Saved through Grace, Commended to the Grace, and Testify to the Word of His Grace

Thank the Lord for the word of His grace, being commended to the grace of God for the work we are to fulfil, and believing that through the grace of the Lord Jesus we are saved, all of us! Hallelujah for grace in the book of Acts!

The more we read and enjoy the portions in the book of Acts regarding grace, the more we realise that grace is not just something God gives us or a thing He does for us but the wonderful person of Christ becoming our enjoyment and our everything in many things and situations of our daily life and in the church life.

When Acts 4:33 speaks of great grace being upon all the saints in the church, this doesn’t mean that God gave them something called grace, some unmerited favour, and now all the saints enjoy this thing.

It is the wonderful and glorious person of Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, who is experienced by us to be our enjoyment, who is grace!

When we enjoy Christ in our daily living as grace, when we exercise our spirit to contact Him and receive grace, we will have great grace upon us as we meet.

Grace will be visible, for there will be a clear change in life, a holy living, a salvation that is manifested, and there will be some gifts that are exercised in our meetings.

When others come among us and we enjoy grace, there will be a visible manifestation of grace, and we will continue in the grace of God.

We need to follow the pattern of the early disciples to enjoy the Lord as grace, come forward to the throne of grace, and continue in the grace of God.

We already have grace; we have been saved by grace, we stand in grace, and now we simply need to continue in the grace of God.

We can testify that, so many times, when we come to the meetings of the church, we can see the grace of God, we enjoy the grace of God, and we continue in the grace of God.

When we come together and enjoy the Lord as grace, sing, exercise our spirit to call on the name of the Lord, and fellowship with one another, we enjoy the Lord as grace, and grace is visible among us. This grace is able to change people’s lives.

Grace can have an impact on a person to cause him to be rescued from this present evil age. When we see the grace of God, when we enjoy the grace of God, and when we continue in the grace of God, there will be a change in our living; we will be saved more in the Lord’s life, and we will have a holy living before the Lord.

Enjoy and Speak the Word of the Lord’s Grace – we Testify to the Word of His Grace

In Acts 14:3 we are told that the disciples spent a considerable amount of time speaking with boldness in the Lord, who testified to the word of His grace.

What does the word of His grace refer to here? There used to be the word of the law, and the Jewish people read the law to see what God wants from them and what God is to them.

But what about the word of God’s grace? In the synagogues, the Jewish people read the Old Testament to know the word of God’s law; this was a word belonging to the old dispensation, the former divine arrangement of God’s economy.

But now we have the word of the Lord’s grace, which replaces the law. The phrase, the word of His grace, denotes certain dispensational points; it replaces the law.

The way we can be edified today is not by the word of the law but by the word of the Lord’s grace. The apostles edified the new believers by testifying to the word of life and the word of the Lord’s grace.

To testify to this word means that this word already exists, it has already been preached, and now we simply testify to the word of His grace.

The same word of God, the Bible, can be the word of the law or the word of the Lord’s grace, depending on whether we are in our spirit when we read it and apply it.

The Jewish people today read the Old Testament and take it as the word of God’s law; we, however, read the Bible and exercise our spirit to enjoy the word of His grace. The same word of God can be a letter that kills or the Spirit who gives life (2 Cor. 3:6).

This is why the Lord told the Jewish people that they search the Scriptures, thinking that in them they find eternal life, but they are not willing to come to Him to have life (John 5:39-40). Oh Lord!

What about us today? What is the Bible to us? Do we come to God’s word to merely find out more about God and what His plan for us is, or do we come to the Lord by exercising our spirit as we read the word?

Do we come to God’s word to merely get knowledge, even spiritual knowledge that may puff us up, or do we come to enjoy the word of His grace? The disciples in the book of Acts used the Old Testament to testify to the word of the Lord’s grace.

We need to be filled with God’s word as the word of His grace and we need to testify of the word of His grace. An example of the word of the Lord’s grace is Genesis 3:15, where God promises that the seed of the woman will bruise the head of the serpent.

When Adam and Eve fell by disobeying God due to Satan’s deceiving, they hid from God; they were expecting to die, but the Lord came and spoke to them a word of grace.

He preached the gospel to them, promising that one day the Seed of the woman would come and would bruise the serpent on the head.

This was not a word of condemnation or judgment but a word of grace. In Isaiah 7:14, the Lord promises that the virgin will conceive and will bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel.

Oh, what a word of grace! The word of God is full of words of grace, and we can enjoy this word of grace, be filled with grace, and speak the word of the Lord’s grace to others also!

