Sin and Grace – Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: Mediation (2)

Sin and Grace

Abiding Principles from the Ceremonial Laws: Mediation (2)

Only grace can overcome our sinful and rebellious ways.

“Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!” Deuteronomy 5:29

God’s grace toward human beings reaches them in two “intensities,” we might say. The first “intensity” is God’s everyday provision of life, sustenance, and other forms of benefit, which comes day by day to all people, irrespective of their relationship with Him. This intensity of God’s grace is certainly experienced by all people; however, it is not acknowledged as grace by them all. This is what theologians refer to as “common” grace. There is nothing “common” about it, however, except that it extends indiscriminately to all human beings and all creatures. Nothing could exist apart from the continuous grace of God.

The deeper “intensity” of God’s grace is that which arrests and captures the soul and establishes a human being in a conscious, willing, and growing relationship with God, so that God is known, feared, obeyed, loved, and served. The fact that all human beings are conceived and born in sin means that a special effort on God’s part is required to immerse human beings more deeply into this level of His grace—what theologians often refer to as saving or special grace.

Sin keeps even those who know the Lord from being ever more fully immersed in the riches of His saving grace. The ceremonial laws teach us that God desires us to know deeper experiences of His grace, and, to that end, He provides means whereby we may escape the ravages of our sin and be bathed afresh in the saving grace of the Lord.

All human beings sin. They who deny their sin, or decline God’s path to redemption (preferring, as it were, to remain among the leeks and onions of Egypt), will not escape their sin into the saving grace of the Lord. They will continue to know His everyday grace until they die, for God continues to be gracious toward them in spite of their wickedness (Ps. 52:1). They who follow God as He delivers them from slavery to sin will continue to sin nonetheless; thus, they will require means whereby they may increasingly hope to escape the power of sin and become more completely immersed in the grace, presence, knowledge, and glory of God. The ceremonial laws teach us to hope that God will supply whatever we require in order to know Him more fully.

For a fuller study of the pattern of worship revealed in Scripture, order the book, The Highest Thing, by T. M. Moore, from our online store. These studies and brief essays will help you to see how the pattern of sound worship, which began in the Law of God, comes to complete expression in the rest of Scripture. Pastors, we’re getting ready to start the next season of The Pastors’ Fellowship. Write to me today at tmmoore@ailbe.org for information about how you join in these online discussions. Our theme for the coming series is “The Worldview of God’s Law.” There is no charge for participation, but you must reserve a place for these monthly gatherings. Subscribe to Crosfigell, the devotional newsletter of The Fellowship of Ailbe.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.