Grace from start to finish

One neat thing about using a devotional guide every morning is that it makes me look at verses that I might otherwise pass by. It also gives me the perspective of a saint who has gone before me, someone who has studied the Scriptures with a history differing from mine. This gives the Holy Spirit opportunity to fill in the blanks in my thinking and challenge me in ways that might not happen if I picked the places I wanted to read.

Today, Ears from Harvested Sheaves takes me to Zechariah 4:7. Verse 6 I know: “ . . . This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.”

It is a well-known admonition that reminds me that neither brute force nor subtle persuasions are effective in working the will of God. Instead, I am to rely on His Spirit.

Verse 7 was also spoken to Zerubbabel. He was trying to rebuild the temple under mountain-like opposition. God says, “‘Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”

With the temple, in fact with the entire Old Testament pointing to Jesus Christ, this grand statement is also a type of what is going to happen in the distant future, not just what will bring that ancient temple to completion. The temple was God’s “dwelling place” (even though no building can contain Him). Now, God’s dwelling place is in the hearts of His people individually and in the church corporately. This temple is still being built as God adds to it daily even in our modern world.

As I pray for the salvation of souls, I’m encouraged by what the author of today’s reading says. He affirms that only those who know the opposition of the mountain and the failure of their own might and power will be able to shout, “Grace, grace to it.” He adds this:

Who will have most reason to say, “Grace, grace?” (It will be) the lost and ruined wretch, who has feared that he should go to hell a thousand times over, and yet has been delivered by sovereign grace and brought to the glory and joy of heaven. No other person is fit to join in that song; and I am sure no other will join in it but he who has known painfully and experimentally the bitterness of sin and the evil of a depraved heart; and yet has seen and felt that grace has triumphed over all, in spite of the devil, in spite of the world, and in spite of himself, and brought him to that blessed place where many times he was afraid he should never come.

As God, by grace, saves sinners, the day will finally come when His living temple will be complete. All opposition will be leveled and the capstone or final stone of the building will be put in place. Then shouts of joy will repeat that from beginning to end, this is God’s mighty work of grace. My commentary says:

The repetition expresses grace from first to last. Thus the Jews are urged to pray perseveringly and earnestly that the same grace which completed (the temple) may always preserve it. “Shoutings” of acclamation accompanied the foundation of the literal temple (see Ezra 3:11, 13), so shoutings of “Hosanna” greeted the Savior in entering Jerusalem (Matthew 21:9), when about to complete the purchase of salvation by His death: His Body being the second temple, or place of God’s inhabitation (John 2:20, 21). So when the full number of the saints and of Israel is complete, and God shall say, “It is done,” then again shall “a great voice of much people in heaven” attribute all to the “grace” of God, saying, “Alleluia! Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God” (Revelation 19:1, 6). Psalm 118:22 regards Him as “the headstone of the corner,” that is, the foundation-stone. Compare the angels acclamations at His birth (Luke 2:14). Here it is the top-stone. Messiah is not only the “Author,” but also the Finisher (Hebrews 12:2). “Grace” is ascribed “unto it,” that is the stone, Messiah. Hence the benediction begins, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 13:14).

I woke up this morning with the words of “Our God is an Awesome God” running through my mind. As I read this and think about the amazing grace that started God’s work with mankind in general and in my own life in particular, and the amazing grace that will complete His work in us, there is nothing left to say. God is an awesome God!