Bible has many repetitions of God's grace

Probably every child heard their parents say something like, “If I told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times!” — usually because the child keeps repeating the same mistakes or outright acts of disobedience.

As I heard John 1:1-3 read at church recently, I realized the Bible has a lot of repetitions. John 1:1-3 includes two repetitive concepts: 1) The Word (Jesus) was in the beginning with God, and 2) Everything was made through him and without him, nothing was made.

Since all Scripture is God-breathed, originating from the Word himself, God begins with the repetition from the beginning (2 Timothy 3:14-17; 2 Peter 1:19-21; Genesis 1:1-2:3).

Note the creation passage just cited includes two sets of repeated statements: 1) “God said” and “There was evening and there was morning.”

These statements assert that God did the creating, and that each day was not millions of years or even thousands of years; they were 24-hour periods with day and night, while Jesus’ return could be millennia into the future, or it could be today (2 Peter 3:1-9).

Continuing with John Chapter 1 and its repetitions, John 1:4-5, 10-18 say there’s life in the Word (Jesus), but he wasn’t very widely recognized or understood for who he was as Creator and the bringer of grace in salvation and truth about how to receive that grace so we also can become a child of God, also begotten to attain eternal life (John 14:6-7; 1 Peter 1:3-5; 1 John 3:1-10).

God wants this good news (Gospel) spread, but also protected (1 Corinthians 15:1-8; Mark 16:15-16; Matthew 28:18-20; 1 Peter 1:22-25; 1 Timothy 6:20-21; 2 Peter 1:1-21, where we find the purpose for repetitive statements).

In fact, he’s sternly warned against altering the truth about responding to his love and returning our love to him (Deuteronomy 4:1-2; Revelation 22:18-19).

That warning is clearly repeated in the first three verses of Galatians 1:6-11 because it’s so critical to be aware of the danger in teaching the entire truth of the Gospel because it is the God-breathed Word (Acts 20:17-27).

Read the entire passage of Galatians 1:6-11 for more information as well as every Scripture that I cite to verify the basis for all statements made in my articles. If they checked up on Paul, you should certainly check up on me and anyone else who presumes to teach (Acts 17:11; James 3:1).

God’s greatest repetition is telling us he loves us including the most often repeated command of “Be happy!” in various forms (there’re multitudes of instances throughout the Bible; so, for example — Ecclesiastes 3:12; Philippians 4:4-9). That’s because God really does love us and shows it, even to the point of having sent Jesus stand in our place to receive the punishment due us for our sins against him (Romans 3:23; 6:23; John 3:16; Romans 5:6-10; 1 Peter 4:8).

Have you accepted God’s grace in salvation according to the Gospel he has declared repeatedly (John 3:3-8; Galatians 3:26-28; 4:6-7; 2 Corinthians 6:1-2)?

Leonard Lauriault is a member of the Church of Christ in Logan who writes about faith for the Quay County Sun. Contact him at [email protected].