This week is the second of three brief devotional readings from the teaching ministry of A.W. Tozer (1897-1963). Tozer was saved at home in Akron, Ohio at the age of seventeen after having heard a street preacher say, "If you don't know how to be saved, just call on God." He did exactly that.
Genesis 6:8 - "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord."
Grace is the goodness of God confronting human demerit. So, grace is what God is - unchanging, infinite, eternal!
This throws light on God's dealings with men and women throughout the Old Testament dispensations and history. It is certainly the truth, and a proper concept for us to hold, that no one was ever saved, no one is now saved, and no one will ever be saved except by the grace of God.
Before Moses came with the Law, men were saved only by grace. During the time of Moses, no one was saved except by grace. After Moses, before the cross, and after the cross, and during all of the dispensations, anywhere, anytime, no one was ever saved by anything but the grace of God!
We can say this with assurance because God dealt in grace with mankind looking forward to the Incarnation and the atoning death of Christ.
If God had not always operated in grace, He would have swept the sinning human race away. This, then, is the good news: God is gracious all the time, and when His grace becomes operative through our faith in Jesus Christ, then there is the new birth from above!
Thank you, Father, that by your grace - that is, the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ - we are saved and restored to a right relationship with you.
