What is grace anyway?

The over-riding theme of everything I teach and write is "the grace of God." But exactly what is grace? Simply put, it is what God has done and continues to do on my behalf. Salvation in Christ and the abundant life I have in Him is totally undeserved and unmerited.

God's mercy means that I don't get what I deserved. But His grace means that I get what I don't deserve!!! Grace is a wonderful gift of pardon from the penalty of my sinfulness, a righteous standing before God, abundant blessings, and eternal life.

Romans 3:23 reads "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"

For years I believed that the reason I was a sinner in need of a Savior was because of something I had “done”. In reading Romans 3:23 alone without the context of the entire Book of Romans, I misunderstood it. I thought that my first act of “sin” is what condemned me before God. But upon closer study in the Book of Romans I have learned that my problem was much deeper than just my actions. In fact, my problem existed even before I committed that first sinful act.

"Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation,..." Romans 5:18a

When you look at Romans 3:23 with Romans 5:18, these verses couldn’t be any clearer. Everyone who was ever born into the human race was born a sinner and therefore short of God’s glory. We committed “sins” because we were born with a bent toward sinning. In fact, we participated in the original sin of Adam in the Garden of Eden because we are all Adam’s offspring. We were “in” him since his own beginning and “in” him when he sinned. Therefore, we inherited the sin nature and subsequent penalty (death) that infected all who were born into Adam’s line.

Because of our very natures that were sinful from the day of our birth, we would never and could never do anything to receive salvation and become righteous. It is impossible for us to “attain” to righteousness on our own because we would find ourselves in a vicious cycle of trying hard only to fall back into sin again. However, we can “obtain” righteousness because God offers it to us as a free gift. He offers us the very righteousness of Jesus Christ and it requires nothing from us but faith in Him alone. It’s never been about what we can do for God. It’s always been about what God does for us. That is grace.

"...even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life." Romans 5:18b

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. " Romans 6:23

Picture for a moment that God is on the top of one mountain and we are on the top of another. We can see across and want desperately to get to God. We try many things to reach Him. We may try good works, sacrifices, and eloquent speech. But no matter what we try, nothing will ever get us across the great valley of sin that separates us from God. Everything we do falls short and we crash to our death at the bottom of the valley.

But God’s grace, extended to us through Jesus Christ by His death on the cross, provides a bridge across that massive valley. We can run across the bridge of grace with boldness into the arms of God. We fall short on our own, but the bridge of grace that God freely provides for us expands all the way from me to Him. And that bridge will never let me fall short again.

Realizing your hopelessness before you knew Christ as your Savior, thank God for the grace He lavished on you. Though you could never earn or deserve it, He freely offered it to you as a gift. Even your acceptance of His gift was prompted by His Holy Spirit’s drawing in your life. He gave you a thirst for Himself and then satisfied your thirst with Himself. He “graciously” gave you the desire and then “graciously” gave you what you desired. He even gave you “grace” for “grace”.