This episode of Clearview Today is brought to you by LaBlue Ultra Pure Water. What I love about LaBlue is they keep it simple. Hydrogen, oxygen, nothing else. They use a patented filtration process to remove any impurities and deliver ultra-pure water that you can trust. And best of all, they'll deliver it right to your office every month, right on time.
So order today online at LeBlue.com. That's L-E-B-L-E-U, and use promo code today, T-O-D-A-Y at checkout for 10% off. It's going to save you money, it's going to keep you hydrated, and support us here at the Clearview Today Show. Thanks for listening. Thanks to LeBlue for sponsoring today's episode.
Now let's jump in. God's grace and God's mercy. You know, we treat them like they're the same things, but they're actually very different. But they both function as God's justice. Let's understand more about that.
Coming up right now on the Clear Read Today Show. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis.
Welcome to the Clearview Today Show. We're so glad you're joining us here in the studio with our host, Dr. Abadan Shah. Dr. Shah, it's going to be a good day.
It's going to be a great one. Talking about God's character, right? We're talking about how we get to know God. And if you've been benefited from this series or if today's your first time ever joining us, either one, we want to hear from you. You can text today, T-O-D-A-Y-252-429-6069.
It's going to get you into the text thread. It's going to let you just text us, be able to let us know. future topics, maybe questions you have for Dr. Shah, or just a testimony of how this show has been impacting your Christian life. That's right.
Dr. Shah, we've been talking about the attributes of God. For people who've been tracking along, they know that. But maybe there are some listeners who are dropping in for the first time today. Can you just differentiate for us the different kinds of attributes of God that we've been talking about?
There are two different categories that we've mentioned here on the show. Of course. We're talking about the communicable attributes and the incommunicable. And just by, you know, the plain. Definition: communicable means they can be communicated.
Incommunicable, they cannot be communicated. There are certain attributes of God that He shares with us. And we can reflect them. But then there are certain attributes of God that remain Exclusive to him. That God is eternal.
You and I are not eternal. That's right. We will never be eternal. You say, well, wait a minute. Doesn't it mean that once we die, we go to either heaven or hell and we're there forever and ever?
Yes. Not by virtue of our own self. That life. To be alive forever and ever, whether in heaven with God or whether in hell. Punishment?
and and God's wrath upon us. Either way, It's God who's keeping us alive. That's right. He said, Well, wait a minute. In hell, how can God be there and all that?
We already covered it. Go back and listen to that show. God can be in hell without God.
Sort of bringing his goodness and grace in that part of this universe.
Now Incommunicable, we talked about the eternality of God. Communicable are those attributes that God shares with us.
So God's love He shares with us, and we can be loving. God's holiness. He shares with us, and we can be holy, not by our own self, but because of God's holiness through Christ.
Now we're talking about the grace of God. God is gracious. And hence we can also be gracious peoples, right? People often confuse grace. With mercy.
Yeah, because they're like the same exact thing, right? Right. Show people grace. Show them grace. Show them mercy.
They may be cousins, but they're not the same. That's right. So let's let's back up. Justice is getting what we deserve. Justice.
Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Not getting what we deserve means you should be punished, you shouldn't be, we should have to pay the penalty of that crime, whatever. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Mm-hmm. Grace is getting what we don't deserve.
Okay. Yeah.
So grace and mercy, right, are related, but they're not one and the same thing. Mercy is like God's like, you know what? But I'm not going to. I'm going to let you live. I'm going to let you Enjoy life.
I'm going to give you more time in this world, even though you don't honor me, even though you are rejecting. My offer of salvation, I'm going to be merciful to you. How about to a believer? Even though right now you're not following me the way you should. You're not prioritizing Me and my kingdom in this world?
But I will still bless you and still enable you to live your life. That's God's mercy. Grace, on the other hand, although related, there are some overlapping happening there. Grace is getting what we don't deserve.
The blessings of God. The blessings of God. We don't deserve anything. But God gives it to us anyways. It's not about judgment as much as just God's grace, just God's kindness and God's goodness and God's overflowing love towards us.
So, grace is getting, this is a super simplified way to think about it, but grace is getting the good, and mercy is not getting the bad. In a sense, yes, you're 100% right.
