Bible Basics

Accessing God's Grace

I pointed out last week that God’s promises have always be conditional. I used God’s giving of the city of Jericho to the Israelites as an example of how obedient faith was a condition of receiving God’s gift. Let us look at another example. Naaman was a great man of Syria, but he was a leper (see 2 Kings 5:1-17). He was told by God through Elisha to dip seven times in the Jordan River and his leprosy would be healed. At first he refused to do it, but afterwards reconsidered and obeyed. The result: he was cleansed of his leprosy. Was there some medicinal cure in the waters of the Jordan River? Absolutely not! Was there some mysterious or miraculous element in that water? No! The water was not the means of his miraculous cure. It was the power of God that cured him; a gift undeserved extended by the grace of God. The dipping of Naaman in the Jordan River was but the condition by which he accessed God’s grace and power to heal. If the water of Jordan, and the seven dippings of Naaman, had been the means of his cure, then “grace” would have been nullified. But the condition of obedient faith does not negate grace; it accesses it. “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand” (Rom. 5:2, 3).

                                                                                                               -- Clark Dugger

Bible Basics