THE DAY OF GRACE

Thursday 13 February

This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24 (NKJV)

For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. Hebrews 4:8 (NKJV)

And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. John 16:23 (NKJV)

I remember years ago I was shown how to play the song ‘this is the day’ on the guitar based on Psalm 118:24. It used to be in the Christian top 10 hits at that time. My mentality way back when, was that it was talking about a day like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday etc. We probably sang it on Sunday the loudest because after all that was the Lord’s day! This was the extent of the revelation that I had at that point in my Christian walk. But is it the ultimate truth for this verse? Let’s go a little deeper. We’ll start with Psalm 118:24.

‘The day that the Lord has made’ is not really talking about a 24 hour period but rather a dispensation. A dispensation is defined as ‘a distinctive arrangement or period in history that forms the framework through which God relates to mankind.’ There are 3 major dispensations in the Bible. The patriarchal, Jewish and Christian dispensations. Jesus made a statement to the Pharisees when He said ‘Abraham rejoiced to see my day.’ Why? Because of the dispensation that we would be ushered into through Christ and His redemptive work. The Psalmist’s words were at their deepest meaning, a prophetic declaration about the day of the church. We also call this period the day of grace.

Romans 5:17b says ‘they which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ.’

The abundance or overflowing of grace is called favour which all men can receive.This abundant grace is essentially salvation in Christ and it has been extended to all mankind. This ‘rest’ that we read about in Hebrews 4:8 is another word for salvation which is why it says ‘there now remains a rest for the people of God.’

The word ‘remains’ here is another proof that you can never lose it. ‘If Joshua had given them rest’ is representative of the continued function of the law after Moses’ death. This tells us that the law could never take away sins. This is why there had to be another ‘day’ to replace the old one as it were.

Jesus refers directly to this when He says ‘in that day you shall ask Me nothing’ What day? The same day that David and the writer of Hebrews was referring to. The day of the church, the day of grace. This day came into full effect after the resurrection of Christ, consummated in the Holy Spirit living in the believer.

That Holy Spirit is Jesus. ‘Christ in you the hope of glory’. Remember ‘the Holy Spirit’ is not a name or another person in the godhead. That’s why it has the definite article ‘The’ before the name. It is simply a description of the character of the one who dwells in you. His name is Jesus.

Now you may start to see why the next part of Psalm 118:24 says ‘we will rejoice and be glad in it’. When it comes to the Old and the New Testament, St. Augustine made a profound statement that still holds true today.

“The new is in the old concealed; the old is in the new revealed.”

When we look through the lens of the finished work of Christ we understand why David tells us to rejoice. We rejoice because of the good news of the free gift of salvation and eternal life that has been made available to everyone!

Jesus called it ‘the acceptable time of the Lord’s favour.

As long as Jesus has not yet ‘appeared’ (1 John 3:2), the day or era of grace will continue. When the Bible talks about the longsuffering of God it is in relation to his reluctance for any to perish because he wants everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. When He appears and the second trumpet sounds, that will be the end of the era of grace and the end of the world.

Let’s keep teaching and telling the good news of Jesus death, burial and resurrection and that we are still living in spiritual Jubilee: the day of His abundant grace!

APPLICATION

Have the consciousness that the Old Testament writings including the gospels are ‘the scriptures’ and the New Testament epistles are ‘the revelation of the scriptures’ and use the binoculars of the ‘New’ to reveal what is concealed in the ‘Old’.