when it is actually true isn’t much better.  I pretty much doom myself to trying a bunch of ways that don’t work.  Of course, many a scientific discovery happened because someone tested false assumptions about what is the truth.

Foundational truths do not conform to our desires.  It is what it is, and a wise human will quickly see through the lies that they are basing their life upon.

Of course, we are not always able to properly discern truth through a scientific discovery, whether in science or God’s work in our life.  We can praise God that He hasn’t left us alone to only discover truth by our senses.  God has revealed many truths to humanity through the years, things that we would have never discovered without His revelation.

The word Amen also comes from this same root and essentially means, “that is true” or “that is trustworthy; you can stand on it.”  A double amen intensifies the meaning.  The Gospel of John has 25 occurrences of the double amen.  The King James Version translated this as “verily, verily.”  For a Hebrew person to use this double Amen, a perfectly trustworthy thing will follow.

In the Bible, people who have emeth have stable character and can be trusted by others.  They keep their word.  This doesn’t mean they are never late for an appointment.  It is not a statement about perfect performance of what they say, i.e., they are never stuck in traffic.  Rather, it is a statement about their character.  They mean what they say and do everything they can to back it up.  If you have ever crossed a creek by stepping from rock to rock, you have probably found that some rocks look stable, but they are not.  You can confidently step on them and then they wobble, often sending you into the water.  A person of emeth doesn’t wobble when you trust them or lean on them. 

This brings us to some of the occurrences of this word in the Old Testament.

Moses would sit and judge the disputes of the people when they were in the wilderness.  In Exodus 18:21-22, Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, recognizes that it is too much for him.  The multitude of problems will where him out.  He then counsels Moses to select “men of emeth (truth/faithfulness)” who will be able to decide the smaller problems and only send the hard issues to Moses.

A man of emeth is not just someone who tells the truth.  Rather, they are men who live life by truth.  It is part of their character.  They do not see their position of authority as a way for gain.  Instead, they know the truth that lies behind their position.  The position is not for enriching them, but for the help of the people.  God talks a lot about authority, but notice this one thing throughout Scriptures.  Leaders are always supposed to be for the purpose of serving the people, not serving themselves.  Positions of authority do not exist because some people are just better than other and deserve to rule over the people.  They don’t deserve a better life with the people buying off their favor.  God cares about the people.  He only cares about those in authority in as much as they help or hurt the people.

The truth is that two people committed to honoring God may not always agree, but they should be able to come to an agreement without someone else judging their case.  The problem isn’t about wisdom, but about our sinful unwillingness to honor God in our disputes.

Abram demonstrated the verb form of this word in Genesis 15.  When emeth is in a verb form it takes on the idea of believing or putting your trust in something or someone.  This is what lies behind the famous verse in Genesis 15:6.  “[Abram] believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” (NASB).  This believing is not talking about a mere intellectual belief in God’s existence.  It is talking about all the actions that Abram did because he believed that God was trustworthy.  Thus, Abram left Ur of the Chaldeans and traveled to Canaan.  There, he lived in tents, awaiting God’s promise. He was more than a trustworthy man, but also a man who saw God as trustworthy.  In the Bible, God is the greatest One at being faithful truth, trustworthy.

Believe it or not, we even have a verse in which it says that Israel believed God.  In Exodus 14:31, Pharaoh’s army had just been drowned in the Red Sea.  This caused Israel to believe in God.  Yet, as they travelled with God through the wilderness and to the Promise Land, their faith in God was tested.  Each test begs the question, “Do you trust God now?”  It is not that God is purposefully causing all of these things, though He can surely test how trusting we are.  But, as things happen in life, He is watching to see what we will do.  Will we believe in Him, or put our trust in something else?

We know that Israel failed very often.  Yet, God helped them (even helps us) because He is faithful truth.  It is His character.  This means that God is not simply a truth-teller, or One who wants truth from others.  He is the foundation of all truth itself.  He is the only being in the universe that is absolutely dependable.

Jacob coming back to Canaan, with his 2 wives, 12 kids and many herds of animals, stopped at the border and confessed to God that he was unworthy of all the faithful truth that God had shown to him (Genesis 32:10).  When Jacob had left for northeastern Syria, God had spoken promises to him.  Over the last 20 years, God had proven to be trustworthy and had shown Jacob faithful truth, not because Jacob deserved it, but because God keeps His word.

This brings us to Moses and his rock metaphor for God.  Deuteronomy 32:31-32 points out that the fallen spiritual beings that the nations worshiped as gods were not trustworthy.  Their rock is not like the Rock of Israel.  Their gods wobbled whenever they put their trust in them, but Yahweh was an absolute stable rock.  This is another way of speaking about God’s emeth, faithful truth.

We should recognize that there is a parallel between Israel running from the giants and David fighting Goliath.  In Numbers 14, Israel balked at fighting the giants.  They decided to kill Moses, pick a new leader and go back to Egypt.  However, God steps in and that doesn’t happen.  Still, they are told that they will stay in the wilderness for 40 years as a punishment for their unbelief towards God. 

