Ephesians 2, verse 8 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God”

Grace is an amazing concept. Sadly, it is also a concept that is often misused and abused. This article taken from a sermon that I recently preached where I tried to explain what grace is, what it isn’t, and how we receive it. Let’s look at the Biblical concept of grace together.

What Grace Is

The simple definition of grace that most of us know is “unmerited favor”. The origins come from a word meaning “sweetness” or “kindness”, so grace is a kindness that we do not deserve. To better understand that, let us look at Matthew 18: 23-27:

23“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24“When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ^[c]ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25“But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. 26“So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ 27“And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt.

How much did that servant owe in today’s money? Many estimates put it at three billion dollars. The point was that it was an amount that the slave had no chance of repaying, no matter what he did. I believe that Jesus sought to shock His audience by the magnitude of the debt. The master in the parable, who we know to represent God, showed the slave grace. He had every right to demand payment, but he simply forgave it.

Romans 5: 6-9 reads:

6For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

We were enemies of God, yet He saw fit to save us. What grace! Paul explains some might die for a good man. We might die for our friends and family. We might die for a cause or country in which we truly believe, but who will die for their enemy? Jesus did. Just like the slave in the parable, we (through our sins) owe a debt we can’t pay. But God showed us grace by sending His son to pay the price for us. Let us go back to Ephesians and read the first seven verses:

1And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

While we were dead in our sins, while we were disobedient, while we were living lives of the flesh, God sent His son that we might be reconciled to Him. That is true grace. Isn’t it amazing?

What Grace Isn’t

Grace is not unconditional. Look at Genesis 6:8 which says, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.” Noah found favor, or grace in the eyes of the Lord, but how? Through his obedience. Noah did what the Lord had commanded, even though he probably didn’t fully understand why he was doing what he was doing. Too often when people quote Ephesians 2:8 they stop after they say “saved by grace”, but there is more. Paul said we are saved by grace “through faith”. Faith is always tied to obedience and we cannot separate them. If Noah had not followed the commandments of the Lord he would not have found favor in His eyes.

Grace is not earned. Ephesians 2: 9 says that grace is a gift of God, “not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” There is no work that will merit God’s grace. If there were, imagine the pride and arrogance of those who had done those works. All of the things God has commanded of us (hearing, believing, repenting, confession, being baptized for the remission of sins and leading a faithful life) are essential, but none of them will earn God’s grace. We can’t do works to earn God’s grace because Jesus has already done the work for us! Look at Hebrews 7:27:

who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.

The debt is too big, the price too high, so God paid it for us. Nothing we do will merit His kindness.

Grace is not necessarily permanent. Let us look at Galatians 5:4:

You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace

Relying on something other than Christ – be it the old law, the teachings of men, or our own thoughts and desires – can cause us to fall from grace. Look at Romans 6:1-2:

1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

Is grace going to cover us if we keep on willfully sinning? Many translations say “God forbid it!” We’re supposed to be dead to sin. If we continue to wallow in it, we shouldn’t expect grace to cover our evils. The strongest language showing us that grace is not permanent may be found in Hebrews 6:4-6:

4For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.

If we have tasted of God’s grace and we renounce Him and go back into the world, we are worse off than before we ever became a Christian. The Hebrew writer tells us that we might as well pick up the hammer and nails again and nail Jesus to the cross again because we are crucifying Him all over again. Remember what eventually happened to the slave in the parable we first looked at? When he failed to show mercy to another slave the master rescinded his grace and turned the slave over to be punished without mercy.

Despite what some may say, the Bible teaches that grace is not unconditional, it is not something you can earn, and it isn’t necessarily permanent.

How Do We Get Grace?

There are some who say that if we do anything we’re trying to earn God’s grace. For whatever reason it is usually only the command to be baptized that they’re talking about (having no problem with belief, repentance and confession). Remember that Paul wrote that grace is not earned, so is it true that something like baptism is an attempt to earn our salvation? Here is the example that I used and I hope you can follow it. I walked up to a young man named Bradley and said:

Me: Bradley, I’d like to give you five dollars. Would you like five dollars?

Bradley: Sure.

Me: Do I owe you the five dollars? Have you done some work for me and I owe this to you?

Bradley: No.

Me: So, I am giving you $5 by my grace. It is freely given, even though you don’t deserve it. Here you go. (I held out the bill and Bradley reached for it).

Me: Wait, wait, wait! What are you doing? Are you trying to earn this money? I said I was giving it to you by grace! You can’t earn it!

You see, Bradley was only reaching out to accept what I was offering by grace. Would he reaching out and taking it somehow earn it? Of course not! The same can be said about our acts of obedience. Believing, repenting, confessing and being immersed unto the forgiveness of sins are not trying to earn God’s grace – they are simply the ways we reach out and accept it. How silly to think that any of those actions could merit something as incredible as the grace of God!

There are things that we are commanded to do. Things we must do. Yet none of those things will ever earn God’s grace. Our debt is simply too big for us to pay. Let us rejoice that Jesus has already paid that debt. Let us do the things He has commanded us to do and know that they are not attempts to earn a gift that we cannot earn.