What Is the Church?

The New Testament teaches the divine romance, that the church is the bride of Christ. The church is not a denomination nor a sectarian group. The church includes all who have been saved by grace through faith in Christ. The church is a mystery not revealed in the Old Testament. The church is revealed in the New Testament (Ephesians 3:1-6). All believers compose the body of Christ. He is the head of the body (Ephesians 5:23).

Wedding customs in New Testament days illustrated the relationship with Christ and the church. The father chose the bride for his son. God the Father chose the church as the bride for His Son. Believers are the bride-elect of Christ. Marriage was a covenant relationship. Christ is the Shepherd of the everlasting covenant (Hebrews 13:20-21). A dowry price was paid for a bride. Jesus paid it all for his bride at the cross (Ephesians 5:25). 

In the book of Revelation, we read about the divine romance. It is the marriage of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7). The Bible has been described as the divine romance. God loves us and pursues a personal relationship with us. Believers receive the love of God in Christ (John 3:16).

The Lamb is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. John the Baptist introduced Jesus as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). He is every believer's Passover Lamb at the cross (1 Corinthians 5:7). The divine romance is God's love for sinners at the cross of Jesus (Romans 5:8).

What Is Foreknowledge?

Augustine taught God's foreknowledge. "Since only One foreknows, only One knows that number and can already name them by name, not because this is already decreed by universal foreordination, but because God's knowing is contemporary with every moment in time, including future moments with all their contingencies."

God's attribute of foreknowledge includes all things. His foreknowledge has to do with all his people in Christ. God foreknew us in Christ. God foreknew his relationship with each one of us. God foreknew us as justified and glorified in Christ (Romans 8:28-30).

God's foreknowledge includes our salvation, yet that does not remove the command for all people to repent (Acts 17:30). God foreknew us in Christ through a personal relationship, yet that does not dismiss our responsibility. We are responsible for our choices. We must repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the gospel (1 Peter 1:2; 2 Peter 1:10).

God's foreknowledge includes our personal relationship through Christ. God foreknew us in the everlasting covenant through Christ, the great Shepherd (Hebrews 13:20-21). God's foreknowledge includes all things to the least detail. God foreknew us in Christ as his people. That includes our calling, gifting, and service (Ephesians 1:4-6; 2:10). 

How Is Grace Received?

God's grace is received as unmerited favor. There is no way we can merit nor earn the favor of God. It comes to us only as the gift of God. Faith in Jesus Christ receives God's saving grace. Don't fall for the idea that you can somehow be good enough to merit God's favor. Grace is not for good people. It's for sinners, and that includes all of us. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

Grace is received as deliverance from the curse of sin and death, through Christ our Lord. God's saving grace works in us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31). God's grace comes to us by faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8-10). 

Grace is received through the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). To receive the Gospel is to believe Christ died for your sins on the cross (Romans 5:8). To receive the Gospel is to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and confess him as your Lord (Romans 10:9). 

Grace is received in Christ alone. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners  (1 Timothy 1:15). We have all sinned (Romans 3:23). God's grace is received in Christ crucified for all our sins (1 John 1:7). God's grace is received by faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Who Hardens Hearts?

Pharaoh is the classic example of hardening the heart (Romans 9:14-18). He was given a choice when confronted by Moses to let God's people leave Egypt. Time and time again, Pharaoh refused the command of God. He saw the judgment of God through the plagues, yet he chose to refuse God's word. The word from God, which could have spared judgment on Egypt, was the word that hardened his heart.

Pharaoh was responsible for the hardening of his heart. God gave him a choice time and time again, but he continually rejected the word of God. Anyone who persistently rejects the word of God is responsible for the hardening of his own heart. Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts (Hebrews 3:15).

God does not actively harden hearts. He passively hardens hearts. God gives people over to their sinful desires. A person may continually reject the warnings of God. Then, God may remove restraints to give the person over to his own disobedient desires. In other words, God gives people over to what they choose (Romans 1:24-28). Therefore, they have no one to blame but themselves.

The patience of God can harden hearts. Again, Pharaoh is an example. God was patient with him, sending the warnings over an extended time. Perhaps, Pharaoh thought the warnings were meaningless and he could defiantly refuse the word of God through Moses. God's patience was misinterpreted. That very patience of God hardened his heart.

Do You Please God?

People try to please God in different ways. Yet, there is only one way to please God. It's when God is working in you to please Himself. He does this through our Lord Jesus Christ, "working in you what is well pleasing in His sight" (Hebrews 13:21).

If you try to please God with your own works, you are sure to fail (Isaiah 64:6). They are works of the flesh which can never please God (Romans 8:8). You simply cannot buy God's favor nor earn His blessing. Grace gives God's unmerited favor to you in Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8-9). God is well pleased in His Son. When you please God, it is by faith alone in Christ alone.

When you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are well pleasing to God. He is working in you through the gospel and power of Jesus Christ (Romans 1:16). When you please God, it's in Christ alone (2 Corinthians 5:17). The power of God is working in all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

By grace through faith, confess Jesus as your Lord (Romans 10:9). When God is working in you, then you are well pleasing to God (Hebrews 13:21). It's not about what you do for God, rather, it's all about what God does in you through Christ. That's when God is working in you what is well pleasing in His sight.

What Is God's Kingdom?

Jesus said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me (Matthew 28:18). His power is demonstrated through kingdom authority. In the name of Jesus, the kingdom is in power through the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:6-8). God's kingdom includes all who confess Jesus is Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3).

God's kingdom authority works through our Lord Jesus Christ. He came into this present evil world to defeat sin, Satan, and death, through the cross and the resurrection. The power of evil was broken, yet the victory has not come in all of its fullness. The warfare rages, as the kingdom authority of Christ advances. However, the complete defeat of evil will only come at the return of Christ in power and great glory (Luke 21:27; 1 Corinthians 15:24-28).

God's kingdom in Christ is demonstrated through the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). We enter the kingdom by faith in Jesus Christ. Only through the authority of our Lord Jesus can we break free from the control of the evil one (1 John 5:18-20). Those who are born again enter the kingdom of God in Christ through the gospel (Romans 1:16; 1 Thess. 1:5).

Jesus taught us to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:9-10). The kingdom of God is now and not yet, until that day when King Jesus returns. Then, God's kingdom shall come in the final and total victory forever. That means God's will in Christ shall be done throughout the earth as it is in heaven.

What Is Amazing Grace?

God's common grace is for all. Common grace gives rain with fruitful seasons to all people. Every provision we all have is by God's common grace. However, God's saving grace is only for believers in Christ. God works in and through us to do His will by grace alone. John Newton referred to God's saving grace as "amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me."

God's amazing grace is offered to all, because we have all sinned (Romans 3:23). There is no way we can merit nor earn the favor of God. It comes to us only as the gift of God freely received. "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). Faith in Jesus Christ receives God's amazing grace. Don't fall for the idea that we can somehow be good enough to merit God's gift. 

The only way that we can have a personal relationship with God is by grace alone. He must reveal himself to us and in us. That has been appropriately called amazing grace. It's not what we do for God. It's what God has done for us in Christ. All that we are or ever hope to be is by God's amazing grace.

Your testimony may echo the words of the apostle Paul,"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain" (First Corinthians 15:10). Grace gives all the glory to God. It's always by God's amazing grace and never earned by our works.