Okay. And I think it speaks to where we are as Christians, because a lot of time we'll be. Feeling beat down by life, and you know, we just tell ourselves, I'm waiting on the blessing. I know God's blessing's coming, I just gotta sit and wait on it. And it's built on this idea that I deserve a blessing at some point for all the stuff that I put up with.
And I like the way that you laid those out, Dr. Shah, this tiered system of God's justice, because. We don't deserve any blessing at all. If I went my entire life without a single blessing from God, I still am not getting the punishment. There's never a point that you and I are so perfectly lined up with the righteousness of God.
Not a single point. We all come short. Even as believers who are trying to live Godly, trying to obey God, trying to live the life of Christ, to obey Christ, to share Christ, and all that, even then, we keep coming short. But God keeps blessing us. That's God's grace.
You know, an illustration I used a long time ago. Imagine A man's son? Who Who has been asked to cut grass? A father says, Hey, I want you to cut grass. Not only did he not help, but he also sat around.
Sulking and then that sounds like my son. And then he turned the gas can over. Yeah, that's my other son. Justice, he does not deserve anything but punishment or discipline. If you you know, talking about father-son relationship, it's not punishment, it's discipline.
He doesn't deserve anything but discipline. That's right. Mercy is you stop to eat after a long day and you buy his lunch. Like, here you go. You don't deserve it.
But I'm not going to sit here and watch you Hungry, so here's some food. Grace is you buy him a milkshake with it. Oh, geez.
Okay. All right.
So that's a little extra. Little undeserved blessing. You don't deserve it with a meal. Right. But I'll buy it for you because no one needs to be hungry.
Right. We'll deal with your disobedience later on. Here's a milkshake 'cause I'm having a milkshake. Here's a milkshake. Yeah.
Oh, that's grace. I'm not saying in human relationship that's always a good thing. No, but I think it does help us to see it from God's perspective. Cause I think a lot of times we could we would hear a story like that and be like, no, I wouldn't be buying a milkshake.
Well, guess what? That's how God sees me. Right. But God's grace is so much more. Yes.
God's grace, man. There's so much we could say about God's grace. It is, it is deeper and richer and so unfathomable compared to our grace. I mean, we. This is one of those communicable attributes because we can experience grace and we can extend grace to other people, but the scale at which we offer grace can't even come close to God's grace lavished on us.
And you know what the best thing about God's grace is? The thing that I think I feel like people ignore? God's grace is free. That's right. God's grace is free.
And you know what's funny is we don't, it's so crazy how people will line up. Down the street for something free. Let an iPhone go free. Let Verizon Wireless. We're giving away free iPhones today.
I mean, it was not that long ago that there was news coverage of Black Friday deals, not even free, super discounted stuff. People are getting trampled in the store because of a discounted price. You want to talk about free? But tell people the blessings of God, the blessings of God Himself are free in your life. They'll be like, Okay, okay.
I mean, I know. But God's grace, as A.W. Pink once said, cannot be bought, earned, nor won by the creature. Cannot be bought. Earned nor won by the creature.
God's grace is freely given. And Romans chapter 11, verse 6 says, And if by grace, then it is no longer of works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace. Otherwise, work is no longer work.
But, Dr. Sha, I really like work. I really like to be able to check off those boxes on my checklist and think that I've earned this thing. I think that it is owed to me because of the work that I've put in. Christianity doesn't work with that guy.
Mama raised me that way. Mom and daddy raised me that way. You don't ever take no favors from Nadia. You earn your keep. And we think we're going to do that with God.
They cannot do that. It has to be free. It is free. You can never in a million, billion, trillion years earn God's grace. It is freely given.
And it's freely received. You know, it's not something that He owes us, but it's something we desperately need from God.
Okay. Maybe talk about that because I bet there's a person driving down the road right now who is in desperate, desperate need of God's grace. And through whatever filter that life has put in front of their eyes, maybe they can't see that. Because we grow up thinking everything has to be on, just the way you guys just said a few moments ago. Parents raise their children to like, nothing is free.
You got to work for it. And you work at jobs where nothing was free. You have to earn your keep.
So we have this mindset that even when it comes to God, nothing is free. We have to earn it. And we have to. In a sense, suspend that way of thinking when we come to God for salvation. Romans chapter three, verse twenty three twenty four says For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Being justified freely Being justified? Freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
So justification is A free gift of God. By his gracious nature. And that, you know, we're living in a world where people are trying to. Redefine atonement and they're trying to redefine.
