“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
What is grace? Grace is God’s unmerited favour. It is also defined as divine assistance that is received from God. In the Greek, the word ‘grace’ is ‘charis’. It is translated as to show kindness to someone. The very foundation of the word ‘grace’ is kindness. Grace also means to manifest graciousness to someone and to give freely out of a heart of love and kindness. Unmerited can also mean something that we didn’t work for or earned. We have to see grace in this light. This is where God graciously demonstrates His love towards us in many ways. When we speak of grace, we can’t help but speak of love and righteousness. Jesus died for us so that we could join in on the fellowship. Grace brought us into a better life where we could live righteously. Sometimes we mix up grace and mercy. Mercy is what we do not get but we deserve.
Grace is not something that we don’t deserve. Grace is what we really deserve because of what Jesus did. We deserve the blessings that we get. Grace is what God does for us as a result of what Jesus did. Jesus became a man to represent us in this sinful world. His life was set out to please and honour God in everything. Jesus was born under the law for a purpose (Galatians 4:4-5). The law only showed man’s sin but it couldn’t help man to get rid of that sin. Grace could not have come just like that; it had to come through Jesus. He had to satisfy God through the keeping of law before grace could come.
All sin is an offence to God. We were all born in sin but God forgave us. We are no longer under the law but we are under grace, we rule above sin. God’s grace is powerful enough to keep us from sinning. We didn’t find God, He found us. God is the One who spoke to us and brought us to Himself. He positioned us so that we could know Christ and rescued us from the kingdom of darkness (Colossians 1:13). God didn’t just forgive us but He washed all of our sins away and He clothed us with His righteousness. God gave us a future and a hope. He called us sons and accepted us into the beloved.
“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age” Titus 2:11-12
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).” Ephesians 2:4-5
When we got saved, God changed our nature. We cannot be anymore righteous now since we are saved. We are no longer sinners but the righteousness of God. If we think righteousness, we will live righteousness. We do not function in our own holiness but we function in God’s holiness. Do not allow the devil to remind you of sins that you have committed in the past. We are holy and blameless in the sight of God. God loves us so much that He adopted us as sons (Ephesians 1:4-8). God loved us before we were even saved (John 3:16, Romans 5:6-8). We are saved by God’s grace through faith. We are saved by faith; we have to believe in Christ (Galatians 2:16). We are not saved through the sinner’s prayer but through faith. All we have to do is believe.
We already have God’s favour and His approval. We do not have to do anything else to get God’s approval. Sometimes we mix a lot of works with grace but we don’t have to do anything to get blessed. We are blessed because we are sons of God. Grace gives us the right to access everything in Christ. God has given us everything that we need for life. We should give our lives fully to God. If we are saved by grace, everything that we have belongs to God.
We are the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 5:17). Salvation is not about works but about a right standing with Christ. We have to change our thinking; we have to change our stinking thinking. Righteousness is our right standing in Christ. If we sin, it is not the end for us. If we sin, we have not fallen out of grace but we have fallen into grace. Grace acts as a net to keep us from falling. It is not a license to sin. Sin where grace is concerned is an ‘if’ not a ‘when’ (1 John 2:1). If we sin, we have an advocate who is Jesus Christ. Sin is a choice because we are in Christ, we have a new nature. The devil does not have the power to make us sin.
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:10