Thus, later when David comes to check on the battle his brothers and Israel were fighting against the Philistines, he finds a giant challenging Israel and everyone trembling in their tents.  They were not believing God again.  They were essentially on a spiritual trajectory back to Egypt, back to the wilderness.  Yet, God steps in.  This time He raises up a “man of emeth” who will face the giant and give Israel victory over the Philistines.  Solomon recognizes this in 1 Kings 3:6.  “You have shown great lovingkindness to Your servant David my father, according as he walked before You in truth and righteousness and uprightness of heart toward You…”

You may see the pattern now that a trustworthy person is someone who is trusting the truth of God in their life, their decisions and actions.  David lived out the truth of God even when it looked like it could get him killed.  Of course, David would later fall woefully short of this during the event in which he commits adultery with Uriah’s wife and then has him killed in an attempt to cover it up.  David fell short, but the pattern of salvation coming through a man of perfect emeth is made clear in the Old Testament.

People are not born with trustworthy genes.  Trustworthiness comes from a life of putting your trust in God.  It comes from the experience of life in which we discover that God is the only One who can uphold our trust perfectly.

Thus, God promised David that one from his offspring would be that perfect Psalm 1 picture of a man who fully trusts God and thus becomes a tree of life to all who will eat of his fruit.  This offspring would be the Anointed One of Psalm 2 who would inherit dominion over all of the earth, bringing salvation to those who bow to him in allegiance.  This Messiah would not fall short.  This was revealed to David and he spoke of it (sang of it) in his psalms.  This would be a forever kingdom because the king is a man of perfect emeth.  He is stable, unfailing and trustworthy, and so, his kingdom is a kingdom of emeth.  He would stand up to the giant, spiritual forces that were dominating humanity and fully trust God.

This is why the Bible speaks of the kingdoms of this world falling before the Messiah.  They definitely will not be able to stand against his return as Revelation 19 declares.  However, over the last 2,000 years, nations have risen and fallen at his command.  The united States of America is falling apart even now before Jesus has come back.  We could even cease to exist as we currently do, whether split apart or taken over by a foreign power.  Regardless, the problem is always our lack of trusting God.  America is not trusting God, and it is destroying our country.  Yet, He gives times of opportunity for repentance.  Perhaps, the US still has time to repent and be restored before Him.

In 2 Samuel 7:16, we are told of a prophecy from God through the prophet Nathan to David.  David’s throne would be “established” forever.  This is the verb form of emeth, but it is in a passive form.  It is the idea that something will be made trustworthy, faithful truth.  His kingdom will be like a rock because The Rock of Israel, the Stone of Israel (Genesis 49:24), will arise.  A kingdom can be no stronger than the one upon whom it is built.  The Messianic Kingdom will last forever because it is built upon The Rock.  All other kingdoms are built on sinking sand.  Only Messiah’s kingdom can go through the fire of God’s wrath (a day when He judges all the nations on earth) and survive.  All other kingdoms will not survive.  At least, not in their current forms.

This brings us to the catastrophe of the exile.  There was a civil war in Israel in the days of Solomon’s son.  The nation was divided into ten tribes in the north called Israel and 2 tribes around Jerusalem called Judah, or Judea later.  The northern tribes were wicked and eventually God used the Assyrians to conquer them and cast them out of the land.  This happened circa 722 BC.  This left Judah feeling vindicated, but they were not any more righteous.  They were exiled by the Babylonians around 136 years later (586 BC).  The northern tribes never really returned from exile.  Whereas, as many as desired of Judah, came back from Babylon 70 years later.  In this environment, there was a question on the minds of Israel.  Is it over?  Is it possible that God will not keep His word because we have failed so badly?  Did we misunderstand the promises and they were always conditional on our obedience?

Psalm 89 is a treatise of this crisis.  It starts out praising the promises of God to David.  Verse one sings of God’s emeth (faithful truth) and praises Him.  Yet, at verse 38, we have this.  “But You have cast off and rejected, You have been full of wrath against Your anointed.” Seven more verses detail the reality of being cast off by God. 

Verse 46 begins a series of questions.  “How long, O LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath burn like fire?”  Verse 49, “Where are Your former lovingkindnesses, O Lord, which You swore to David in Your faithfulness?  God had sworn an oath to David in His emeth, faithful truth.  Yes, Israel has sinned greatly, and the house of David has sinned just as greatly.  Yet, God is faithful even when we are faithless.

Jesus is the faithful truth of God

The questions above were answered throughout the Old Testament prophetic books.  God would cast Israel out of the land, but He would still be faithful to send the Messiah and save humanity.  Still, from 400 BC to the time of Jesus, there were 400 years of silence from God.  They had heard enough.  They had enough truth to weather the years and wait for Messiah, if they could but trust God.

This is why Matthew 1:1 is so powerful.  Whenever we find the Gospels together in antiquity, it is always Matthew first.  Matthew opens his Gospel, and the New Testament, with a bold declaration that Messiah had come in the person of Jesus.  God had finally kept His promise and sent the One who would save Israel and the nations.  The name Jesus in Hebrew basically means “Yahweh is salvation” or “the salvation of Yahweh.”  Notice that Matthew emphasizes that he is from the line of David and Abraham.  The names of the fathers in between are important and Matthew goes on to give the full genealogy.  However, don’t miss the main point.  In Jesus, God was fulfilling His promises to David, and His promises to Abraham.  He could have even added Adam.  Messiah had come and God’s faithful truth, His emeth, was on full display in the face of the failures of Israel and the failures of the Gentile world.

The presence and work of Jesus was a confirmation of the promises and faithfulness of God.  We see this in Romans 15:8-9.  “For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers, 9 and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, ‘Therefore I will give praise to You among the Gentiles, and I will sing to Your name.’”

