I truly love the Word of God. God’s Word is beautiful, insightful, challenging, encouraging, and comforting. The best and most exciting thing about God’s Word is that it is God’s Word. It is not the word of imperfect, fallible human beings. It is the very word of a perfect, infallible, eternal God.
I also love the fact that God’s Word has unity and actually contains in it the proof of the truth it teaches. What God says in one part of the Bible is illustrated in another area.
Romans 5:15-19
But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through the one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many were made righteous.
Grace is a free gift. Five times the term free gift is used in this passage. Paul wanted to emphasize that grace is not something we can deserve or earn. It is free and all we have to do is receive.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is believing and living like grace really is free.
Grace is never extended in small doses but always in abundance. God is not stingy, but He is a generous God.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is receiving God’s grace in abundance.
God’s grace brings forgiveness, justification, eternal life, and righteousness. God’s grace brings forgiveness of sin and rightness with God.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is believing and living based on the truth that it is only by God’s grace that we are forgiven, saved, and made righteous.
The truth that grace is a free gift and brings salvation and righteousness is shown by a vision that God gives Ezekiel.
Ezekiel 47:1-12
Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. The he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate that faces toward the east, and behold, the water was trickling out on the south side. Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand and the man measured a thousand cubits, and then led me through the water, and it was ankle-deep. Again, he measured a thousand and led me through water, and it was knee-deep. Again, he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was waist-deep. Again, he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through. And he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he led me back to the bank of the river. As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. And he said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes into the Arabah, and enters the sea, when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. Fisherman will stand beside the sea. From the Engedi to Eneglaim it will be a place for the spreading of nets. Its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. But its swamps and marshes will become fresh; they are to be left for salt. And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fall, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”
Picture this as an illustration of what grace should be and what it should be doing through us. The temple is us as followers of Jesus. We are the temple of God. The water is the grace that should be flowing forth from our lives. It starts as a trickle, moves to being ankle-deep, then knee-deep, then waist-deep and finally a river that cannot be passed through. Everything the river touches, it brings life to. It removes the salt that leads to death and brings life. The grace of God brings life to us and should flow through us to bring life to others.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the grace of God and letting that grace fill our lives and overflow to others.
In God’s Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
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