Grace: The Gospel Basics That Every Christian Should Know

GRACE

The Gospel Basics That

Every Christian Should Know

MERCY CHAZUKA

iUniverse, Inc.

Bloomington

Grace

The Gospel Basics That Every Christian Should Know

Copyright © 2011 by Mercy Chazuka

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All Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version.

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ISBN: 978-1-4620-1507-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-1509-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-1508-5 (e)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 05/18/2011

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Part A

Chapter 1

The Showdown

Chapter 2

Life in the Sun-Scorched

Land of Baal-Peor

Chapter 3

Who is Your Neighbour in the Sun-Scorched Land of Baal-Peor?

Chapter 4

The Hot Pursuit

Chapter 5

The Restoration

Part B

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

PART C

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

About the Author

Notes

References

To all the lost children of God, who have forfeited the Grace available to them due to the torment of the guilt of sin, and have been scattered by the four winds of the earth.

The good news is that the war is over! God has proclaimed peace and righteousness to all His creation, through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. The Blood of Jesus paid all our debts in full. We do not owe God anything, anymore. Jesus finished it all on the cross and He is currently sitting on the right hand of God. Grace proclaims that as Jesus is, right now, so are we in this world. Return to the Father and let us enjoy His grace through His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

SHALOM!

m.c.

I do not set aside the grace of God,

for if righteousness could be gained through the law,

Christ died for nothing.

(Galatians 2:21)

Acknowledgements

To Our Father,

The God of heavens and earth;

This book would not have been possible without your grace.

You cultivate the land and water it;

You enrich it abundantly.

You sow the seed and make it grow.

You tend it faithfully and continuously

You purge and prune its branches for more fruit.

Your streams are filled with water to provide people with grain.

You drench the furrows and level the ridges.

You crown the year with your bounty,

And your carts overflow with abundance.

And the valleys are mantled with grain;

We shout for joy and sing.

The grasslands of the desert overflow

And the hills are clothed with gladness.

You lead by the hand and bring forth birth and delivery.

You cover the meadows with flocks.

You open the womb for all time

For the glory of your name!

We delight and nurse deeply on your royal breasts,

You dandle us on your knees as a mother comforts her child.

May your grace continue to flow in its abundance in Zion?

You are Holy…

Amen!

Introduction

This book is the fruit of what God’s grace has done in my life. It is a heartfelt expression of a woman in love, whose many sins were forgiven by Jesus and can’t stop kissing, weeping and wiping His feet. It is the visible sign of life in what was once a dead, dry and barren branch; that has now been graciously restored. Deep calls unto deep!

After I got born again, the Lord took me on a journey of restoration. He did not just fix me up, He recreated me. The Lord fed holy and fiery flames inside of me that feast upon my heart day and night. He has taught me that the fire is His grace working His righteousness in me and it is only His righteousness that will lead me to His holiness. I am not expected to do anything in my power to impress Him—I only need to reach out by faith into His grace where I can have everything I need.

Now, He has put a mandate on my heart to share this exhilarating journey that I am travelling through His grace with the nations of the world. These are the people that are, like I once was, locked up in legalisms, traditions, regulations, obligations and standards imposed by religion. The truth is that they don’t work. I grew up trying to live up to these religious dogmas and when I failed, I quit! I didn’t know about the work of the Cross. These doctrines can only make us undervalue the finished work of the Cross of Jesus Christ and hence, forfeit its prime purpose—grace.

Indeed, this book is a call to the lost children of God, my brothers and sisters in the whole wide world. It is a banner to those that don’t know God as a loving Husband and Father and the message reads: God Loves You. It is a reassurance that God never demands your worthiness in order to welcome you into the Kingdom. He has already done so through the Blood of Jesus so the onus lies on you to respond to His mercy. Stop running away; don’t try to sort everything out yourself—He wants you just as you are. His job is to clean up your filth and to heal you, whatever your injury might be. Please be assured that: You cannot heal yourself! Some wounds are too deep and only God Himself can heal them. All He wants is your broken heart, no matter how hopeless you may seem. He is the God of grace.

Human language falls short of a proper definition of God’s grace. While we may say that grace is unmerited favour, (the kind of favour that you get when you least deserve it), that too is an understatement as far as the frequency of the favour is concerned. This definition, in my understanding, makes it seem like a one off thing. Yes, grace happened on that one day at Calvary, but its work will last for as long as the Blood of Jesus works. This is where most people are falling into the pitfall of the devil’s schemes and end up thinking that God doesn’t ‘work’. Maybe it is safer to understand grace as God constantly doing for us what we can not do for ourselves. This then broadens the scope of grace because grace does not just cover one specific facet at a specific time. We experience the grace of God every second of our day. Grace is the very essence of God. Attempting to define grace, to me, is like trying to define God. How can God be defined by one word, one page, or one book? The definition of God is that entire Bible and more. That is the way God has taught me about His grace. Grace is God and God is Grace.

