Scripture Reading: 16, 20, Gal. 2:21a; Gal. 3:3; 4:21; 5:2, 4, 16, 24-25; John 1:17; 6:57b; John 15:4-5; 1 Cor. 6:17; 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; Rom. 5:17-18, 21; 1 Tim. 1:14
In 2:21 Paul says, “I do not nullify the grace of God.” If we consider this verse in context, we see that to nullify the grace of God means that in our experience we do not have Christ living in us. In verse 20 Paul says, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” Then he goes on to say that he does not nullify the grace of God. This is a strong indication that for us as believers to nullify the grace of God is for us to deny Christ the opportunity to live in us. The grace of God is simply the living Christ Himself. To allow Christ to live in us is to enjoy the grace of God. But not to allow Him to live in us is to nullify God’s grace.
It is important for us to find out the genuine and proper significance of the grace of God in the New Testament. In the Old Testament there is actually no mention of God’s grace. The word grace used in the Old Testament means favor. John 1:17 tells us that grace came with Jesus Christ. Before the incarnation of the Son of God, grace had not come. Grace came when the Lord Jesus came. Prior to that time, the law had been given through Moses. The promise of grace had also been made to Abraham; it was given before the law was. First, God gave the promise of grace to Abraham. Then, four hundred thirty years later, the law was given at Mount Sinai through Moses. Approximately another fifteen hundred years passed before grace came with Jesus Christ, with the incarnated Son of God.
According to John 1:1 and 14, the Word that was in the beginning with God and which was God became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality. Verse 16 says, “For of His fullness we all received, and grace upon grace.” Since grace came with Jesus Christ, grace was not yet present in the Old Testament.
Now we must give a definition of grace. Grace is God in His Trinity processed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to be everything to us. After passing through such a long process, the Triune God has become everything to us. He is our redemption, salvation, life, and sanctification. Having been processed to become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, the Triune God Himself is our grace.
If we would understand grace as revealed in the New Testament, we need a clear view of the New Testament as a whole. Grace is a matter of tremendous significance. To the Jews, the giving of the law through Moses was a great event. The fact that the coming of grace is contrasted with the giving of the law indicates that grace is greater than the law. As far as the Jews were concerned, apart from God Himself nothing was greater than the law. But John 1:17 indicates that grace is greater than the law. The law was given, but grace came.
According to the concept of many Christians, God’s grace is mainly a matter of material blessing. At the end of the year, some Christians gather together to count the blessings God has bestowed on them during that year and to thank Him for His great grace in sending these blessings. Then they proceed to thank the Lord for things such as a large home and new clothes. Such a concept of grace is much too poor! The Apostle Paul would count such things as dung, not as grace.
We have pointed out that, according to John 1:17, grace is greater than the law. Surely God Himself is higher than the law. However, if God remains objective to us, in our experience He will not be greater than the law. In order to be greater than the law to us, the Triune God must be subjective. Hence, in the New Testament, grace denotes the Triune God processed to become everything to us and to live in us. Nothing can surpass the living in us of the processed, all-inclusive life-giving Spirit.
We have pointed out that in 2:20 Paul says that he has been crucified with Christ and that Christ lives in him. Then in verse 21 he goes on to say that he does not nullify the grace of God. This indicates that the grace of God is the Son of God living in us. Certainly this is much greater than the law. The Son of God was incarnated not only to live on earth, to be crucified, to be resurrected, and to ascend into the heavens; He also came to live in us. This is grace.
To go back to the law is to reject this grace. It is to reject the very Son of God who now lives in us. This is to nullify the grace of God. However, if we remain in Christ, enjoying Him as everything to us, we do not nullify the grace of God.
All of Paul’s Epistles begin and end with a word about grace. This is also true of the book of Revelation. In Revelation 1:4 John writes to the seven churches which are in Asia, “Grace to you”; and in 22:21, he concludes with the words, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints.” Paul closes the Epistle to the Galatians by saying, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers.” If grace were a matter of material blessing, how could grace be with our spirit? Grace is not physical or material; it is divine and spiritual. Actually, as we have pointed out emphatically, grace is God Himself in a subjective way to be everything for our enjoyment. I hope that all the saints could grasp this definition of grace in a clear way.
Let us now consider according to the New Testament what this grace has done for us and what it will do for us. Although man was created in God’s image and likeness in order to express Him and represent Him, man became fallen. In the fall man not only did something wrong outwardly, but the very nature of sin was injected into man’s being. Hence, outwardly we are sinful, and inwardly we are evil. Before the righteous God, our conduct is sinful, and in the eyes of the holy God, our nature is evil. Furthermore, there is nothing we can do about our situation. It is utterly foolish for fallen man to go to the law and endeavor to keep it. Even if we could keep the law, what would we do about our evil nature? How we must praise God for His grace and for what it has done for us! First, the Triune God became incarnated to live on earth to fulfill the requirements of God’s righteous and holy law. Having fulfilled the law’s requirements, He went to the cross and died there for our sins as our substitute. Through His death Christ has redeemed us. Therefore, redemption is the first item of what God’s grace has accomplished for us.