The Incarnation of The Word of God into the man Jesus is God keeping His word, but Jesus is also the very truth of God itself.  Nothing that has been made was made without him.  He is the effective cause of creation.  He is the absolute bedrock truth of all reality.  In Jesus, the Truth of the world stepped down into it, but men loved darkness rather than the light.  To put your faith in Jesus is of a greater nature than putting your faith in man’s scientific understanding.  Yes, you can follow the science (our current understanding), or you can follow the One who is the mind behind how all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.  Science rightly understood can only point back to its Creator.

A believer in Jesus doesn’t just become more trustworthy.  They even become like the Rock that they are building upon.  They are more stable, enduring, than all the “wise” people of this world who refuse to stand upon Jesus, who refuse to believe and trust God.  They are both on quicksand themselves and a quicksand to those who trust in them.

We are not Israel going against giants in the Promised Land literally.  However, we metaphorically face the same thing.  The big obstacles in front of us challenge us and are akin to the giants of old.  Will we trust Jesus and take hold of our personal inheritance and the inheritance of our people?  Or, will we tremble at the powers flexing in front of us?  Will we shrink back from trusting God’s word, standing with Jesus and his ways?

Jesus went through death and then God raised him up.  He is forever a testimony to those who would dare to follow him that God will uphold them as well.  He is also a testimony to those who shrink back that there is no other way to salvation.  As a Christian, if I really believe God, then I have no excuse to quit in the face of scary, big people, fallen spirits, or circumstances.  Most of us will not face the threat of death like Jesus and his apostles.  But, we can face even that with complete trust in God.  We can choose to honor Jesus by walking into it.  We can look into the face of tormentors and tell them to go ahead and do what they want, but I am going to stand with Jesus because that is your only hope of salvation.

Those who think they are so powerful, who are pounding on those nails or wielding those weapons of annihilation, who are so following the science of their own wisdom, they are going to be flat on their face before Jesus in the future.

It doesn’t matter if I live long enough to see that or not.  That is not my hope.  My hope is Jesus!

The giant ideologies and giant people, of fame, power and fortune that we face, try to intimidate us.  “How dare you stand against the great and powerful Oz!”  But, I’d rather stand with Jesus, the slain lamb, than with all the smoke and mirrors of this world.  I’d rather stand with Jesus than any empire that this world tries to establish without Jesus!

Faithful Truth audio

The Character of God- Part 6

Subtitle:  God is Abounding in Lovingkindness

Exodus 34:6-7.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 12, 2025.

Today, we will look at the fourth description of God’s character from Exodus 34.  God is abounding in lovingkindness!

Let’s look at our passage.

God abounds in lovingkindness in the Old Testament

Even in the English language, we can see that a compound word, like lovingkindness, is having trouble translating the original word.  This is a small Hebrew word, khesed (khe’ sed), but it has a big meaning. 

It essentially has three components to it.  First, it speaks of loving care, and then, it adds generosity.  Lastly, we add a sense of keeping commitment, loyalty.  Thus, God’s khesed is His generous, covenant-keeping love for us.  You might see that the word lovingkindness touches on two of these, but doesn’t quite cover all three aspects. 

There is a wide variety of ways that different translations have translated this.  In fact, even within a particular translation, you may see several different words. However, before we look at some English translations, I want to look at a Greek translation from the 3^rd century B.C. (c. 200 to 250).  This translation is called the Septuagint.

The Septuagint, also shown as LXX, translates this word with a Greek word that means mercy.  On first look, it may seem that they gave up on finding a word, but there is more to it than that.  We do not experience God’s khesed in a vacuum.  Rather, His amazing khesed is in the context of our continual failure to reciprocate with a love that is even remotely close to it.  Rather, humanity has tended toward a stingy, covenant-breaking self-love.  Thus, God’s generous, covenant-keeping love in the face of our unfaithfulness can be definitely understood in the context of mercy.

It is common to distinguish between grace and mercy by this.  Grace is receiving what you don’t deserve, i.e., a gift, but mercy is not receiving what you do deserve, i.e., a pardon.  Of course, the word mercy is more than this.  At its root, there is a concept of misery.  God’s grace touches the guilt of our sin, but God’s mercy goes deeper and touches the misery of our sin.

We see that this is quite a word.  Let me point out some of the choices of English versions.  The New King James Version uses lovingkindness in Exodus 34, but it also translates khesed in other places as “mercy” and even “goodness.”  The New American Standard Bible 1995 also used lovingkindness, but then, in the 2020 edition, changed it to faithfulness.  The New International Version takes the simple route and translates it as love.  The English Standard Version chose steadfast love.  Christian Standard Bible chose faithful love; New Living Translation chose unfailing love; the New English Translation chose loyal love.  They are all very similar, but no one of them capture the whole sense of khesed without requiring the reader to understand its connections to these other concepts.  Thus, God’s love (khesed) is a love like no other.  Let’s look at some examples of its usage in the Old Testament.

The story of Ruth involves a couple, Elimelech and Naomi, who lived in Bethlehem.  A famine came upon the area, and they finally sold everything and moved to Moab with their two sons.  While in Moab, Elimelech dies.  Next, we see that the two sons marry Moabite women.  They live there for over ten years when something happens that is not detailed.  Both sons die, leaving Naomi and the two daughters-in-law alone.  Ruth realizes that her daughters-in-law would be better off to go back to their families.  She also hears that the famine has lifted in Israel, so she plans to go back.

This gives us a beautiful scene where Ruth refuses to go back to her family, but chooses to go with Naomi back to Israel.  Look at her words in Ruth 1:16-18.  “16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. 17 Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.” 18 When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she [e]said no more to her.” (NASB) We need to keep this expression of love in the back of our minds as we jump to their arrival in Israel.