Some of the basics of salvation. And I do get it. You know, salvation is like this beautiful diamond that you're holding up against the light. And every time you turn it, you see a different. Side of it, a different refraction, and you go, wow, and that beautiful turned again.
Oh, wow, look at those rays of light coming through this prism. And it's just beautiful, it's gorgeous. But there is one angle that never goes away. And that is the angle of grace when it comes to salvation. It is by grace and grace alone.
And no matter how you want to turn that diamond. Ultimately, that ray of grace is prominent in every refraction. And For that person who is driving down the road, and you know, Christianity doesn't make sense to you. Your family, your wife, or maybe your husband talks about. Man, you just gotta trust Jesus, and you got and to you, it's like a foreign language.
You are a self made person. You're an intellectual. You like to reason things. You like to figure things out. There's always a cause and an effect.
There's always an action and in Reaction to everything. You know, so so when you use your logical, mental acumen, you look at it and go, Now this Christianity stuff is bunk. I want you to give it another shot. I want you to go back to it. And pray, Go back to church.
Go back to the Bible. Go back to Those fundamental truths that you may have learned growing up. and you abandon, or this this book that someone gave to you and you just tossed it to the side and said, you know, I don't this is dumb stuff. I'm an agnostic. I'm an atheist, you know, whatever whatever.
you know, big title you've given to yourself. I encourage you to go back. But this time go back. With As much as possible. An open heart, an open mind, and saying, God.
If all this grey stuff Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone. If all this is really true, Help me to see it. If a person prays that, genuinely prays that, and means it, tell them what's going to happen. Oh. God will open your eyes and you will see what it means that you are born dead in trespasses and sins.
You know, Romans Ephesians chapter 2. Verses 4 and 5 says, But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, Even when we were dead in trespasses, Made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. God's going to help you see what it means to be dead in trespasses. That's it that's heavy. Dead and trespasses.
Yeah.
means trespasses involve all not just our personality, our character, but also our actions. which are so entrenched in sin They are so full of Anti-godness. We are dead in it. Mhm. We we don't have any life.
And God in Christ Jesus makes us alive together. By grace you have been saved.
Now dead does not mean That you cannot Received. The gift of salvation. There is there is that part where you have to say yes. I receive Christ as my Saviour.
So don't think of it dead as in like you're dead and and you're just like lifeless. No, you may be dead in the sense of unable to bring yourself alive But you have enough sense to go. I need God in my life.
So that's helpful to hear because I have heard people in the past say things like: you know, you are dead in your trespasses and sins. Dead people don't make choices. You can't choose God were it not for God to come to you first and draw you. to himself that you could then make that That choice. How do we think about that timeline of things happening?
Yeah, that's great. God draws everyone. God is drawing everyone. Salvation. but as he is drawing, he hasn't made bunch of big Humans shaped rocks.
Mm-hmm. They are still people. Yes, spiritually I am dead. But I am still a soul. I am still a free will being.
So, spiritually, I'm dead, but as a free will being, I have a choice. See, if you push an analogy too far, it all breaks down. I mean, that's the thing with analogies. Yeah.
Dead in trespasses and sins, don't push it so far. the analogy breaks down. Spiritually I am dead. Which means There's nothing good in me. And even what is good in me is like a moon reflecting the light of the sun.
There's nothing there.
Okay?
So. I love my children, or I I'm a good worker. I'm an honest man.
Okay, it's only because God is good, and God is loving, and God is a person of integrity. Hence, you reflect that.
Okay, great. But on your own, the moon does not have any light, neither do you. You're dead in trespasses and sin by itself. That moon will just sit. As this mass of whatever.
Up there in space. But light shines on it. But we're not just talking about light shining on us. We're talking about His light which is this blazing sun. You know, sends his fire into us and we come alive with light.
I mean, that's a different. I'm using another analogy. This is not what's being used in scripture, but it's one that makes sense to me. And I hope it's making sense to our listeners and our viewers that God shares. His light, his energy, And gives it to us, and we come alive.