After accomplishing redemption through His death, Christ was resurrected from among the dead to release the divine life from within Him. In resurrection He has become the life-giving Spirit to be received by those who will appreciate Him, love Him, believe in Him, call on Him, and repent. As soon as a sinner responds to Him in this way, He as the life-giving Spirit enters into that one and through regeneration is born in him. Is this not an aspect of God’s grace? It is the second item of what God’s grace has done for us.
Third, from the time of our regeneration, Christ has been dwelling in our spirit to live in us and with us. By living in us, Christ enables us to have the kind of living that satisfies God. In His grace, Christ lives in us and with us.
As Christ lives within us, He also ministers all His riches into our being in order to sanctify us, transform us, and make us sons of God in reality and practicality. In this way, we enjoy full sonship.
Fifth, at the appointed time, Christ will come back and saturate our physical body with His element. This will cause our body to be transfigured into a glorious body, a body which is the same as Christ’s resurrection body. Certainly this is another aspect of God’s grace. By saturating us, Christ will glorify us and be glorified in us. He will bring us all into His glory, where we shall be exactly the same as He is, in spirit, soul, and body.
Finally, in eternity and for eternity we shall enjoy Christ as the living water and as the tree of life.
This description of what the grace of God is to us covers the entire New Testament from the opening of Matthew to the end of Revelation. The Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — has been processed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension in order to come into us, to be one with us, and to be everything to us. Now He is our redemption, salvation, life, living, sanctification, and transformation, and He will become our conformation, our glorification, and our eternity. This is the portion of the saints in light (Col. 1:12).
We cannot enjoy God’s grace in full in one day or even in a lifetime. It will take eternity for us to have the full enjoyment of this grace. This is the very grace which came when the Lord Jesus came, and this is the grace we need day by day. Praise the Lord that this is the grace we find by approaching the throne of grace daily to meet our timely need. Every morning we should look to the Lord and pray, “Lord, grant me Your grace today. I need today’s portion of Your grace. May grace be with me and with all my brothers and sisters.” Oh, we all need to pray like this! Then we shall experience grace, the grace who is the very Triune God processed to become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit for our enjoyment.
In 2:21 Paul says, “For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ has died for nothing.” Christ died for us that we may have righteousness in Him, through which we may receive the divine life (Rom. 5:18, 21). This righteousness is not through the law, but through the death of Christ. If righteousness is through the law, Christ has died without cause, for nothing. But righteousness is through Christ’s death, which has separated us from law. Now, according to Romans 5:17, we who “receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” Grace enables us to reign in life.
It is the grace of God that Christ has imparted the divine life into us through the life-giving Spirit. Not to live by this Spirit is to nullify the grace of God. To nullify God’s grace is to reject the processed Triune God who has become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. The Judaizers wanted the Galatian believers to go back to the law. To return to the law is to nullify the grace of God. It is to deny and reject the processed Triune God. Furthermore, it is also to fail to experience and enjoy such a processed God. By this we can see that to nullify the grace of God by returning to the law is extremely serious.
In their blindness the Judaizers were foolish. If they had seen what the grace of God is, they would not have been Judaizers. But because they were blind, they zealously endeavored to turn people away from Christ. They failed to realize that it is not God’s economy that His chosen people keep the law. God’s economy is for His people to enjoy the Triune God who has been processed to become the life-giving Spirit through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. In His economy God intends that His people enjoy Himself as such a Triune God and become one with Him. Then His people will be one in the divine life to express God corporately. This corporate expression of the Triune God is the church life. The ultimate issue of this will be the New Jerusalem, the corporate expression of the Triune God in eternity.
If we see this vision of God’s economy, how could we go back to the law? How could we turn away from the Triune God who has been processed to become our grace? No wonder Paul said that the Galatians were foolish. In their folly they were nullifying the grace of God.
If we would be those who do not nullify the grace of God, we need to abide in Christ (John 15:4-5). To abide in Christ is to remain in the processed Triune God. Furthermore, we need to enjoy Christ, especially by eating Him (John 6:57b). Then we should go on to be one spirit with Christ (1 Cor. 6:17), to walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25), to deny the natural “I” (2:20), and to abandon the flesh (5:24). We should not be distracted by things such as the law, circumcision, the Sabbath, and dietary regulations. Rather, we should enjoy Christ and live with Him in one spirit. If we walk in spirit, deny the natural “I,” and abandon the flesh, we shall be those who do not nullify the grace of God.
We praise the Lord that in His recovery we are enjoying and experiencing His grace. Many Christians, however, are not in the experience of this grace. In Romans 5:2 Paul says that by faith we have access into this grace in which we stand. Let us stand fast in the grace into which we have entered.
