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Bingo! Grace is basically equal to favor. Furthermore, I would like to add that protection is closely associated with grace as well. God favors those who walk in his “ways” and as a consequence he protects them from danger like Noah.
From: 'All of Grace' - Chapter 3 - 'Just and the Justifier'
Romans 3:26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
'If you believe on Him, I tell you you cannot go to hell; for that were to make the sacrifice of Christ of none effect. It cannot be that a sacrifice should be accepted, and yet the soul should die for whom that sacrifice has been received.' - Charles Spurgeon
Bingo! Grace is basically equal to favor. Furthermore, I would like to add that protection is closely associated with grace as well. God favors those who walk in his “ways” and as a consequence he protects them from danger like Noah.
Gen 6:7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe humankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth — everything from humankind to animals, including creatures that move on the ground and birds of the air, for I regret that I have made them."
Gen 6:8 But Noah found favor in the sight of the LORD.
Gen 6:9 This is the account of Noah. Noah was a godly man; he was blameless among his contemporaries. He walked with God.
From: 'All of Grace' - Chapter 3 - 'Just and the Justifier'
Romans 3:26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
'Every believer can claim that the sacrifice was actually made for him: by faith he has laid his hands on it, and made it his own, and therefore he may rest assured that he can never perish.. Oh that you may have grace given you at once to look away to Jesus and to begin at the beginning, even at Jesus, who is the Fountain-head of mercy to guilty man!' - Charles Spurgeon
From: 'All of Grace' - Chapter 3 - 'Just and the Justifier'
Romans 3:26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
"It is God that justifieth," therefore, and for that reason only it can be done, and He does it through the atoning sacrifice of His divine Son. Therefore it can be justly done--so justly done that none will ever question it--so thoroughly done that in the last tremendous day, when heaven and earth shall pass away, there shall be none that shall deny the validity of the justification." - Charles Spurgeon
From: 'All of Grace' - Chapter 3 - 'Just and the Justifier'
Romans 3:26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
"Now, poor soul! will you come into this lifeboat, just as you are?.. Let us join hands and stand together at the foot of the cross, and trust our souls once for all to Him who shed His blood for the guilty." - Charles Spurgeon
From: 'All of Grace' - Chapter 4 - 'Concerning deliverance from sin'
Ezekiel 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
"IN THIS PLACE I would say a plain word or two to those who understand the method of justification by faith which is in Christ Jesus, but whose trouble is that they cannot cease from sin. The heart is so hard, the will is so obstinate, the passions are so furious, the thoughts are so volatile, the imagination is so ungovernable, the desires are so wild, that the man feels that he has a den of wild beasts within him, which will eat him up sooner than be ruled by him." - Charles Spurgeon
From: 'All of Grace' - Chapter 4 - 'Concerning deliverance from sin'
Ezekiel 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
"IN THIS PLACE I would say a plain word or two to those who understand the method of justification by faith which is in Christ Jesus, but whose trouble is that they cannot cease from sin. The heart is so hard, the will is so obstinate, the passions are so furious, the thoughts are so volatile, the imagination is so ungovernable, the desires are so wild, that the man feels that he has a den of wild beasts within him, which will eat him up sooner than be ruled by him." - Charles Spurgeon
Greetings, Chanokh. This verse in Ezekiel is a major component in the whole salvation issue. It is the other side of the coin to Jeremiah 17:9.
We are told to in Romans10:9-10:
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
We also read in Jeremiah 23:9, "And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
But a problem arises when we get to Romans 3:11, where we read that there is "none who seeks after God" We somehow have to reconcile the fact that we are urged to seek God with all our heart, but we're told at the same time that there is none who seeks after God.
The starting point is that "new heart" described in Ezekiel 36 to replace the "desperately wicked" heart we read about in Jeremiah 17:9 (or the "stony heart", also mentioned in Ezekiel 36:26).
Then God speaks of a "new spirit". God further declares in Ezekiel 36:37, "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
By nature we are unable to receive God's truth regarding our need of salvation. We read in 1 Cor 2:14, "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned".
This is our problem by nature. Outside of God giving us ears to hear and a heart to understand, and effectively putting His Spirit within us, we cannot and will not receive this message. This is why God also tells us that "the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Cor 1:18). Unless God opens our understanding by enabling us to hear the Gospel message, which first tells us that we are in deep trouble with God (something we will not see until God works in us that we might finally understand this). And then as we hear the "good news" of this Wonderful Savior whom God sent to take away the sin(s) of those who will believe on Him, we embrace Him with all of our being. We cry out to God for mercy, repent of our sins, and then begin to walk in newness of life, now desiring to serve God and no longer remain slaves to sin... because now we love God.
But until God performs this work in us, we remain "dead in trespasses and sins", and will not heed the call to repent and believe. Otherwise the message remains foolishness to us. But God in His great mercy makes a way for us to come to Christ and be saved. Praise God!
So we must not be surprised when we read in Acts 28:25-27:
"The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, 26 saying, 'Go to this people and say:
"Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand;
And seeing you will see, and not perceive;
27 For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them." '
May we never cease to praise and thank God for His amazing grace and mercy and love in making a way of salvation for us, and for enabling many to hear the message as it is, in truth, and for drawing us to that one and only Savior who can make us right with God. We echo the words of the well-known hymn, "Hallelujah, what a Savior!"
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