Of course, they have no money to buy back Elimelech’s property, and they wouldn’t be able to work it by themselves even if they did.  We are told that they arrive just as the barley harvest is beginning.  This leads to Ruth deciding to glean what she can from the fields after they have been cut.  She just happens to end up in the fields of a man named Boaz.  Boaz just happens to be a near kinsman to Elimelech.  He ends up being very generous to Ruth because he is aware of Naomi’s situation and Ruth’s commendable, extreme faithfulness to her mother-in-law.

This brings us to the first mention of a generous, covenant-keeping love in Ruth 2:20.  “Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed of the Lord who has not withdrawn his kindness to the living and to the dead.” Again Naomi said to her, “The man is our relative, he is one of our closest relatives.” (NASB)

Here, Ruth returned home the first day and was able to glean almost 5 gallons of cleaned barley.  Naomi is astonished that she could gather so much in one day.  She realizes that someone has been gracious to Ruth and to her.  Several blessings are revealed as Naomi quizzes Ruth.  Ruth ended up in the field of a kinsman, and on top of that, a kinsman who was inclined to be generous to her.  The version above chose to translate khesed with the lesser term kindness.  However, Naomi uses khesed precisely because Boaz has demonstrated a generous, covenant-keeping love towards them.  He is not necessarily in a covenant with them, but as their kin, he does have a commitment to help them as best he can.  Why is Boaz being so kind, or generous?  Well, let’s look at his words in the next chapter.

Naomi begins to realize that God is helping them, and Boaz is a unique guy.  She counsels Ruth on how to discretely propose that Boaz take on the role of the kinsman redeemer by marrying her and raising up a child for Elimelech’s line.  This leads to Ruth coming to the field late in the evening while Boaz is sleeping among the harvest as a security.  She uncovers his feet and rests at his feet, waiting for the cool air on his feet to wake him up.  When Boaz wakes up, he sees a woman lying at his feet and says this.  “He said, ‘Who are you?’ And she answered, ‘I am Ruth your maid. So spread your covering over your maid, for you are a close relative.’ 10 Then he said, ‘May you be blessed of the Lord, my daughter. You have shown your last kindness to be better than the first by not going after young men, whether poor or rich.’”

Just as we saw Naomi declaring the actions of Boaz to be khesed, so we have Boaz declaring of Ruth that she has twice shown khesed.  The first time that he has in mind is her faithfulness to come to Israel with Naomi.  Boaz is clearly declaring that she had done an act of khesed.  Yet, her proposal to him to marry her is called an even better khesed.  Maybe it is better simply because it is done towards him.  Regardless, we might ask again, what commitment would Ruth be keeping by asking Boaz to marry her?  First, she is a Moabitess and has every reason to fear marrying a man of a different nation.  Yet, she would do so because it would better her and Naomi’s situation.  Carrying this risk on herself is an act of keeping covenant in difficult circumstances.  Yet, she is also honoring the circumstance of Boaz being the one who was gracious to her.  Apparently, Boaz is much older than her (she is probably mid-twenties).  She might choose to marry simply to eat, but if she was merely following the lusts of her flesh, she would look for a much younger relative, redeemer, to approach with this proposal.  She is being faithful to the fact that it was he who took notice of her and chose to bless her instead of mistreating her.

Thus, David comes from great-grandparents who not only understood what khesed was, but also lived it.

Jacob’s fear of Esau in Genesis 32 is another place where we find this word.  Jacob had taken advantage of his brother when Esau was hungry.  Esau gave Jacob his birthright for a bowl of beans.  Later, Jacob deceived his father and, thereby, swindled Esau out of the blessing.  This led to Jacob fleeing to what is northeastern Syria today.  Over 20 years, he accumulated two wives, twelve kids, and he had many sheep, goats, oxen and donkeys.  Then, God told Jacob to go back to Canaan.

Genesis 32:9-10 is a prayer that Jacob prays to God on the borders of Canaan because he fears what Esau will do to him.  In verse 10, he recognizes that he is not worthy of all the lovingkindness, khesed (generous, covenant-keeping love), that God has given to him.  Lovingkindness is coupled with the word translated in NASB as “faithfulness.”  This is the word that we will look at next week, which is the last description in Exodus 34:6.

Jacob knows that he doesn’t deserve God’s blessing in his life, nor His protection.  Yet, he goes on to ask God to spare him.  He mentions his grandfather and father, recognizing that God’s mercy to him is directly connected to his covenant with them.  He is in a long line of chosen ones to whom God showed great khesed.  Yet, these chosen ones are part of God’s great khesed to humanity.  This brings us back to Israel in Egypt and God’s deliverance.

Israel’s redemption from Egypt comes to a highpoint in Exodus 15.  Israel has just come through the Red Sea in an impossible way, only to see Pharaoh’s army drowned trying to follow them.  On the opposite shore of the Red Sea, Israel sings a song of God’s deliverance.  We find this description in the middle of the song in verses 11 through 13.  “Who is like You among the gods, O LORD?  Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?  You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them.  In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom You have redeemed; in Your strength You have guided them to your holy habitation.”

God is generously keeping his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by rescuing Israel.  Despite all of their failings through worshiping other gods, complaining about Moses and an overall stubbornness in sin in the face of God’s miracles, God has loved them.  They too could say with Jacob, “We are unworthy of Your khesed, O God!” 

