“And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the LORD our God, …” (Ezra 9:8)

If you know anything about the history of Israel, it was a constant series of them sinning, God punishing them, them repenting, and then “a little space” of grace in between, such as this space that came after the punishment of Israel’s Babylonian captivity. 

Today, of course, we live in the dispensational age of “the dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph. 3:2), a time when God is dispensing pure grace, unmixed with any periods of wrath.

Today, no matter what you do, you can’t make God punish you, whether you be saved or lost. Today, God is not reactionary toward mankind. He just let’s men receive the automatic natural consequence result of their sins. The sufferings of this present world are the result of men’s lust for their self-interest and self-aggrandizement running wild at the cost to other men. Today, the evils of this world are at the hands of man against man, not God against man.

The believer who sins grieves God’s Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30) and will still suffer the natural consequences of his bad choices to sin. For example, a believer who ignores God’s prohibition against homosexuality (Lev. 18:22) may contract AIDS. However, this is not the wrath of God, this is just an example of reaping what you have sown (Gal. 6:7), a principle that applies in every dispensation to all mankind.

So, just because you as a believer are saved and immune from the penalty of sin during and in this age of God’s unmixed grace, does not mean you should engage in the kinds of sins for which God will ultimately punish unsaved men with “everlasting destruction” (2Thes 1:9).

If you are not saved, enjoy this age of the dispensation of grace while it lasts, for you will be left behind when the Rapture of the believers to heaven brings an end to this dispensation of God’s little space of grace.

The Great Tribulation judgments that will follow the Rapture of believers will be the exact opposite of today’s age of the dispensation that is characterized by God’s grace without being mixed with any periods of wrath. Then it will be a time of God’s pure wrath, unmixed with any periods of grace. When that day comes, you will “drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture…” (Rev. 14:10). When the uncut, unmixed, undiluted wrath of Almighty God is poured out, “in those days shall men seek death” (Rev. 9:6) because they will understand that even the slightest space of grace will then be out of the question to seek.

Our only hope is to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved…” (Acts 16:31). You don’t have to make promises to God or do anything to deserve salvation…., just trust in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior who died to pay for all of your sins. Salvation then saves us from the penalty of our sins and from “the wrath to come.” Then He will come into you to live His life through you.

If you are thinking that you’ll just wait and see if the Rapture really comes before believing on Christ, think again, after the Rapture God’s undiluted wrath being poured out will not convince you to believe as you might think it would. John’s vision of that day says,

“…men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not…and they gnawed their tongues for pain and blasphemed…God…because of their pains…and repented not of their deeds” (Rev. 16:9-11).

The choice is yours: receive God’s undiluted grace today or face the undiluted wrath of God to come. This grace was made possible only because;

“Christ died for your sins” and “rose again” (I Cor. 15:1-4).

All He asks of you today, during the age of God’s pure grace, is to believe it, and come to rest in what Jesus did for you on Calvary’s Cross.