Page 97 - GRACE

GRACE, Exploring Its Riches

to the banquet that Esther had prepared. At the
banquet of wine the king said to Esther, What” is

your petition? It shall be granted you. What is
your request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be
done!”Then Esther answered and said, “My
petition and request is this: If I have found favor
in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to
grant my petition and fulfill my request, then let
the king and Haman come to the banquet which I
will prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as
the king has said” (Esther 5:1-8).

Besides Noah, Moses and Esther, God in His sovereignty
also chose certain other people to stand before Him, like
kings, priests and prophets. Each one of these needed grace
to carry out their divine functions. And God specially
anointed or gave them grace to fulfil their roles. So you see
that generally, grace was available with God, but was not
readily accessible.

Grace in the New Testament

Whereas in old time grace was exclusively available, the
coming of Jesus in the new dispensation changed all that.
It can be said that in the Old Covenant people searched for
grace, but after with Jesus’ coming grace came searching
for us. Jesus removed the exclusive status of grace and
made it an all-comers affair in the New Testament era.
From that moment when Jesus paid the price for grace on

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