Chicken or Grace
What came first, the chicken or the egg? This old mind-boggler has perplexed humans for millennia. Can you have the chicken if you don’t have the egg first? But where would the egg come from to have the chicken, since it is the chicken that is responsible for laying the egg? I can’t figure it out! Thankfully God did not keep secret the order in which the chicken and egg came about. Genesis informs us that God created all creatures of the air, in the sea, and on land according to their kind. The chicken, or some version of the current chicken, was created and then it laid the egg. God is so smart! He can solve even the most troublesome mind twisters that wander through our mental landscapes. Nothing is missed with the Creator.
The mind twister has perplexed people for many, many generations. But it is grace which precedes faith.
There may be a similar mind-bender found in the Christian way. Today, rightfully so, the church puts a lot of emphasis on faith. In fact, it seems that even secular society is head over heels with faith. This preoccupation with faith has us referring to all religions as faiths. Some might say, “I am of the christian faith.” Others would claim to be of the catholic faith, itself viewed as a form of christian faith. There are those of the hindu faith and others of the muslim faith. Faith has become synonymous with a belief, not in God or even in the promises of God, but rather in a man-made system of religion. Faith has lost its origins as the confidence in our trustworthy God, to be assured of Him and His love for us, even though we may not see Him.
The author of the book of Hebrews outlines in detail the working of faith throughout Biblical history. The great patriarchs and matriarchs of the eternal body of Christ are examples to modern-day believers of how to live by faith to the glory of God. However, these stalwart followers of God relied upon something so powerful that it founded their faith and established their steadfast belief in the Almighty. What was this potent rock on which the faith of the Bible heroes was built? None other than the grace of our Creator God.
It is our Heavenly Father, the most gracious, Who establishes faith through grace. He is the One that makes faith possible and He does it through providing sufficient grace to support the faith placed in Him and His Kingdom. The scripture states that “The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more…” Why did grace abound the more that sin increased? “So that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Sin could not be allowed to outgrow grace because that would undermine the faith of God’s people.
The grace of God is the foundation of every believer’s faith. Without grace, there is no faith, for without a Father in heaven, full of grace and mercy, and without a glorious Son of God willing to lay down His title, position, and life, there is no basis for faith. This is why there is but one worthwhile faith. People who place their faith in anything other than an omnipotent Creator, full of grace, have believed a false hope and made a deliberate error that will, in the end, cost them eternally. If those words seem harsh to read, imagine how it will feel to experience it. God’s grace came first. Now is your time to find your faith in the God who has shown you grace.