“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” -Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV
Did I ever tell you that I became a Christian when I was 5 years old? That’s cool, right? What’s not cool is I didn’t hear my first real message about grace until I hit the ripe age of tweny-one years old. And it’s not like I wasn’t in church during those years—I was there the whole time! But to the best of my memory, it was about sixteen years (!!) before I heard a clear, life-giving explanation of the grace of the gospel.
How does something like that happen? I think it happens when the Bible gets reduced to a bunch of rules: here’s how to be “good,” here’s what to do, here’s what not to do. Like this will get you into heaven, and this will surely send you to hell. But the problem is, that kind of narrow approach completely misses the point. It ignores the dynamic nature of God and the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
But here’s the good news; while you can never do enough, it’s not about what we have done, it’s about what Jesus has done for us.
The Bible isn’t primarily about rules or works, and Christianity isn’t just about trying harder or doing more. That way of thinking is far more characteristic of other religions, where the weight is on human effort. But the gospel is different. It’s about grace.
In fact, the most amazing thing about Christianity is it has nothing to do with our worthiness or how many good deeds we can stack against the bad. Instead, it’s solely about Jesus Christ alone and His unconditional love and sacrifice for us. And that even though we were sinners, Jesus showed abundant grace for us all by dying on the cross on our behalf, paying the ultimate price for our sins.
Grace is defined as God’s unmerited, undeserved, and freely given favor and love, rooted in His unconditional love rather than our performance.
Some people worry, “Don’t talk too much about grace—it will just make people think it’s okay to sin because God will forgive them anyway.” And Paul does warn us in Romans 6:15: “Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not!”
But even with that warning, I believe most of us need to hear MORE ABOUT GRACE, not less. At this point in my life, I honestly don’t think I could ever hear “too much” about it. I’m still learning and marveling at God’s goodness all the time.
Because here’s what grace does: it changes your heart. It makes you want to live in line with biblical principles—not out of fear, but out of gratitude. You realize you don’t deserve any of it, yet God gives it freely. That makes you want to love people the way Jesus loves people, to judge others less and examine your own heart more, to keep learning and growing.
Grace levels the playing field. None of us are worthy. None of us live so perfectly that we don’t need God. We’re all sinners in need of a Savior. And everyone who has made Jesus Christ their Savior are saved by grace alone.
So if your church rarely (or never) talks about grace, take a closer look at that. Remember, it’s not about working harder, being better, or doing more. Yes, we have a part to play—Scripture calls us to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling”(Phil. 2:12-13). And we do need to do our part. But God’s got the heavy lifting and if you think otherwise, you might be thinking too highly of yourself and your actions.
We’re all sinners saved by grace. We don’t have to work to earn God’s love. We don’t have to strive and worry, hoping we’ve done enough good works this day, this week, or this lifetime to deserve His love. Grace reminds us: that we don’t have to, and we never could.
So enjoy God’s amazing grace today!
Scripture references:
-Phillippians 2:12-13 NIV
“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”
#Godslove #grace #amazinggrace #whatssoamazingaboutgrace
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