He gone on and read `and the day of vengeance of our God' He could not have said with

truth, "this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears" (Luke 4: 21), for He came, as He

had taught, not to judge and condemn, but to save (John 12: 47).

Now is the age of grace. Grace now reigns (Rom. 5: 21) and God does not sit on a

throne of grace and judgment at the same time. Judgment and wrath are now held back,

and in infinite patience God waits for the repentance and response of a sinful race. But

He does not wait for ever. The age of grace has its end and then wrath and judgment

must follow.

That Christ believed and taught this too the context of Luke 21: 22 makes perfectly

clear and Rev. 6: 16, 17 solemnly reveals that the future wrath of Christ will be a

terrible reality. This may not be popular theology, but it is revealed truth.

Here then we have an example given by the Lord Jesus of `rightly dividing the Word'

and separating the present `acceptable year of the Lord' from the future Lord's Day of

wrath and judgment and all who handle the Word of God are surely without excuse with

this divine example before them.

(2) We must distinguish between Law and Grace, especially with relationship to the

gospel and the way of salvation. Salvation by faith in Christ, the forgiveness of sins and

eternal life are the free gifts of God, and can never be attained by attempting to keep the

law. Man's imperfect sinful nature makes this impossible, for God requires perfect

keeping of His law (James 2: 10, 11), if this is the ground that man chooses to approach

Him. Salvation and righteousness are `not of works (human merit or attainment) lest any

man should boast' (Eph. 2: 8-10), but it is `unto good works' after salvation. This we

have already stressed and `right division' will carefully note the difference between

receiving the gifts of grace by faith (God's favour to the unworthy) and human attempts

to obtain salvation by one's own unaided efforts.

(3) This leads to the difference between salvation by grace, apart from works, and

prize or reward resulting from faithful service following salvation which we have already

touched upon. The former is sure and certain because it depends solely upon what Christ

has done on the cross and what He is now doing for us in resurrection and not in any way

upon the believer. The Lord will surely finish the salvation He has begun:

Prize or reward is not certain. It is only for those believers who have been faithful to

the truth committed to them and have endured even through suffering and loss for the

truth's sake.

(4) "Right division" will also distinguish between the standing and the state of the

believer, the distinction being what the believer is made to be by God, in Christ, holy and

clothed with His righteousness, and his state, what he is in himself in thought, word and

deed. All the believers at Corinth were addressed as saints (holy ones, I Cor. 1: 2), but