The Grace of God - Is it Really Necessary?
Grace is not well understood in much of the church today. So why is grace such a big deal?
What does God tell us about it in Scripture? Can radical grace really be true? If so, what are the implications for grace in our lives?
Grace is the most important concept in the Bible, Christianity, and the world. It is most clearly expressed in the promises of God revealed in Scripture and embodied in Jesus Christ himself.
We’ll launch our discussion from this statement: Grace is most needed and best understood in the midst of sin, suffering, and brokenness. We live in a world of earning, deserving, and merit, and the result of these human traits is judgment. That is why everyone wants and needs grace. Judgment kills. Only grace brings life.
While everyone desperately needs it, grace is not about us. Grace is fundamentally a word about God: his un-coerced initiative and pervasive, extravagant demonstrations of care and favor. Michael Horton writes, “In grace, God gives nothing less than Himself. Grace, then, is not a third thing or substance mediating between God and sinners, but is Jesus Christ in redeeming action.”
“Human will does not by liberty obtain grace, but by grace obtains liberty.”
Christians live every day by the grace of God. We receive forgiveness according to the riches of God’s grace, and grace drives our sanctification. Paul tells us, “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives” (Titus 2:11). Spiritual growth doesn’t happen overnight; we “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 2:18). Grace transforms our desires, motivations, and behavior.
In fact, our Christian identity is, “By the grace of God I am what I am.” (1 Corinthians 1:10)
Left to our own abilities, we don’t cooperate with grace or even seek God. We choose ourselves over God every time. We are unable to seek God because we’re spiritually dead. Just as Lazarus couldn’t raise himself from the dead, we can’t raise ourselves from spiritual death. We also need Jesus to say, “Lazarus, come out.” This teaching makes God’s grace even more amazing. Salvation belongs to the Lord. It is not something we do, enact, or achieve. Jesus loves us, and he draws us to himself for God’s glory while we are spiritually dead and utterly undeserving. That is grace -- and that is liberation!
As humans, we inherited a nature and a will that are in bondage to sin from Adam. This is why Augustine argued, “What God’s grace has not freed will not be free.” Calvin said it another way: “Human will does not by liberty obtain grace, but by grace obtains liberty.” We are born in sin. We are naturally enemies of God and lovers of evil. We needed to be made alive (regenerated) so that we could even have faith in Christ. All of this is grace that we don’t deserve. When we realize we don’t earn or attain this grace, we also realize we cannot lose it. God graciously preserves us and keeps us.
When we are faithless toward him, he is still faithful. God’s grace just keeps going.
But if the gospel is outside of us, if we can’t even stand before God until he graciously attributes to us the righteousness of Jesus Christ and attributes to him on the cross the consequences of our sin, how can this be so liberating? Is it really good news if our freedom is won by the hand of another?
The fact that we try to reserve just a little part of salvation to ourselves is evidence that we don’t understand our slavery. We look for our righteousness in some action or quality of ourselves—no matter how little. When grace opens our eyes we realize our righteousness is outside of us. It is then that we realize just how glorious, unchanging, and enduring the righteousness of Jesus (now ours!) actually is!