“For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not works lest any man should boast.”
The traditional definition of grace is “God’s unmerited favor.” Another definition that Dr. C. Roy Angell gave in one of his sermon books was “needed but not deserved.” John 1:14 says of Jesus, “And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” The fact of Christ’s coming to earth in the first place was based on the grace of God. We did not deserve Christ’s coming, but we needed Him and got the salvation that He offered. Let’s look at the importance and indispensability of grace. We need grace. We need grace because we are all sinners. At least, that is what the Bible tells us. Romans 3:10: “There is none righteous no not one.” (Quote from Psalm 1:14) Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” No person has lived since Adam and Eve who can say that they have not sinned. If one really believed that, he or she, would be lying to himself or herself. The “all” in Romans 3:23 means just that – all. The apostle John understood this, for he wrote in 1 John 1:10: “If we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar and His word is not in us.” God has declared us all sinners; therefore, we are all sinners. That is why we need grace – “God’s unmerited favor.” We cannot do anything about sin in our own strength. We can “turn over a new leaf” but that won’t last long. I have heard it said that when you turn over a new leaf, all you get is the other side of the leaf. This means that the other side is the same as the side was turned. We need God’s grace and His strength in order to be saved. God gives grace. God obviously gives it in spite of the fact that we do not deserve it. Two attributes of God come into play in his dispensing of grace – love and mercy. For an example of this we can look at the thief on the cross. By his own admission, he deserved to be on the cross. He knew that he was really a thief and probably a murderer as well. But when he turned to Jesus by faith and asked to “be remembered” when Christ “came into His kingdom.” By grace, Jesus told him “today, you will be with me in paradise.” The thief could absolutely not have done anything to deserve joining Jesus in paradise, but he was given the access to paradise by Jesus. That is just pure grace at work. I like the old hymn that says: “The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day; and there may I though vile as he, wash all my sins away.” We do not deserve salvation any more than the thief did, and we need God’s grace as much as he did. Jesus shows us God’s grace in action. He is God taking the initiative for grace over the power of sin. Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection is God’s grace proven and established. His saving power is God’s grace claiming the victory. Jesus’ return will be God’s grace consummated. We need to practice God’s grace in our lives. When we are saved, God literally gives us His grace and we need to practice it in our dealings with our fellowman. I would like to be able to claim here that I do this all of the time, but I do not. But unlike an unsaved person, I am aware when I have not practiced God’s grace, because He convicts me of it. We need to practice God’s grace in our dealings with the world. We need to practice God’s grace in the church with our fellow Christians. I think sometimes that we don’t practice God’s grace in church any more than we do in the world. If we practiced God’s grace more effectively we would make a greater impact on the world. We need to practice God’s grace in our families and among our friends. We certainly need to practice God’s grace in our work places. To practice God’s grace we need to be willing to forgive others. This is not always easy, but it is necessary if we are to practice God’s grace. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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