Q: Please explain Grace. What is grace? What does grace do for me?
A: Grace
in mentioned 170 times in the Bible. Consider some of the ways it
can be defined:
1. Grace is God's unmerited favor. That is, grace is God doing
good for
us that we do not deserve. In the Bible, grace and mercy are like two
heads of the same coin. Mercy is God withholding judgment or evil that
I
deserve; grace is God giving me blessing or good that I do not deserve.
Because of God's mercy, I do not receive the judgment of God against
my
sins; because of God's grace, I receive eternal life and a promise of
heaven though I do not deserve them. Both mercy and grace come to me
though the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. Grace can also be defined as God's sufficiency or God's fullness
in
the life of the believer. God told Paul, "My grace is sufficient
for
thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness" (2Corinthians
12:9).
That is, the grace of God in Paul enabled him and empowered him in his
weakness. Another verse states, "And God is able to make all grace
abound
toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may
abound to every good work" (2Corinthians 9:8). God's grace working
in us
supplies the sufficiency whereby we may abound to every good work. I
like
to call grace "God's enoughness." By this I mean that God is
enough for
us no matter what the situation we face.
This being the case, you can see that grace is first of all necessary
for
salvation. Ephesians 2:8 states, "For by grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." One aspect
of
salvation is called justification. That is the act by which we are
declared just (righteous) before God on the basis of the payment Jesus
Christ made for our sin. The Bible clearly teaches that we are justified
by the grace of God (Romans 3:24; Titus 3:7).
But not only are we saved by the grace of God--we also serve the Lord
and
live the Christian life by the grace of God. The letters of Paul always
speak of a blessing of grace for the believers (along with peace). Just
for an example, Romans 1:7 states, "Grace to you and peace from
God our
Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." Paul is speaking to believers
who
are already saved and on their way to heaven, but he also recognizes
that
they need grace for living the Christian life. They need God's strength
and sufficiency.
A good verse to help explain this grace by which we live is 1Corinthians
15:10 where Paul testified, "But by the grace of God I am what I
am: and
his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured
more
abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with
me." It was God's grace that made him what he was. It was God's
goodness
working in him that made him the great servant of God he was.
So, obviously, we also need the grace of God. We need it first of all
for
salvation. Without the grace of God, we cannot have eternal life.
However, we also need the grace of God for our daily walk with God. We
are weak and prone to stray. Jesus told us that we can do nothing without
Him (John 15:5). But God provides daily strength through His grace
working in us. We should seek this grace for living from him. Then, we
should believe that He will provide what He has promised and walk with
assurance that His grace is working in us.
I thank you for sending in this question and I hope and pray that my
answer has been helpful to you.
Till He comes,
Pastor David Reagan