This why the intercessions of Moses are so key throughout the Torah.  We saw some of these intercessions while Moses was with Israel at Mt. Sinai, and we saw the generous love that God gave to Israel then.  Yet, God’s khesed did not stop there.  When they get to the Promised Land, they refuse to go in because they see the giants.  They balk and accuse Moses (God) of bringing them to this place to get them killed.  Oh, yes, that makes sense.  God saved you from Egypt and Pharaoh’s army only to sacrifice you to Canaanite giants.  Still, unbelief has never been bothered by its penchant to overlook God’s faithfulness in the past. 

They plan to kill Moses, elect a new leader and then go back to Egypt.  In this context, God gives Moses the same offer again.  He will dispossess Israel and send plagues against them, while making a new chosen nation out of Moses and his descendants.  Numbers 14:17-20 records Moses interceding for Israel again.

“17 But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have declared, 18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.’ 19 Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.”  20 So the Lord said, “I have pardoned them according to your word…”

Notice here that Moses is quoting God’s description of Himself in Exodus 34 back to Him.  He is calling upon the generous covenant-keeping love of God to pardon Israel’s sin and give them mercy.  They don’t deserve it, but do it for the sake of who You are, for Your character, for Your great name!

God does lay a punishment upon that generation, but it is not one in which they can’t repent and serve God by teaching their children not to do what they did (unbelief and rebellion).  This is a grace that is similar to Adam and Eve.  Yes, difficult things are put upon them.  However, if they will carry those heavy things with faith in God, then those heavy things will do a good work in them, and God will pardon their sins.  Yes, these people will be in the wilderness for another 40 years, but they can teach their kids to avoid the failings that they did.  They can show them the good way instead of becoming angry with God’s discipline in their life.  We can embrace His generous, covenant-keeping love in the midst of his disciplines and become a testimony to others.

There are some other worthy mentions of khesed in the Old Testament.  The book of Hosea emphasizes the khesed of God versus the worthless love of Israel.  Hosea 6:4-7 says, “What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?  What shall I do with you, O Judah?  For your loyalty is like a morning cloud and like the dew which goes away early.  5 Therefore I have hewn them in pieces by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth; and the judgments on you are like the light that goes forth.  6 For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.  7 But like Adam they have transgressed the covenant; there they have dealt treacherously against Me.”

God’s great khesed deserves a response of khesed towards Him.  Yet, Israel’s khesed was like the dew that quickly dissipates under the heat of the sun (difficulty, trials and temptations).  However, this was not unique to Israel.  Over and over again, whether it be Adam, the pre-flood world, the Tower of Babel generation, the patriarchs, David, Israel, etc., humanity has reciprocated God’s generous covenant keeping love with lip-service, even complete rebellion.  His generous, covenant-keeping love is met with stingy, covenant breaking treachery.  Yet, even so, God’s faithfulness would still respond by sending His Anointed One, Jesus, to create salvation from this problem for whosoever would put their faith in him.  The prophets pointed out this problem and answered that there was still hope because of God’s abounding khesed.

Jesus is the overly generous, covenant-keeping, merciful love of God

The Apostle John speaks of God’s great love given to us (1 John 3:1).  This love is not just about Israel.  Jesus dies on the cross to take the failure of Israel upon himself, but he is also dying for the Gentiles too.  It is in this reality that we can know that God really does love us.  He really has kept His covenant with us as a group (humanity) and as an individual.  In these last days, He is offering an everlasting covenant to whosoever will take Him up on it.  This covenant is really between the Father and Jesus, the perfect, human Son of God.  However, like Boaz with Ruth, we who are moral beggars can come into relationship with Jesus and participate in this covenant.

This is key.  In the face of our failures, the eternal Word of God becomes one of us to bind himself to us forever.  It is a kind of burning the bridges behind.  When Jesus takes on a mortal body, it would one day die, but to be resurrected as a human, but in an immortal, heavenly body, is a form of showing that there is no going back.  Jesus will not turn back until he has completed redemption.  He has inherited all things, and we can too because of our living connection to him.  Yet, it is more than a connection.  He has drawn us close into an intimate relationship.

We should notice throughout the Bible that those who are being cast out, or pushed out, are really being handed over to their sins so that they will repent in the midst of their resultant misery.  The sad results of our willful sin can open our eyes to God’s goodness and lead us to cry out for mercy, for grace.  “Everyone who calls upon the LORD shall be saved!”  (Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21).  All of this is in the face of our failures.

Christmas should not be seen as a lovely thing of babies and gifts.  That little baby was birthed into this world with one goal in mind, to go to the cross and glorify God the Father.  He was born into a dark and evil world that truly hated him.  It was worse than an abject failure of humanity to merit anything from God, but an actual positive resistance against His purpose and plan of redemption.

The life of Jesus is the essence of sowing seeds while weeping.  Just as there was at the laying of the foundations of the earth, so too here, there is a melancholy in the midst of God’s confident love towards humanity.  All of this is done because the Lord Jesus knows that there is joy on the other side of this sadness.  The grace of God will bring it to an ultimate good.  In Jesus, the unthinkable, the inconceivable, is there over the top of our complete failure.

Though it is clear that Jesus is the perfect khesed of God towards humanity, we should not miss the reality that Jesus is also the perfect khesed of humanity towards God.  In Jesus, humanity has fully reciprocated the khesed of God with absolutely perfect khesed.  Jesus is the greater Isaac who does not struggle as he is brought to the place of sacrifice and bound to the wood.  There is no Angel of the LORD to intervene.  The greater Isaac is the greater offering that the LORD has provided to redeem humanity.

