At this point, I need to say a word about the difference between grace and blessing. What most Christians consider to be grace is actually blessing. What is blessing? Blessing is prosperity, benefit, and bounty. Many Christians, using the adjective form of the word grace, are fond of saying, “Oh, how gracious God is to us.” But this is far short of the meaning of the real grace. The Hebrew word for gracious in Numbers 6:25 means to bend or to stoop oneself in order to be kind to an inferior person. For example, in kindness, a king may stoop to give something to a beggar. That is what it means to be gracious. However, in the Bible, grace is nothing less than God Himself. In the Bible grace is simply God Himself coming into us to be our enjoyment. John 1:17 says, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” John 1:14 says that “the Word became flesh...full of grace and reality,” and John 1:16 tells us that “of His fullness we all received, and grace upon grace.”

Blessings are for our existence, but grace is for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. We do need God’s blessing for our existence. If God did not bless us, we would lose our jobs, health, and perhaps even our physical lives. I have no doubt that, for my existence, I am fully under God’s blessing.

Merely to exist, however, is vanity of vanities. What are we doing here in this country? Are we just here to make a living for our existence? If this is the case, it is vanity of vanities. All the cars, houses, degrees, and jobs are vanities. Some people may say, “Praise the Lord, we have three sons and two daughters. The sons are medical doctors and the daughters are professors. What a blessing this is!” This is a blessing for you and your family to exist in the vanity of vanities, if your existence is not for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. Others may say, “Five years ago I was only making $5,000 a year, but this last year I made $25,000. What a blessing this is!” This also is a blessing for people to exist in the vanity of vanities, if they are not for God’s eternal purpose.

Recently, the Lord awoke me early one morning and pointed out to me that not one of the New Testament books ends with the words, “Blessing be with you” or “Blessing be with your spirit.” However, nearly all the Epistles end with the words, “Grace be with you” (Gal. 6:18; Eph. 6:24; Phil. 4:23; Col. 4:18). To say, “Blessing be with you,” means that you will be prospered with material things. But our Bible never says anything like that. The Gospel of John does not say that the Word became flesh full of blessing, or that blessing came with Christ. No book ends by saying, “Blessing be with you.”

In the Old Testament we mainly have blessings, but in the New Testament the physical blessings immediately are replaced by spiritual blessings. Ephesians 1:3 says that God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ, and the last verse of the same book says, “Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ.” The last verse of the whole Bible also speaks of grace. Revelation 22:21 does not say, “The blessing of the Most High God, the Possessor of heaven and earth, be with you all.” No, it says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints.” Do you remember the blessing that the priests used to give the children of Israel in Numbers 6:24-26? It went like this: “The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: the Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” Paul’s blessing in 2 Corinthians 13:14, on the contrary, is in another category: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” I repeat, blessings are for our existence, and grace is for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.

God’s promise and Abraham’s faith counted for righteousness - After rejecting Abraham’s proposal, God promised him that He would do something for him so that he might have seed born of himself, even as many as the stars in heaven (15:5). Abraham believed in the Lord according to His word, and the Lord counted his believing to him for righteousness (15:6). It is the kind of faith that believes that God will work in us to bring forth Christ, the seed, that is precious to God and is our righteousness in the eyes of God. This is the faith for receiving God’s grace, not for receiving His blessing.

Today, most Christians care for blessing, not much for grace. Although this is the New Testament age, many Christians still live in the Old Testament dispensation, caring only for blessings, not for grace. In the Lord’s recovery we do need the blessings. It is a great blessing to meet together all of the time. But, more than this, we need grace. We need God to come in and say, “What you have does not count. What you can do and will do does not count either. I will work something into you, and this will bring forth the seed. Do you believe in this?” If we believe this, this kind of faith is precious to God. This is not the faith that believes that God will give us all that we need for our existence; it is the faith that believes that God is working Himself into us in order to bring forth Christ as the unique seed, the seed that is needed for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.
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