In our last post, I mentioned that the Word Grace in Greek was “Charis” or “Charisma” which means spiritual gift. The word grace is used throughout the New Testament and speaks to the character and nature of God. God is a gift-giving God! James 1:17 says the following, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights…”.
As Christians we believe in one God in three persons, God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is a difficult spiritual concept, if not impossible concept to fully understand, therefore we accept it by faith! A natural, but simplistic view would be that a man can be father, husband, and son at the same time. Not three persons but one.
What we see in the scriptures is that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit share the same nature. The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are gift-givers or givers of grace.
- Father God gave us the Son Jesus. John 3:16
- The Son, Jesus, gave the Holy Spirit to all believers and ministry gifts to the church. Acts 1:8, Ephesians 4:11
- Holy Spirit gave Spiritual Gifts to believers 1 Corinthians 12
Now let’s examine in more detail the Gift or Grace of the Father. You may recall the account in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve which is found in Genesis two and three. Before they sinned, they lived in a state of innocence in relationship with God, they “walked” with Him in the Garden of Eden. When they were deceived by Satan and disobeyed God by eating of the fruit of the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”, this became the defining moment for sin. Sin is simply not believing God, in essence disobeying what He has said.
At that moment of disobedience, Sin entered the world and mankind would now be separated estranged from Father God. Yet, because of the love of the Father for His creation He cursed Satan and made a promise to mankind; Genesis 3:14-15, “The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity (hostility) Between you and the woman, and between your seed (offspring) and her Seed (Offspring- Messiah); He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”This singular verse in the beginning (Genesis) holds the hope of all mankind.
In verse 15, Father God is speaking to the serpent (Satan) and addresses his offspring as seed (note the lower-case “s” in the word seed). His head will be bruised, crushed, or destroyed. Satan’s end is coming!
Whereas the capitalized Seed represents the Messiah, Christ, or Jesus. He will be the seed (offspring) of a woman (human or incarnate) and His heel will be bruised or crushed which represents Jesus’ heel bruised on the cross of Calvary.
God the Father promised a gift (Grace) and that gift was in the person of Jesus Christ who would come to restore the relationship between the Father and His creation or mankind. Jesus would do this by forgiving our sins.
In Jeremiah 31:31-34, Father God makes a promise of a New Covenant of Grace which will replace the Old Covenant of Law in which He says, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more”.
In the New Testament, Father God fulfilled the promise of the greatest gift of grace to all of mankind in that He sent Jesus the Son to die for us so that we might receive forgiveness of our iniquity and remember our sins no more. John 3:16 states, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Have you received this great gift of Jesus Christ from the Father? There is no better time than right now!
Next time we will look at:
- Gift of the Son, Jesus – As He gave the Holy Spirit to all believers and ministry gifts to the church. Acts 1:8, Ephesians 4:11
- Gift of the Holy Spirit – He gave Spiritual Gifts 1 Corinthians 12
Until then—
