The Reconciling of the World unto God

The grace of God given to Paul for the Gentiles is glorious. Its glory is like the radiant colors manifest by a ray of light streaming through a diamond. The grace of God given to Paul is manifold in its objective, but single in its purpose.

The grace of God in Christ was the influencing factor in making His unsearchable judgments concerning the fall of His nation Israel and the Gentiles. God was in Christ not imputing their trespasses unto them, reconciling the world unto Himself. Instead of the wrath to come and the imputation of the world’s trespasses against them, a day of grace resulted. Although God didn’t change the world, His relationship toward the world did. He judged to endure with much and all longsuffering man’s vain imaginations, to forbear their vile affections, and shew His goodness in the face of this present evil world. Instead of vexing the world in His sore displeasure and speaking to them in His wrath He was and is merciful. The world was fitted to destruction, His wrath revealed, and the world worthy. For His wrath was long overdue for they rejected God and God judged to give them up, give them up, and gave them over to their reprobate mind. They sought not to retain God in their knowledge. He suffered them to walk in their own ways and winked at the times of this ignorance of the Gentiles. The only significant times God used the Gentiles in the past were as His servants, as Israel’s enemies, to impute Israel’s trespasses against them. This then was there only hope to be influenced by light. A light that was dimmed by Israel’s disobedience. The Gentiles in the past were without God in the world, without hope, and strangers from the covenants of promise and aliens to the commonwealth of Israel. Yet now, God commandeth men everywhere to repent. God’s unsearchable judgment given and revealed by Paul’s writings provided for God to have the dispensation of the grace of God toward the Gentiles.

Yet, the grace given to Paul also entails that salvation has come to the Gentiles through Israel’s fall. Instead of Gentile blessing coming from the root of Jesse rising to reign over the Gentiles, the Gentiles that believe are justified from all things, from which all could not be justified by the law of Moses. Israel’s spiritual things would be extended to all them that believe and the riches would be accessible to the world, to the Gentiles. God would make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy – those that believe in Christ.

All of this has a single purpose, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. Believers are accepted in the beloved and given the Spirit of God to be accepted of Him when we are present with the Lord. For one day we will give an account of ourselves. In truth, God’s grace in the sanctifying work with the Gentiles today will one day be offered up and received up in glory, to deliver the creature from the bondage of corruption, and be His vessel to reconcile the heavenly places to the praise of God’s glory!

Look Up,

Josh Strelecki, Pastor-Teacher