To give, or to receive?
V23 n42
At this time of year, one is often concerned with that which they receive. Yet, how often is it that the joy of the gift or gifts that one may receive, only lasts but a few days. The novelty wears off, and soon they are discarded, or set in a closet someplace and are soon forgotten.
One
often does this with salvation as well. Few are there that treasure and
appreciate the “gift” that God has made available to them. In this weeks
newsletter, I want us to look at a couple of verses and Adam Clarke’s comments
on them, to try to get us to have more appreciation of this “gift” as well as
seeing and recognizing the responsibility that goes with it.
Rom
[But
the gift of God is eternal life] A man may MERIT hell, but he cannot MERIT
heaven. The apostle does not say that the wages of righteousness is eternal
life: no, but that this eternal life, even to the righteous, is the gracious
gift of God. And even this gracious gift comes through Jesus Christ our Lord.
He alone has procured it; and it is given to all those who find redemption in
his blood. A sinner goes to hell because he deserves it; a righteous man goes
to heaven because Christ has died for him, and communicated that grace by which
his sin is pardoned and his soul was made holy. The word opsoonia (grk 3800),
which we here render "wages", signified the daily pay of a Roman
soldier. So, every sinner has a daily pay, and this pay is death; he has misery
because he sins. Sin constitutes hell; the sinner has a hell in his own bosom; all is confusion and disorder where God does
not reign: every indulgence of sinful passion increases the disorder, and
consequently the misery of a sinner. If people were as much in earnest to get
their souls saved as they are to prepare them for perdition, heaven would be
highly populated, and devils would be their own companions. Will not the living
lay this to heart? (from
Adam Clarke Commentary)
John 3:16, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
(KJV)
[For
God so loved the world] Such a love as that which induced God to give his only
begotten Son to die for the world could not be described:--
Jesus Christ does not attempt it. He has put an eternity of meaning in the
particle houtoos (grk
3779), so, and left a subject for everlasting contemplation, wonder, and
praise, to angels and to men. The same evangelist uses a similar mode of
expression, <1 John 3:1>: Behold, WHAT MANNER of
love, the Father hath bestowed upon us.
From the subject before him, let the reader attend to the
following particulars:
1. The world was in a ruinous, condemned state, about to
perish everlastingly; and was utterly without power to rescue itself from
destruction.
2. That God, through the impulse of his eternal love,
provided for its rescue and salvation, by giving his Son to die for it.
3. That the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was the only mean by
which the redemption of man could be effected, and that it is absolutely
sufficient to accomplish this gracious design: for it would have been
inconsistent with the wisdom of God, to have appointed a sacrifice greater in
itself, or less in its merit, than what the urgent necessities of the case
required.
4. That sin must be an indescribable evil, when it
required no less a sacrifice, to make atonement for it, than God manifested in
the flesh.
5. That no man is saved through this sacrifice but he
that believes,
i. e. who credits what God has spoken concerning Christ, his
sacrifice, the end for which it was offered, and the way in which it is to be
applied in order to become effectual.
6. That those who believe receive a double benefit:
a. They are exempted from eternal perdition-- that they
may not perish.
b. They are brought to eternal glory-- that they may have
everlasting life. These two benefits point out tacitly the state of man:-- he is guilty, and therefore exposed to punishment: he is
impure, and therefore unfit for glory. (from Adam Clarke Commentary)
What have you done with this gift that God has made available to you? Have you hid it away? Are you ashamed of this gospel message of Jesus Christ?
Eph 2:8-9, For by
grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift
of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (KJV)
But
it may be asked: Is not faith the gift of God? Yes, as to the grace by which it
is produced; but the grace or power to believe, and the act of believing, are
two different things. Without the grace or power to believe no man ever did or
can believe; but with that power the act of faith is a man's own. God never
believes for any man, no more than he repents for him; the penitent, through
this grace enabling him, believes for himself: nor does he believe necessarily,
or impulsively when he has that power; the power to believe may be present long
before it is exercised, else, why the solemn warnings with which we meet
everywhere in the word of God, and threatenings against those who do not
believe? Is not this a proof that such persons have the power but do not use
it? They believe not, and therefore are not established. This, therefore, is
the true state of the case: God gives the power, man
uses the power thus given, and brings glory to God: without the power no one
can believe; with it, any one may. (from Adam Clarke
Commentary)
Today, will you receive that gift that God has for you? Today, will you follow the instructions that go with this gift? It is when you operate in His fulness, that you will then be able to share this gift of life with others.
That you may know Him,
In the service of Jesus
Christ.
Larry Gazelka
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