That's much more than just a moon reflecting the light of the sun. Yeah, that's a whole different way to think about it. Instead of just bouncing something back, or instead of just still being a lifeless thing, but just reflecting off of us, we are infused with the light, and then we shine forth the light, but the light didn't originate from us. It comes from. I mean, that's what it means right here, right?
Even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
So, when does that making alive happen? It's when you say yes to God. All of a sudden now that life Penetrates our dead heart and life comes in, you begin to see the world differently. You begin to see yourself differently as like wow Yeah, it's not in me. You begin to see God differently.
That, yes, I get it. I have so much more to understand, but I get it that He had to reach me. And the way he came down to reach me is by sending His son to die on the cross for my sins. What does that mean?
Well, there's the whole life Ahead of you. to understand what that means. And then there is eternity to truly understand. what that means. There's so much depth.
To understanding Christ, to understanding salvation. And as you. Receive Christ now that life is in you. And you begin to live and you begin to see your world differently. I like that you're putting Christ, I mean, not that just that I like it, but it's very appropriate that we're putting Christ as the linchpin to all of this.
Because I think a lot of times people will look at a subject like God's grace and say, this is fairly new, right? For all of the Old Testament, God was wrath and he was vengeance and he was punishment. And then in the New Testament, Christ comes on the scene and changes everything. And I get the nomenclature, but that's really not the case. God's grace has not all of a sudden come in with the coming of Christ.
Well, Jesus said it, you know, law came through Moses, but grace and truth, or John's gospel talks about grace and peace came through Jesus Christ. But that does not mean that there was no grace and peace in the Old Testament. Right. No, no, no, no. Moses gave the law.
to explain to us how much we needed God's grace. And grace was there in the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament. And the reason we can say that is because Jesus was there in the Old Testament as he's in the New Testament. Same Jesus. What what does it say?
Yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus does not change. And so who he was in those Thirty-three some years. is who he was. Right there.
With Adam and Eve, and before they came into this world, before God made them, and who he is now, and who he will be in the future. Nothing is different about him. And that's what. We need to remember Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And so also in the Old Testament he was the preincarnate Son of God.
The God of grace, that's right, the God of mercy. And and so It's not like In the New Testament or with the Gospels, all of a sudden we meet a different God. You know, that's what Marcion was saying, right? No. We meet the same God.
But this God is now Flesh and blood in front of us. That's right. Right. God's grace extended to us through the person of Jesus. But like you said, Jesus was there present through the Old Testament.
I mean, you can see evidence of God's grace throughout the Old Testament. You can see God caring for people. You can see God drawing people to Himself. Look at the genealogy of Jesus. There are people in the genealogy of Jesus that are not from the nation of Israel.
And on the other side of that rotating diamond, like we were saying earlier, Jesus talked about hell and God's wrath more than he talked about anything else. Yeah.
There's no reason for us to make that divide where God in the Old Testament is wrath, God in the New Testament is grace. They're both completely 100% true. Yeah, and sometimes it's even said very clearly, like for Genesis 6:8, right? The first book in the Bible, not the first one written, we believe it as Job. But Job from You know, grace in the sight of God, but also Noah.
Genesis 6:8, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Now, if there is no grace in the Old Testament, what's that? Right. What do you do with that passage? In Exodus 33, 17, so the Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing that you have spoken, for you have found grace in my sight, and I know you by name.
So let's not forget that. People in times past were saved by looking forward to Christ, And they are saved now by looking back to Christ, but it has always been by grace. And I will read this passage, Romans 5:15, or maybe you can read it. Sure. It says, But the free gift is not like the offence, for if by one man's offence many died, much more the grace of God.
And the gift by the grace of the one may I'm sorry, let me hold it. But the free gift is not like the offence. For if by one man's offence many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. Yeah.
So true. Yeah.
So it's free gift. It's not. It cannot be earned, it cannot be bought. It can only be received. The more that we talk about God's grace and salvation and how Christ is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world, it's just so beautiful.
And it ties back to the conversation we had about the sovereignty of God. You know, before Genesis 1:1, before anything else was made, when it was God, when it was just God, nothing else. The cross was always The game plan. That was always God's trajectory. That was always the plan set in motion, even before the fall, even before sin fractured the world.
Grace was always a part of God's character, and it was always his on his heart to redeem humanity. Amen. Absolutely. It was always is and always always was and always will be. It's by grace through faith.
