A common error concerning God’s grace is to equate it with salvation. Grace is not salvation. Grace is God providing a plan to render to man what man can never hope to accomplish on his own, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared unto all men, teaching us…” (Titus 2:12).
God grace is manifest an appropriated in the following fashion: 1) God’s GRACE provides to man 2) God’s LAW, which man 3) by FAITH OBEYS, thereby receiving God’s REWARD which can never be considered as earned or merited.
The healing of the blind man is a marvelous illustration of how grace works. In verses 1-3, Jesus squelches the apostles’ error concerning the cause of the man’s blindness, noting that God’s works should be revealed in him. It was by grace that Jesus gave the man instructions on how to receive his sight. After making mud and putting it on the man’s eyes, Jesus commanded him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (v 7).
By faith the man did exactly as he was told; “he went and he washed” (v 7). The result of his obedient faith? He came back seeing (v 7).
Moreover, the man knew exactly WHO, exactly HOW, exactly WHEN, and exactly WHAT he received through grace. Upon being questioned about the matter, he explained, “A man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and I received sight.”
His was not some “better felt than told” story. The manifestation of God’s grace is never better felt than told. It must be told! In some religious songbooks, the second verse of Victory in Jesus reads, “And then I cried, ‘Dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit,’ and somehow Jesus came and bro’t to me the victory.” This is anti-biblical nonsense.
Just as the blind man knew how he had received his sight, we also know exactly who, how, when, and what we receive by grace. God’s grace has provided for us the GOSPEL (Mark 16:15), which we OBEY through FAITH (Mark 16:16) and receive God’s REWARD of salvation from sin (ibid).
This is the true grace of God wherein we stand (1 Peter 5:12). Don’t remain blind!
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