THE GRACE ADMINISTRATION
We are now living under the Grace Administration where our relationship with God is one of being His sons and daughters. Our Heavenly Father wanted a family and we are it! Because of what our blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, accomplished for us on the Cross of Calvary, we can have God’s spiritual seed abiding within us! During the Law Administration, God chose the Jewish people to demonstrate for us what His incredible favor looks like. They were His chosen people and had an exclusive access to God that no others had for a very long time, but this came to an end. It served its purpose for pointing towards Christ and preparing the hearts and minds of people. As with all the other administrations, we have come to understand God’s incredible love through the example of Christ. Our Redeemer showed us the way. His authority, love, light, and power opened the eyes of humanity to God’s wonderful grace and opened the door to the Kingdom of Heaven.
The law revealed the corruption of the sinful nature of human beings. The world has made a habit of underestimating the darkness of sin, but it is a great offense to God. He is complete and total perfection, and He is gloriously holy and pure. James 1:13 tells us that we should never say that God tempts us, for this is the devil’s business. Sin is not a part of God’s nature, and He is never tempted to sin, but we are. We are sometimes drawn away from God through the lusts and passions of the soul. So, in many ways, sin tells us about our nature. It also provides us a choice between righteous and unrighteous. In other words, sin reveals the choice between light and darkness, faith and fear, and love and hate. These choices are ever before us, and they reveal the two natures in every born-again believer, the ‘old’ nature and the ‘new’ nature.
The ‘old’ nature is corrupt. It prompts us to express the emotions and passions of the soul through deceptive and corrupt actions. The ‘old’ nature was first introduced in humanity by satan. This happened when he tempted the first couple, Adam and Eve, to sin against God, and to reject God’s sovereignty. The magnitude of the consequences of their error is incomprehensible, but God had a plan and through His plan, He did for us through Jesus Christ what we could not do for ourselves.
The ‘old nature’ is the person we were before we confessed our sins to God and accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior by believing in his resurrection from the dead. This is the new birth experience that Jesus Christ was speaking of when he told Nicodemus in John 3:3(NLT), “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” In John 3:5-8(NLT), Jesus Christ went on to explain to Nicodemus, “5 I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. 7 So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’”
Because of sin, everyone born after Adam and Eve are born with a spirit that is not alive to God. It is a dead human-spirit. When we are born again, the Holy Spirit brings life to our old dead spirit, and it is recreated. 2Corinthians 5:17(NKJV) says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” So, the ‘new’ nature is created in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit, and this nature empowers us to be like Christ in every way. Our job is to make sure our souls and bodies get the memo.
Under the Law Administration, a relationship with God was dependent upon obeying the law. This was never meant to last, because the people couldn’t perfectly obey all the laws. They made sin their master and they were slaves to it. They were locked into a perpetual cycle of sin and offering sacrifices to cover their sins.
Those living before the resurrection of Christ could have the Holy Spirit upon them, but they didn’t have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. So, they were without the inward dwelling of God’s power, strength, and love because they rejected God. They had not been redeemed and were pitiful indeed. God’s plan changed all that for us. For those living during Old Testament times, He helped them through the law to still have a way to serve Him, but a better covenant was on the way, and it made us sons and daughters of God, much more than servants. Romans 8:15(NLT) tells us, “So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” Because of Christ, our born-again reality has given us sonship, and we are the royal priesthood of God’s Kingdom!
Romans 6:23(NLT) says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” We are saved from hell’s damnation. By accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, we can receive the gift of salvation. We will never see hell because of what God has done through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. This unfathomable gift was not given or received because of anything we have done. We could never have earned such a gift, and we were underserving of it, but because of God’s grace, He has given it to us. Ephesians 2:8-9 (NLT) tells us, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.”
No more are the sacrifices of animals necessary. We are saved by God’s grace and have a new covenant with God through the accomplishment of Jesus Christ. We could not earn the salvation that Jesus Christ has made available. God freely gave it to us and made us righteous through our faith in Him. It is now our responsibility and obligation to live righteously before our Heavenly Father by faith, and to be incredibly and continually thankful to Him for all He has given us through His powerful and precious Son. Through His amazing grace, we can walk by the leadership and guidance of His Spirit and extend this grace to others through the love of Christ.
Stay tuned for Part-4.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Understanding the Seven Administrations-Part 3” written by JMack, 4theChristianMan.com© 2022. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.