When the Lord Jesus came and read the Scriptures in the synagogue in Luke 4, He spoke a word of grace to the people, declaring the year of jubilee, the year of the Lord’s acceptance. Hallelujah!

We believers in Christ are no longer under law; we are now in the age of grace, and there’s a change of God’s arrangement in His economy.

We are now under grace, we enjoy the Lord as grace, and our coming to the Lord in His word is to enjoy the word of His grace.

When we speak to others, we do not speak doctrines or the law; we speak the word of the Lord’s grace, testifying to this word. Hallelujah!

Lord Jesus, thank You for Your word of grace in the Bible! We come to You in Your word to enjoy You as grace. Save us from merely getting knowledge out of the Word of God. May we enjoy grace in God’s word! Amen, Lord, be our boldness today in our speaking and testifying to the word of the Lord’s grace! Fill us with grace as we enjoy You in Your word! May grace be our portion today. May we enjoy and experience grace today. Hallelujah, we are no longer under law – we are now under grace, under the dispensing of God into man as grace! Amen, Lord, may we enjoy the word of the Lord’s grace when we come to the word of God! May we testify with boldness to the word of grace when we speak to others! Oh Lord, may words of grace come out of our mouth to give grace to those who hear! Be our boldness today. May we boldly speak in the Lord, testifying to the word of the Lord’s grace to those around us!

Being Commended to the Grace of God for the Work we Fulfil

Acts 14:26 says, They had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled. The apostles were sent by the Lord through the coordination of the Body.

In chapter 13, we see how five brothers came together, prophets and teachers, to minister to the Lord and fast; then, the Holy Spirit led them to send out two brothers, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which He had called them.

The brothers then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, sent them away.

Saul and Barnabas, having been sent out by the Holy Spirit, went on their first gospel journey. This ministry journey was not man-made, nor was it initiated by man.

There was no organising of a mission, raising of funds, human ordination, or human plan or method.

Rather, there were five faithful and seeking members of the Body of Christ who gave the Head of the Body an opportunity through their ministering and fasting that He, as the Spirit, might set them apart to carry out His great commission to spread His kingdom for the establishing of His church in the Gentile world through the preaching of the gospel.

This was a move initiated by the Spirit with the cooperation of some of the members of His Body.

The Lord had a new start from Antioch in His move on the earth for God’s New Testament economy.

He first flowed on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem and, from there, to Judea and Samaria. Then, from Antioch, the Lord had a purified start by the Spirit.

Now in Acts 14 we see how Saul and Barnabas sailed away to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled.

The Spirit initiated the work and sent them, and they had been commended to the grace of God for the work.

Even our work should be of grace, out of the enjoyment of Christ. We don’t work and labour and struggle in our work for the Lord; like Paul said in 1 Cor. 15:10, we labour, yet it is not us but the grace of God which is with us.

Grace is the resurrected Christ becoming the life-giving Spirit to bring the processed Triune God in resurrection into us to be our life and life supply that we may live in resurrection.

Hallelujah, God in Christ becomes our life and everything for our enjoyment, and He is also our serving supply!

Our living should be a living of grace and our labour should be by the grace of God. Grace is the Triune God becoming life and everything to us.

This grace motivated Paul and operated in him; this was a living person, the resurrected Christ who dwelt in him as his everything.

The Lord Jesus Christ as grace lives in us; He is a living person, the embodiment of God the Father who became the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit, and He is now in us to be our everything.

May we enjoy the Lord as grace today. May we labour by His grace. May we be commended to the grace of God today by the saints.

As we remain in fellowship with the saints, even pray in one accord, the Lord has a way to commend some to the grace of God! Oh, what a blessing it is to be commended to the grace of God for the work that God gives us to do!

Lord Jesus, we love You and we want to enjoy You. We open to You and we come to Your word to enjoy the word of the Lord’s grace. We want to be in Your word and in the fellowship with the saints. Have Your way, Lord, to commend some to the grace of God for the work You want them to do. May we be commended to the grace of God for the work You want us to fulfill. May we work one spirit with You. Save us from working in our natural man or according to our natural ability. Amen, Lord, may our labouring be by the grace of God, even having the grace of God do everything in us! May grace be in us to motivate us and operate in us! Hallelujah, the living person of Christ as the Spirit is in our spirit, motivating in us and operating in us to cause us to labour by the grace of God! Praise the Lord, in the Body we can be commended to the grace of God for the work the Lord wants us to fulfil!

We believe that Through the Grace of the Lord Jesus we are Saved in the Same way as Others are!

In Acts 15 we see that some men came from Judea and began to teach the saints from the Gentile world that they need to be circumcised and obey the law of Moses, otherwise they cannot be saved.