Jesus is also the greater Boaz.  He is the Son of God’s love, and we can come under his covering because he is a willing kinsman redeemer.  As Naomi counseled Ruth regarding how they could be saved, so we see our own salvation.  Others have told us how to present ourselves to Jesus, in humility, without pretense, simply asking for the grace of being covered and redeemed, asking Jesus to take us under his wing as his bride.

Jesus has the wealth to redeem us.  He has the ability to redeem everything we have lost.  Yet, he also has the heart, the loving disposition, to save us.

Yes, to connect to Christ is to receive an inheritance in the future.  However, it also gets back for us an inheritance in this mortal life.  We don’t know what that fully entails, but by faith, we press forward to take possession of our souls first, and then our lives.  We can do this because Jesus has poured out the Holy Spirit upon those who put their faith in him.  I’m not talking about houses and money.  I am talking about the works that God has determined for us to do from the very laying down of the foundation of the earth.  Let us put our faith in Jesus, listening to the Holy Spirit, trusting the Scriptures, and doing those things that He has called us to do!

Lovingkindness audio

The Character of God- Part 4

Subtitle:  God is Gracious

Exodus 34:6-7.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 29, 2024.

Today, we move to the second aspect of God’s character that is revealed in these verses.  He is Gracious!  What does that really mean?

The concept of God being gracious is closely connected to the previous word, compassion.  In fact, they are often connected as pairs throughout the Old Testament.  God is compassionate and gracious!

A definition of Grace

They are somewhat synonyms, but they have different connotations.  Much like comparing Nacho Cheese Doritos with Cool Ranch Doritos.  They are both Doritos, triangular chips, and made of corn meal.  However, they have a different flavor.  Similarly, synonyms can point to the same thing, but with a different flavor, connotation.

The word compassion has the connotation of an inner softening to the plight of another, which leads to helping them.  The same act can be described with the words grace and gracious.  Yet, the word for gracious here begins in a different place.  It has the concept of favor or delight.  The giver of grace favors the recipient, may even delight in them.  This leads to some action on their behalf, which is intended to delight the recipient.

Like compassion, the noun form, grace, can refer to what is happening in the giver, i.e., God has favor for us.  It can also focus on the act itself.  Jesus is the grace of God.  Yet, it may focus on the resultant effect upon the recipient.  Salvation is the grace of God.

In fact, grace does not require a context of the recipient needing help.  It may simply be a gift for the sake of causing delight in another.  This is typically what is behind gifts that we give around Christmas.  The recipient may or may not have asked for the grace.  The situation may or may not involve needing help.  Yet always, the response is about favor and delight rather than merit.

God is gracious in the Old Testament

In the immediate context of Exodus 34, we were told in chapter 33, verses 12 and 17, of God favoring, having grace for Moses.  It is clear that God’s favoring of Moses is not so much about the job he is given.  Moses does not seem to delight in leading 6 million plus stubborn people through the wilderness.  Rather, the grace is seen in the relationship that God has with Moses.  God is with Him.  God reveals Himself, His character, His designs and purposes, to Moses.

We must be careful that we don’t narrow God’s grace only to powerful works.  You see, God favored Moses, and he did powerful works by obeying the Lord.  But, Exodus 34: 6,7 shows us that this is part of His character.  His favor is not just for Moses, but extends out to the Israelites God sent him to.  However, His favor is not just for Israel, but extends to the nations before whom Israel is to be a witness and bring forth the Anointed One who would fix humanity’s sin problem.

Just as Moses found grace in the eyes of the Lord, so we read the same of Noah in Genesis 6:7-8.  In this situation, there is an immediate threat.  Humanity has become so wicked that the chosen line of the “serpent-crusher” (see Genesis 3:15), is being threatened, which threatens the salvation of humanity.  There is an irony in the Flood passage regarding this.  God has to bring destruction upon humanity in order to protect His plan of saving humanity.  This is how horrible sin is.  God must judge humanity, but Noah found favor, grace, in the eyes of the Lord.  God delights in Noah, and leads him to make an ark that allows his family and many animals to be spared the devastating effects of the flood.

This irony crops up in the lives of individuals as well.  Sometimes God allows the destruction of certain things in our life to protect the possibility of our redemption.

These stories are not about Noah and Moses being the “teacher’s pet.”  He does see a faithfulness to Him within them and it draws His favor, but His work of grace in their lives is all about His larger desire to help, favor, humanity in our current problem of sin.

We see a similar thing in the story of Abraham.  We don’t end up with a statement, “Abraham found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”  However, Genesis 18 implicitly says it.  The LORD and two angels have approached Abraham in the heat of the day.  He sees them and runs out to them.  “My LORD, if now I have found favor (grace) in Your sight, please do not pass Your servant by.”  We then see that they come and eat a meal with Abraham.  The LORD even reveals to Abraham that the time for Sarah to finally conceive has come.  Within a year, she will give birth to a son!  On top of this, the LORD also reveals to Abraham the coming destruction upon Sodom.  Abraham intercedes for the cities of the plain.  He is pictured as the man of God’s favor interceding for a people who are in the dark about His coming judgment.  The intercession doesn’t save the city, but it does save Lot and his family.  The whole passage is dripping with the answer to Abraham’s conditional, “if I have found favor…”  Abraham has found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

Thus, the description of God as gracious has been highlighted throughout the passages leading up to this and continues on throughout all of the Old Testament.  Genesis three and the Fall of Humanity doesn’t have the words grace or gracious in it.  Yet, it is absolutely clear that Adam and Eve were dwelling in the favor of God in the garden.  It was His gift to them, a paradise.  Yet, the serpent tricks them into distrusting God and taking hold of their own benefit.  In the scene where all three of them are being judged before the LORD, it is clear that God favors humanity against the serpent.  Even the punishment upon Adam and Eve bears a grace in teaching them the goodness of God even in their unfaithfulness.

