Spiritual gifts part 34: God was in Christ, not counting their sins against them

Pastor-Teacher
John Farley
Sunday,
October 3, 2010

Spiritual Gifts Part 34: God was in Christ not counting their sins against them.

The Doctrine of Spiritual Gifts

The Doctrine of Efficacious Grace

Efficacious grace is the first permanent ministry of God the Holy Spirit to the believer at the moment of salvation.

How does an unbeliever become a believer?

Efficacious grace is that work of the Holy Spirit that takes the faith of a spiritually dead person and makes it effective for salvation.

Grace is free, limitless, unmerited blessing to helpless, undeserving sinners from the loving God...

...from the loving God whose righteousness and justice are completely satisfied by the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When you were totally helpless and without a hope in the world, God the Holy Spirit was there on the scene to do all that was needed to get you saved.

Just like Christ died for you when you were His enemy, ROM 5:6.

Just like Christ died for you when you were His enemy, ROM 5:6.

God the Father is the author of the fantastic salvation plan for the human race. The plan called for Him to impute and judge all our sins in Christ on the cross.

God the Son received that imputation and was judged for our sins. His spiritual death as our substitute paid the price for the sins of the world.

God the Holy Spirit performs two enabling grace ministries in evangelism for the spiritually dead human race. We call these common and efficacious grace.

1CO 1:21
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

All of the work for salvation was done by God. Not only was Jesus Christ judged for our sins on the cross, but the Holy Spirit makes the Gospel understandable to you, and He makes your faith effective.

Efficacious grace.

Efficacious means to be capable of producing the desired effect.

Efficacious grace.

This is when God the Holy Spirit takes the faith alone in Christ alone of the spiritually dead unbeliever and makes it effective for salvation.

Without the Holy Spirit, in total depravity as unbelievers, we would be deaf to the Gospel, and our faith would be mute - voiceless.

The word "that" in the Greek is the demonstrative pronoun touto which is in a neuter gender referring to grace, faith and salvation as all being a gift from God.

Touto or “that” is referring to the concept of a grace-by-faith salvation with emphasis on the verb that precedes it, namely “you have been saved”.

EPH 2:8
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that [your grace-by-faith salvation] not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

PSA 51:5
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.

We are born physically alive and spiritually dead.

At birth, God imputes Adam’s original sin to the genetically formed sin nature in the cell structure of the body.

God condemns each human being at the moment of birth because of the factor of Adam’s original sin having been charged to our account.

LORD’ Supper

Lighthouse Bible Church

Sunday,
October 3, 2010

PSA 46:10
Be still, and know that I am God:
KJV

The willingness of Jesus to suffer on your account freed up God the Father to treat you graciously forevermore.

Embracing suffering rather than retreating in the face of suffering.

Suffering is a terrible beauty.

He reveals suffering to be His wild gift to us.

This when we learn to embrace our own suffering.

And when we learn to embrace the others suffering when God brings them to us.