Tuesday, June 30, 2015

THE GREATNESS OF THE GRACE OF GOD



“Now therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the LORD, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father’s house, and give me a true token, and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.”  (Joshua 2:12-13)

A woman belonging to a cult believes that blood transfusions are sinful, so she refuses medical treatment and dies.  What killed her?  Not so much the disease, as rejecting the cure.  We all are born with a terminal disease called sin.  There is only one cure—Jesus.  The grace of God is a great and glorious thing!  We are mistaken to think that the Old Testament is about judgment and the New Testament is about grace.  There is judgment described in the New Testament—haven’t you read Revelation?  There is also grace in the Old Testament—we see it in Joshua 2. 

Rahab was a madam who ran a brothel (v.1-7).  There is no way to clean this up.  It was her sad condition.  How many men had she slept with?  She had developed a lucrative business, selling sex.  I believe she was like the subject of an old country song, “Looking for love in all the wrong places; looking for love in too many faces.”  I dare say, there was an emptiness in her life that Rahab was trying to fill.  To drink of the world, however, is to be always thirsty—it is like drinking from the ocean—the more you drink, the thirstier you become.  How many Rahabs are there in our world today!  We look down on them—“scandalous” we say of them—and fail to see a person that Christ died for—someone He wants to redeem.  That’s what grace is all about! 

God has a Divine appointment with Rahab (v.8-14).  The conviction of her sin plowed open her heart and the seed of truth was planted there.  The witness that she heard produced saving faith in her.  Scripture says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom.10:17).  We need to sow the Gospel seed wherever and whenever we can.  This is how people come to faith in Christ—even the Rahab’s!  She gives a personal testimony of her faith.  She acknowledges the true and living God—unlike the pagans she lived among.  She confesses Him and worships Him.  Saving faith bears fruit.  That is the evidence of repentance. 

Rahab would never be the same (v.15-24).  The scarlet cord speaks of the scarlet blood of Jesus Christ that stretches from Calvary to any who will receive Him.  You can’t reach God on the rocket of reason, or climb up on the ladder of logic.  You can get there on the railroad of redemption—the good old T & O—trust and obey!  The scarlet cord, Rahab dropped from her window was a guarantee she would escape judgment.  When the walls of Jericho fell, her house remained intact!  Her family would be saved also.  Rahab’s conversion was a powerful testimony.   We’ve got to be concerned that evangelism begins in our home. 

Rahab is a shining trophy of God’s grace.  Jesus came to save such sinners.  To the Rahabs and Roberts out there: you are not beyond the reach of salvation! 

Church, will we offer compassion or condemnation to the Rahabs?  Rahab is our co-worker, our neighbor, our family member.  Do we not believe in the power of the Gospel to turn sinners into saints?

 

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