Thus, even though grace is simply a gift and doesn’t require the concept of help, this is and has been the true condition of humanity from the Fall to this day.  We are a world full of sin and distrust of God.  We are a world trusting in our own wisdom and our own ability to benefit ourselves.  If God doesn’t help us, then we are not going to make it.  The good news is that God has help us, is even now helping us, and will help us even more in the future.

Israel becomes a picture of God’s larger desire to help humanity in the face of our inability to trust Him enough to make that happen.  The chosen line, and then in Israel, the chosen nation, is not about those who obtain grace and those who don’t.  It is about God protecting the means by which He will give grace to all of humanity.  There are two more scenes of grace in the Old Testament that I want to visit.

In Genesis 33:10, Jacob has returned from what we call northeast Syria after being gone for 20 years.  He had taken advantage of his brother’s hunger to obtain the birthright (a double portion of their father’s estate, etc.), and then, through deception, stole the blessing that Isaac was going to give to Esau.  Jacob left because he knew Esau was angry enough to kill him.

Here, twenty years later, God has told Jacob to go back “home.”  He knows that he has to face Esau if he is to live there.  He needs Esau’s forgiveness, but can’t see how that is going to happen.  This verse is at the end of all that Jacob does to appease his very dangerous brother (who was coming with 400 very dangerous men).  Jacob is asking forgiveness.  “If now I have found favor in your sight, then accept my gift from my hand, for I see your face as one sees the face of God, and you have received me favorably.”  Notice that Jacob uses language of Esau as his master and lord, even as God.  This is how important forgiveness from Esau is to him.  Shocker of shockers, Esau gives grace to Jacob, and he is enabled to dwell in the land without fear of reprisals from his brother.  However, sin and forgiveness are not always at the heart of the recipient’s need for grace.  Let’s look at a part of the story of Esther.

Esther 8:5 has Esther approaching king Xerxes in order to ask for grace for her people.  The king has been manipulated by the wicked Haman to empower him to exterminate the Jewish people.  The king did not know that his queen was also a Jew.  Yet, Esther is not a queen like we might think.  She could not enter the king’s presence without a summons from him.  To do so carried the penalty of death, unless the king gave his grace, his favor, and forgave the offense.

The king does delight in Esther, and so, he is gracious to her and her people.  This gives a picture of the intercessor who approaches the king for the sake of their people, rather than for themselves.  We saw this intercession with Moses in Exodus 33.

This becomes a backdrop for understanding the person of Jesus, and ultimately his Church.  In Jesus, God has become a part of the human family.  Thus, he intercedes before God the Father on behalf of humanity, but particularly those who have put their faith in him.  Yet, it may be more proper to see Esther as a picture of the Church of Jesus.  Because God’s favor rest upon Jesus, He will grant him his requests, so our relationship with Jesus brings upon us the favor of the Father too.  We are to use that favor to intercede on behalf of our people who are in jeopardy of the judgment because we too were under a death sentence.

Jesus is the grace of God

This brings us to understanding Jesus as the grace of God.  John’s gospel presents Jesus as a gift from the King of Heaven.  In John 1:14-18, we are told that Jesus is “full of grace and truth.”  In verse 16, he is even “grace upon grace.”  The sense here is that Jesus is the capstone of a long series of God’s grace.  He is both the fullness of grace and the overflow of God’s grace.

In verse 17, the NASB says that Grace and Truth were “realized” through Messiah Jesus.  It literally came into being and came through him.  The body of Jesus began at a point of time.  Prior to this, the Word existed with God and as God throughout eternity past.  Thus, we can contemplate the man Jesus as the fulfilling of the grace of God through what he did.  However, as the Word, we understand that he was always the fullness of God’s grace set in the heavens where no devil could touch it.  Awaiting the moment when the Father would signal the time for incarnating into this world as a human.

When the Word took on flesh and became a human, it opened the door for a new relationship with God the Father that was not available before, at least not in that intimate sense.  Jesus is more than a vehicle of God’s grace.  Rather, He embodies the graciousness of God. 

This leads us to John speaking of the Son being given to the world as a gift in John 3:16-17.  Somehow, humanity has drawn the favor of God.  Yet, God has given His favor in such a way that we must believe in Jesus, trust in him, in order to receive that eternal life.  Imagine this.  The Bible presents both Israel and the Gentiles in a sinful fallen state, and yet, He favored us by sending a gift of His Grace, Jesus.  A gift is given as opposed to a paycheck.  We did not merit it.  Any of our works fell woefully short of accomplishing any salvation.  Yet, God gives us what we don’t deserve.

The Apostle Paul picks up on this in the classic verses on grace, Ephesians 2:8-10.  It says that we have been saved by grace (God delighting to do it) through faith.  If you look at the verses, they emphasize that salvation is a gift.  The work of salvation is entirely the work of God.  “Not by works, so that no one may boast.”  Yet, in verse 10, God does have works for us to do.