That caused much dissension and discussion, so Paul and Barnabas were sent by the brothers to go to Jerusalem to speak to the brothers there about it.

Paul and Barnabas went through all the churches, encouraging them, bringing them great joy, and they arrived in Jerusalem and had a time with the elders there.

They declared to them the things that God had done with them.

There was a time of fellowship where the Lord had a way to expose the concepts of the old religion, the traditions of Judaism, which were brought into the church by some who still held them. Oh Lord!

So in verse 11 Peter said, among other things, But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus, we are saved in the same way also as they are.

The conclusion of this time of fellowship was that no requirements were put on the Gentile believers regarding the law, except abstaining from things having been sacrificed to idols and blood and things strangled and fornication (v. 29).

Actually, there should be no requirement, for the Lord Jesus came as grace with no other requirement except to believe into Him, but the religious concepts pervading and saturating those in Jerusalem were so strong, that some requirements were placed on the Gentile believers. We need to realise that we are saved through faith by grace.

It is through the grace of the Lord Jesus that we are all saved in the same way, whether Jews or Gentiles.

We are not saved through works, nor does our salvation come by obeying and keeping the law of Moses. We are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus.

This grace comprises the Lord’s person and His redemptive work (Gal. 2:21; Rom. 3:24). Both the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers were saved by this grace, not by keeping the law of Moses.

As far as God’s salvation is concerned, to keep the law means nothing to either the Jews or the Gentiles.

Thank the Lord for the grace of the Lord Jesus (Acts 15:40; 4:33; Eph. 2:5; Titus 3:7; John 1:14, 17; 2 Cor. 13:14) which saves us all in the same way.

Today we don’t need to keep the law to be saved. We don’t need to keep some law made up by the preachers and teachers in Christianity in order to be saved.

Our salvation is through the grace of the Lord Jesus, and we are all saved by grace.

Even as believers in Christ, those who are regenerated, we are not required to keep the law today; we have the laws of God inscribed on our heart by the Spirit, and the law of the Spirit of life operates in us.

There’s an inner law, an organic law of the divine life in us, which operates in us, and we simply need to exercise our spirit and live in our mingled spirit so that the law of life may operate in us. Hallelujah for the grace of the Lord Jesus through which we are saved!

Lord Jesus, we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus we are saved, whether Jews or Gentiles! Hallelujah, we are saved by faith through grace! Amen, Lord, we praise You for saving us not through works of law but through Your grace! Hallelujah, whether Jews or Gentiles, we are saved by this grace, the grace of the Lord Jesus! Amen, Lord, we believe in Your person and Your redemptive work and we are saved. What a grace! What a salvation! We love You, Lord, and we love Your salvation. Keep us in the enjoyment of Yourself as grace today. Save us from going back to the law and trying to keep it. Save us from trying to impose any law or regulations on others as a condition for their salvation. May we just remain under the grace of the Lord Jesus, enjoying His wonderful Person and redemptive work! Praise the Lord!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers, and portions from, Life-study of Acts, msgs. 17, 33, 38-40, 43, 55, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, One Accord and Crucial Aspects of the Book of Acts (2025 April ITERO), week 6, Grace in Acts – day 5.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Coming forward to the throne of grace in our spirit, a portion from, General Sketch of the New Testament in the Light of Christ and the Church, A – Part 3: Hebrews through Jude, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
  – Acts (Program #53) – The Propagation in Asia Minor and Europe through the Ministry of Paul’s Company (19), via, Bible study radio.
  – God’s grace being responsible for everything, a portion from, Messages Given During the Resumption of Watchman Nee’s Ministry (2 volume set), Chapter 6, by Watchman Nee/Witness Lee.
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• Hymns on this topic:
  – Naught have I gotten but what I received; / Grace hath bestowed it since I have believed; / Boasting excluded, pride I abase; / I’m only a sinner saved by grace! / Only a sinner saved by grace! / Only a sinner saved by grace! / This is my story, to God be the glory, / I’m only a sinner saved by grace! (Hymns #311 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – It is this grace—Christ as our inward strength— / Which with His all-sufficiency doth fill; / It is this grace which in our spirit is, / There energizing, working out God’s will. / This grace, which is the living Christ Himself, / Is what we need and must experience; / Lord, may we know this grace and by it live, / Thyself increasingly as grace to sense. (Hymns #497 stanzas 4-5)
  – All the wonders of His glory, / Deeper wonders of His love— / How for me He won, He keepeth / That high standing all above; / Not a glimpse—the veil uplifted— / But within the veil to dwell, / Gazing on His face forever, / Hearing words unspeakable. (Hymns #552 stanza 3)