Taken from\nG.H.Lang’s<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Ideals and\nRealities” chapter IV<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Published 1934<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have pointed out\n(a) That all gifts come to men from God on the principle of grace, since we\ndeserve nothing but wrath. “To the sinner anything out of hell is\nmercy”; (b) That nevertheless there is always possibility that man may not\naccept what grace offers, and so not benefit \nby the grace of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is true of the unregenerate: such may\nrefuse or neglect salvation entirely. It remains true of the saved, in so far\nthat they may fail to receive those further benefits to which regeneration\nopens the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No one questions this in relation to this\npresent life, for it is certain that many believers do not enjoy very much of\nthe present portion available to every believer. Assurance of salvation,\nconscious relation with God as child to father, priestly access and power in\nintercession, some heart-sense of sitting with Christ in heavenly places, may\nbe instanced as privileges often missed, of which, indeed, many who own that\nJesus is their redeemer have no knowledge at all, not even as possible. Through\ndefective instruction they are like those disciples who had not received the\nSpirit because they did not know He had been given. (Acts 19:2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\nis also certain that some who did not know these privileges in power have\nforfeited this experience through carnality and worldliness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As, then, present privileges may be missed,\non what ground are we to hold that future privileges cannot be? Of course,\nintelligent students of the word do not so hold. It is generally admitted that\nrewards in the kingdom will be proportionate to works of faith, to labours of\nlove, to sufferings for the kingdom in this life, which rewards therefore have\nthe nature of prizes, crowns, and may be forfeited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now the important part here considered is\nthat, not only status and reward in the kingdom, but sharing in it at all\nstands also on this precise footing. No new principle of life or recompense is\nintroduced, but only an extension of the same principle. It thus becomes simply\na question of what is the testimony of Scripture upon the point. This testimony\nwe deem to be as plain and abundant as for the truth that there is to be a\nkingdom of God. We take numerous statements addressed to disciples to mean\nexactly what they say, as Matt. 5:20; 18:3; Rom 8:17; 1 Cor 6:7; Gal. 5:19-21;\nEph. 5:5; Phil. 3:10,11; 2 Thess. 1:11; 2 Tim. 2:11-13; Rev. 2:27,28; 3:4,5,21;\netc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is narrated that Queen Elizabeth was\ndealing with an appeal for pardon by a would-be assassin. She proposed to show\ngrace upon conditions that she would name. The suppliant answered that grace\nwith conditions were no grace. It is said that Elizabeth declared that to be a\nbetter lesson in theology than her bishops had ever taught her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Probably many may deem this a striking\nthought, yet it is certainly false. Grace is none the less grace if, for good\nreason, it impose conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John Bampton left property for the\nmaintenance at Oxford of the celebrated lectureship that bears his name. This\nwas grace, since he was under no liability so to bequeath his possessions. But\nfor securing a certain standard of excellence he imposed the condition that the\nlecturer should be at least a Master of Arts, and for the securing permanency\nto the lectures he ordered that the lecturer should not be paid until there had\nbeen printed thirty copies of the lectures. These conditions did not impair his\ngrace but they showed his wisdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A gift may be absolute or conditional. If it\nbe the former the property can never be reclaimed by the donor or denied to the\nreceiver. But if it be the latter the receiver forfeits his title if the\ncondition be not fulfilled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bequests are known which operate only on such\nconditions as that the legatee (a) shall take the name of the testator, or (b)\nshall continue to dwell in the house devised, or c) shall never become a Roman\nCatholic. Such conditions are of two classes: (a) operates before the property\ndevised passes to the legatee; (b) and \nc) continue after the property has passed. In the case of (a), the name\nhaving been taken the gift becomes absolute; in (b) and c) it remains always\nconditional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now as regards the gifts of God they are of\nnecessity always conditional, but some are of the (a) class, others of the (b)\nand c) class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Justification and eternal life are the\nformer. The condition required, and which is necessarily indispensable, is\nrepentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. If this\ncondition is not fulfilled these gifts offered by grace never pass to the\nsinner. If, however, this condition is met these benefits operate, and are\nirrevocable by God and non-forfeitable by the receiver. Thus it is written of\nthe repenting and believing man that he is “justified freely by God’s\ngrace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” and that ” the\nfree gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.\n3:24;6:23).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We take the terms\n“freely” and “free” to mean not only free from purchase\nprice to be found by the sinner, but free from after conditions, once upon\nrepentance and by faith these benefits have been acquired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But we do not find this asserted as regards\nany subsequent privileges offered by the grace of God. These all are equally\ngifts of grace but are of the (b) and c) class, having conditions attached ,\nhaving conditions attached which require perpetual fulfilment. If God has made\nreigning with His Son in His kingdom consequent upon suffering with Him now,\nthis does not impair His grace to men in ever opening so magnificent a\nprospect, but it shows that it is indeed marked by ” all wisdom and\nprudence” (Eph. 1:8), for thus His grace cannot be abused to promote\nslothfulness and unfaithfulness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Taken from G.H.Lang’s “Ideals and Realities” chapter IV Published 1934 We have pointed out (a) That all gifts come to men from God on the principle of grace, since we deserve nothing but wrath. “To the sinner anything out of hell is mercy”; (b) That nevertheless there is always possibility that man may not accept … Continue reading “Grace May Impose Conditions”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[43,44,45],"class_list":["post-395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kingdom-doctrine","tag-g-h-lang","tag-grace","tag-kingdom-of-god"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":397,"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395\/revisions\/397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themastersgoods.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}