The point is that we are not to imagine that we can do a work that merits His grace.  Instead, we are to do works of thankfulness for His gracious salvation in Jesus.

Sometimes people over emphasize that it is faith that is the gift of God.  In other words, you couldn’t even trust God if He didn’t give you a gift of faith.  However, the gift of God refers not just to faith, but to the whole grace of salvation.  It is not just a gift of ability to trust, but of the whole grounds upon which trusting could obtain the grace of salvation.  It was the grace of God that created humans in a way that we could be redeemed.  It was the grace of God that sent a redeemer who would be faithful to do what we could not (would not, even if we could) do for ourselves.  It is the grace of God that our trust in Jesus is acceptable to him in our disqualified state.  It is the grace of God that we are able to believe even after a lifetime of being in bondage to sin.  This is the mystery of the immense grace of God lavished upon humanity.  All of it is grace; all of it is a gift from God.

John presents to us that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is offered as a generous gift of life that is more powerful than our mortality, than death itself.  We now have a relationship with the Father through Jesus in which He pours His eternal life into us each day.  This eternal life works to displace sin and fill us with the works of true righteousness out of thanks.  We can question if it is working, but God’s grace is working in our life.  We were saved when we believed in Jesus (from judgment), we are being saved (from sin and its effects), and we shall be saved on that day when He completes our redemption through the resurrection from the dead!  You can have assurance now because of the faithfulness of God Himself, not because of your perfect performance in the now.

This grace of Jesus is more powerful than our experience of life.  Imagine an Israelite who was a slave in Egypt, and had waited for God’s deliverance all of their life.  Imagine that they die the year before Moses comes out of the wilderness to confront Pharaoh with God.  Did that person miss out on the grace of God?  That is often how we picture it.  If such and such doesn’t happen in my life, then God doesn’t love me, doesn’t have grace for me.  The same is true for things that do happen.  God doesn’t have grace for me because I was born as a slave in Egypt!  These are the ways we tend to think about God’s grace.

But, the testimony of scripture is that God’s grace is bigger than our experience of life.  Of course, as Americans, we have had an experience of life that is better than most of humanity has ever experienced.  Yet, when you are in a problem, that line of reasoning doesn’t comfort you.  It is still the truth nonetheless.  The promise of the resurrection of the righteous will fill with delight even the most tragic of lives.  Countless numbers of people who were martyred via horrible methods will rise and shine like the stars.  They will bask in the favor and delight of God while being filled with delight themselves.  Their past lives of pain and sorrow will only cause the present glory to be all the more flavorful, all the more glorious!

Another thing we see in this story of God’s grace is that gifts only require a person to accept them.  We can also over-emphasize that God’s grace is a gift.  “You don’t do anything,” is the mantra of some.  Yes, but a gift does require someone to receive it, to take hold of it.  It happens every day that God’s offer of salvation is rejected by people.  “You can keep your ‘gift!’ I don’t want it.”  God is saying to the whole world that He has a gift of salvation for us.  However, He will not force us to take hold of it.  A person can spurn the gift of God, the grace of God, and miss it, walk away from it.  In fact, it is rare for those who do accept God’s offer of salvation to have not missed it throughout their life.  Few belief at the first presentation of God’s grace to them.

So, what makes us delightful and favorable in the eyes of the LORD?  Yes, Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD, but how will it ever be said that Marty (insert your name) found grace in the eyes of the LORD, to be favorable to Him?  We tend to look for merit.  Yet, this cannot obtain the grace of God.

In one sense, there is nothing we can do, should do, because we already have the favor of God.  He has favored humanity and made salvation possible for all, if they will only trust in Jesus.  He has done the heavy lifting and put the salvation of Jesus in front of you.  You don’t deserve it, but there it is.  God’s favor to you.  This is because of who He is and what He made us to be.  He made us to be His imagers.  He doesn’t crush failed imagers.  In His favor, He makes a way for us to be redeemed and image Him in truth!

Yet, in another sense, we do need to take hold of this favor.  If His current favor is to effectively bring me to favor at the final judgment, I must properly take hold of it.  We do this by owning our sin.  We quit making the case for our own righteousness (self righteousness), and we agree that it took Jesus dying on a cross to effect our salvation (my salvation).

Those who insist on their own works, and even deride the idea that Jesus paid the price for our sins, are being proud.  Their ego refuses to see the grossness of their sin.  Such pride and arrogance in the face of God’s grace is not lovely to Him.  But, humbling yourself and recognizing that you do not deserve the grace that He has lavished upon you, this is lovely and beautiful to God.  When we surrender and put our trust completely in Jesus and His wisdom, then the current favor of God becomes the same favor that will protect us when we stand before Him on the shores of eternity future.

Like the prodigal son who approaches the father only hoping to be a slave, we come to God knowing we really don’t even deserve to be His slave. Yet, He takes us in His arms and clothes us with robes of righteousness.  He slaughters the fattened calf and holds a celebration that, “My son who was dead is now alive!”

Our belief in Jesus is not just intellectual belief that he lived, or that he was resurrected.  It truly is a trusting in his work and his teaching to us.  Are any of us absolutely perfect in our trust?  Of course, not.  We often have times of doubt, selfishness, even choosing our way over the top of His.  Yet, God’s grace is not about perfect performance.  It is about trusting His character even in the midst of our own mistakes and failures.  Our goal is not to get away with sin, but to become like Jesus.  May God help us to see His great favor in our life despite all the things that we could point to in order to deny its reality.

God is Gracious audio