It's God's goodness towards us. Who don't deserve it. Yeah.
But he does that. He created us by grace. He knew what we were going to do. He knew what Adam and Eve would do. And for the rest of us who feel like we're blamed for Adam and Eve's sin, no.
In Adam and Eve, We all send, or in Adam, really, our federal head, all of us. Sinned all of us fell. That's why I can say that it was not just that Herod or Pontius Pilate Or the Romans or the religious leaders of the Jewish people crucified Jesus. No, I was there. Why?
Because they represented us. That's right. He said, that's crazy. No, read the Bible. Every one of the feasts that the people of Israel were celebrating, they were always celebrated as if they were there.
That's right. Passover. You have to celebrate as if you were there that night. The Feast of Tabernacles, you know, living in those booths. you are to celebrate them as if you were in the wilderness completely at the mercy of God's protection and provision.
This idea that you have to put yourself there. Is nothing new, you know?
So. What am I saying here? None of us deserve God's grace. We should be judged just as much as Adam and Eve were judged, kicked out of the garden. We should be judged just as much as Herod and Pontius Pilate and the religious leaders and all of the soldiers who spit on Jesus.
We should be judged for that. And this ties back to the conversation we had about the eternality of God and the whole concept of Christ time that we've been talking about on the show. Yes. Because it's more than just imagine as if you were there. It's it's Understand the spiritual reality that spiritually you Are there with the people who crucified Jesus?
You, your guilt, your sin, yourself, reckon yourself as being there. The more we have these conversations, the more you realize how interwoven the attributes of God are and how much this conversation is dependent upon itself. We got like just maybe three or four minutes left in the show, but talk to us about how we live our lives, right? How do we live our lives according to God's grace? It's got to affect the way that I treat people, it's got to affect the way that I think and I go about my day.
Well, very simple. How you got saved? Is how you live. How do we get saved? By grace through faith.
How do we live now? By grace through faith. Amen. Second Corinthians nine eight tells us, And God is able to make all grace abound towards you. That you always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
So work don't save us. But when we are saved, By grace we do good works. 2 Peter 3:18, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So we live. Also, by grace. And we can only accept it by faith. That's also something to remember. You cannot work for grace.
You can only receive it by faith that it has already happened. You know, daily if you're if you're the type who struggles with guilt and and and blame. and self-condemnation And the enemy knows that, and he will blame you even more, and make you condemn yourself even more, and make you feel like you're not good enough. You can only receive the grace of God by faith. By faith, you have to say, God, you have given it to me.
and I receive it and I thank you. And you have to show it to others. You have to show it to others. And that's sometimes hard because. We can we know how to receive it.
But showing it to others, we bring justice. It can be difficult to disappoint. We bring justice.
Now, we may go as far as mercy. But grace? No, grace is true. I'm not going to punish you, but giving you extra, well, never mind about all that. No milkshake for you.
That's right. That's right. But isn't that what Jesus did for us? Isn't that what God does for us is lavish grace upon us? I mean, we who are so undeserving, we who turn our backs on God.
God shows his grace to us every single day. That's right. You know, God is not the way that we are. We are all about making sure that others remember their place. Nobody ever hurts me again.
God is not like that. God is so gracious to us. And our goal on this show is to help you learn to be that in your ministry, in your family, in your personal life, whatever it takes to display God's grace to others. That's right. These episodes are so important and make sure that you're following along on all of our social media platforms.
You're following along on everywhere. Podcasting content can be found. And the reason that's important, not that we don't love local radio, we're grateful for our listeners who are listening on local radio. But podcasting episodes are different because you can share those with a friend or a family member who needs to hear this. There's someone in your life today.
This episode wasn't just for you. I believe that, that needs to hear about God's grace in their life.
So make sure you share that episode with your friend or your family member and make sure that you're supporting the show financially. That helps us to be able to do what we do and to continue creating content like this. That's a blessing to you and so many others. That's right. We want to say a big thank you to all of our sponsors.
And if you're interested in sponsorship, email us at info at clearviewbc.com. Or you can always text us at 252-429-6069. That's right. You can also support the show financially at Abhinanshah.com forward slash give or click the box below this video that says support the show. That's right.
We love you guys. We'll see you next time. I'm Cleare Today.
