The Work of Grace
22/06/08 17:26
“When
God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.
He created them male and female and blessed them. And
when they were created, he called them
‘man.’” Gen.5:1,2
The New International Version uses the word ‘man’ while the King James Version uses the word, ‘Adam.’ The word in the Hebrew means: ruddy, flush in the face; to show blood. The word can be transliterated to mean an individual or the species as a whole; as in, human beings or the human race.
Despite the fact that the NIV uses one word and the KJV another, there is no problem seeing that God made all men out of the one man, Adam. Paul told the Athenians this very truth, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth.” Acts 17:26
This is why each of us has that intrinsic judgment that all men are equal in the sense that every life is of the same value.
When we hear of someone ranting that a certain group of people are inferior to another group because of the color of their skin, we cringe at the thought. “We all bleed red,” so goes the saying, and that should be evidence enough to crush racism under the foot of justice.
Even when we come across a person debilitated by disease, there is something in us that says we must do all that we can to help.
The life of every man, woman and child is a created work of the grace of God. God told Jeremiah that He knew him even before He formed him in his mother’s womb –go figure! What this tells me is that in the heart of God, he has each of us known, formed, birthed and living. This is amazing to me.
The Psalmist cries out that all the days that were ordained for him were recorded before one of them came into being. Shouldn’t this knowledge give us great hope in the love that God has for us?
I can freely confess that while I was growing up, in my teen years, I made choices that were not beneficial to my well-being. For instance, I decided not to attend college. Now, supposing a job for an accountant came open and I was being considered along with a man who received a bachelor’s degree in accounting. Do you think that I would have had any argument against the employer if he chose the other man rather than me? No, the other man was qualified for the job and I was not. The other man was a better man than I (categorically) yet, no better than me (in essence).
(We, in the United States, are having trouble discerning this difference more and more. This is why I believe some of our politicians run their campaigns and make their decisions more on polling measures than the voice of conscience.)
Now what does all of this have to do with the work of grace? In the next few installments of this Pastor’s Desk I will show that work of grace in an individual life. For the moment though I hope that we all come to the understanding that (if we are able to think at all) we all have been given existence by the grace of God.
The Lord bless you this week!
Pastor Jim
The New International Version uses the word ‘man’ while the King James Version uses the word, ‘Adam.’ The word in the Hebrew means: ruddy, flush in the face; to show blood. The word can be transliterated to mean an individual or the species as a whole; as in, human beings or the human race.
Despite the fact that the NIV uses one word and the KJV another, there is no problem seeing that God made all men out of the one man, Adam. Paul told the Athenians this very truth, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth.” Acts 17:26
This is why each of us has that intrinsic judgment that all men are equal in the sense that every life is of the same value.
When we hear of someone ranting that a certain group of people are inferior to another group because of the color of their skin, we cringe at the thought. “We all bleed red,” so goes the saying, and that should be evidence enough to crush racism under the foot of justice.
Even when we come across a person debilitated by disease, there is something in us that says we must do all that we can to help.
The life of every man, woman and child is a created work of the grace of God. God told Jeremiah that He knew him even before He formed him in his mother’s womb –go figure! What this tells me is that in the heart of God, he has each of us known, formed, birthed and living. This is amazing to me.
The Psalmist cries out that all the days that were ordained for him were recorded before one of them came into being. Shouldn’t this knowledge give us great hope in the love that God has for us?
I can freely confess that while I was growing up, in my teen years, I made choices that were not beneficial to my well-being. For instance, I decided not to attend college. Now, supposing a job for an accountant came open and I was being considered along with a man who received a bachelor’s degree in accounting. Do you think that I would have had any argument against the employer if he chose the other man rather than me? No, the other man was qualified for the job and I was not. The other man was a better man than I (categorically) yet, no better than me (in essence).
(We, in the United States, are having trouble discerning this difference more and more. This is why I believe some of our politicians run their campaigns and make their decisions more on polling measures than the voice of conscience.)
Now what does all of this have to do with the work of grace? In the next few installments of this Pastor’s Desk I will show that work of grace in an individual life. For the moment though I hope that we all come to the understanding that (if we are able to think at all) we all have been given existence by the grace of God.
The Lord bless you this week!
Pastor Jim
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