If we agree that God is Love then we will have no problems in saying that God is Grace. The Lord does not change through the course of time, although we change all the time. However, our evolving condition does not change God’s nature. God was Love, is Love and will always be Love. We constantly run away from His love and mess up, but when we come back to Him, He will be waiting with open arms full of love.

God is a lovesick bridegroom, and we are the bride. Most people know Him as the Judge and King, and this is true. However, knowing Him in just these two facets could be detrimental to our spiritual life. The main limitation that befalls us is unholy fear of Him. It can only drive us away from Him rather than draw us to Him. A lot of classic religious teaching concentrated on God as the King and Judge. But this was under the Old Covenant. We are people of the New Covenant, washed by the Blood of Jesus. The New Covenant reveals God as a lovesick bridegroom. However, the knowledge of God as the lovesick bridegroom is very limited in many of us. People haven’t yet realised the shift, they still live in the old. That is why we struggle to comprehend and live in His grace. Our traditional understanding of Kings and Judges can lead us to making wrong assumptions about the Almighty. We presume God is spotting our mistakes. This creates a breeding ground for the devil’s lies that every mistake you make will limit your experience of God’s grace towards you. Grace is unmerited favour; I receive it when I least deserve it. Apparently, God is so desperate to give it us to the point that He had to come down as Jesus into the darkness of the world, lived like one of us and was brutally butchered by those that He came to seek and save; just for you to experience grace. Isn’t that awesome love?

Therefore, the Lord revealed His act of grace to me through the story of Hosea, the prophet, who the Lord asked to marry a prostitute and have children with her. Some time later, the woman abandoned Hosea for another lover, but the Lord caused Hosea to become so lovesick for her. So Hosea went after her and took her back as his wife once again. God used this story as a sign to show us His feelings for us. While Hosea, in this prophecy, is a type of God, his wife Gomer represents you and me. God also gave me further revelations through the epistles written by the Apostle Paul in the New Testament, especially the epistle to the Romans. The Book of Romans is phenomenal on the subject of God’s grace and I would recommend you to study it for yourself and allow the Holy Spirit of God to reveal God’s grace to you personally. Nothing can take the place of a personal revelation from God Himself.

So, in this book which I have simply entitled, Grace, I am going to start by sharing a parable inspired by the story of Hosea and Gomer. (A parable is simply a fictional earthly story with a heavenly meaning). In this same parable you shall find an amalgamation of many biblical stories. When reading this parable, please allow the Holy Spirit to relate it to your daily life in order to establish the clear reality of God’s grace that is freely available to you, no matter how fallen your state can be.

Now I recommend that you sit back, relax and let us start by taking an insider’s view of one day in Hosea and Gomer’s wretched marriage.

May God Bless You.

PART A: The Parable of Hosea and Gomer

Part A

The Parable of Hosea and Gomer

When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, ‘Go take yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest of adultery in departing from the Lord.’

(Hosea 1:2)

Chapter 1

The Showdown

Hosea was furious to the point that he could not sit down. His face was ablaze with vengeful fury. He walked up and down the room, to and fro, took a brief sit and suddenly stood up again and took another walk. He was a husband in shame. His jealousy consumed his bosom and he was bent on showing no mercy to anyone. No compensation or bribe, no matter how big, could quench his scorching anger against his wife, Gomer.

I’m sick and tired of your adulterous life, woman! For how long will you defile our marriage bed? I gave you life. I gave you freedom. I gave you health. I gave you security and peace. I have given you everything that makes you the woman you are, distinguished and honoured by many. I thought I have been all that a husband should be. You are the envy of all women. What don’t you have, tell me what don’t you have in this house?

There was a long pause…

Your problem my lord is … Gomer groped for a word and found it. You ask for too much. She almost whispered. She hung her head.

She paused as if to sift for better words and carefully chose the ones suitable enough for the circumstances. This time, she felt she had to take the bull by its horns. She had to say it like it is.

I can’t seem to do anything right. You have too many laws in this house. Do this! Do that! Why hasn’t this been done? Sometimes I forget some of the demands of your many laws. And you get angry with me! I can’t seem to get anything right in this place. The harder I try is the more I fail. I have to be very careful what I do because I don’t know when your anger might burn against me. It seems like what I want to do, I do not do and I do what I don’t want to do. I know that nothing good lives in me; nothing at all! I try my lord, I try, but I end up doing the bad I don’t want to do. Everything I do is wrong. I can’t seem to make you happy Hosea, I don’t even know whether you love me or not! Gomer sobbed. She was desperate.

Don’t argue with me woman! Hosea stormed. "That doesn’t give you the right to go after other men. I told you when I paid the bridal price for you that I intended to live with you all the days of your life; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you. You knew that I despised adultery the most. Although you were adulterous from before I married you, I made it crystal clear to you that you should drop your old ways of life, if you and me have to live together. But no! You carry on with your past practices. You made yourself a public cistern; that anyone thirsty can drink out of. Now listen! Listen very carefully. Although at first you promised to accept my words and store them up within you, you have quickly forgotten your sacred vow that you made on Mount Sinai. You vowed and swore under oath that you will do everything I say. Now let me tell you something woman, you