Disciples of Grace in This Present Age

Hardly anything is so key to practical discernment as comprehending the character of the age we are now in compared to the age that will surely come. During this age "grace teaches us." Apparently very many have missed some the main things God's grace is intended to teach. William Arnot of Scotland (1808-1875) in his superb book on Proverbs points out in the last chapter of that book: "We who live under the Christian dispensation should beware of a fatal mistake in our conception of its distinguishing characteristic. The gospel is not a method of bringing men to heaven without righteousness, or with less of it than was demanded in ancient times. The actual holiness of His creatures is the end of Lord in all His dispensations, as certainly as fruit is the object of the husbandman (gardener) when he plants, and waters, and grafts his trees." Again, "The death of Christ for sin is the divine plan, not for dispensing with obedience from men, but for effectually obtaining it. God proclaims pardon and bestows peace, that rebels may submit and serve Him. ...They who feel more at ease in their alienation...who do not like the obligation to obedience, have no part yet in the forgiving grace. This sermon has two points: first, Only a high view of God and the gospel will sustain you in your calling in this present age. Second, an incomplete view of fellowship with God (and man) will cripple you. Fellowship with God is not limited to green pastures and still waters. "Be thou a partaker of the sufferings of the gospel" presupposes that sufferings are part of gospel experience. Could it be otherwise in this present age?