Grace is a big word, a God word, a word that is foreign to our natural thinking and living. It’s a word our natural minds just can’t comprehend.
Yet, we offer up all kinds of ideas about grace, ideas that aren’t true. Here are six of the most common.
- Grace is necessary only for salvation. Many believers think that they needed God’s grace for salvation, but now that they are saved, living the Christian life is up to them. They lean into rules and regulations to guide their lives. This does nothing but lead them into legalistic bondage.
- Grace is merely a covering for sins. Is forgiveness all that we need from God? Many answer “yes” to this question, and they look to grace as the covering for their sins. This idea misses our real need. The Bible says that we are dead in sin and in need of life. Grace is God’s act to make us alive together with Christ and to make us right in God’s sight.
- Grace is a thing. Grace is not a thing. Grace is bound up in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He is the One full of grace and truth. Think about grace as a thing, or a theological concept, and you miss Him.
- Grace gives us a license to sin. If you think of grace like this, you miss out on the most practical aspect of God’s grace in daily living. The grace of Jesus teaches us to say “no” to sin.
- Grace and Law are equal. They are not. Believe that they are and you will blend them together. When you do you miss the purpose of each. Law compares to grace as the moon compares to the sun.
- Grace is insufficient to meet life’s problems. We all have problems. Grace is big enough to get us through each and every one.
God wants you to experience the fullness of His grace, to live the life He gave you to the full. Don’t let any of notions about grace rob you of the riches you have in Jesus Christ.
What other ideas about grace have you heard, and where did you hear them?
I have heard some folks say, “Grace is only a starting point, you must follow the sacraments to get more grace.”
Other folks say, “They are saved by Grace, so now they can obey the Law of God.”
Both groups don’t understand Grace, they don’t understand Jesus. The first group makes grace something you “get” and “get” more and more of it as time goes on. The second group makes Grace something other than Grace. In affect, this group becomes fruit watchers within their own ranks and others. They don’t have a clue what sin really is in their own life.
Its as if they think grace is the subject you learn in 1st grade. Once you graduate that grade you move on to bigger and deeper ideas about God. You can’t get any bigger than grace, because grace is tied to Jesus Christ.
Hi, Peter says to “Grow in grace”
Jesus is God’s grace and we depend totally upon Him. Without grace we are doomed. Having a faith that grace saved you and now it is up to you to live the Christian life is trampling the Son of God underfoot. It is saying “I do not need Jesus, I can do these things.”
God gives grace to the humble, to those that acknowledge the truth that he cannot attain a righteousness of his own.
Romans 11:6 “And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.”
Paul BOASTED about his weaknesses because God’s power is made perfect in weakness. That is why he said in 2Corinthians 12:9
“But he said to me,”My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
Exactly, William. Strangely, that’s exactly what my friend and I have been learning in our Bible study over the last few weeks. We’re going through the ‘Faith,Hope and Love’ study guide and now boast in our weaknesses because we realise we need the strength of God in everything we do.
Interestingly, we’ve discovered that ‘God gives grace to the humble but resists the proud’!!
So, me, myself and I, has to go!!
Gods grace really is sufficient…
Hi, yes we do know God has saved us by his grace and keeps us by his grace, amen..however the bible says we are also workers together with him. We must do our part to keep alive in this grace. Bible says WE are to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Yes Gods grace will help us do this, but he , God, will NOT do it FOR us. Praise the Lord.
Could you please cite the scriptures you are basing your position on.
1John 7 says that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.
We do not have the ability to cleanse ourselves.