I remember the first time I studied the aspects of God’s grace and found myself amazed that He is not concerned about where we came from but is focused on and committed to where we are going. His purpose in our being under grace in these two thousand years of the Church is founded upon one reason: Our works do not achieve His Salvation in this world. Eph 2:4-10 (GW) But God is rich in mercy because of his great love for us. 5 We were dead because of our failures, but he made us alive together with Christ. (It is God’s kindness that saved you.)
The preceding verse is structured by a religious tenure to support works for the sake of ministry. This has been the theme throughout the Church age, but it is not the theme revealed in Scripture, yet it remains today. God’s kindness, which brings salvation to His creation, is an eminent aspect of His grace. 6 God has brought us back to life together with Christ Jesus and has given us a position in heaven with him. 7 He did this through Christ Jesus out of his generosity to us in order to show his extremely rich kindness in the world to come. 8 God saved you through faith as an act of kindness. You had nothing to do with it. Being saved is a gift from God.
I remember teaching that stated ministry is the be-all and end-all for believers in Christ, meaning if you’re not in ministry, you’re not seen as spiritual or mature in the things of God. And yet, it becomes clear the more you read what the Word says that anyone who gets saved is not by the work of the ministry but by the Spirit of God through their faith in Christ. 9 It’s not the result of anything you’ve done, so no one can brag about it. 10 God has made us what we are. He has created us in Christ Jesus to live lives filled with good works that he has prepared for us to do.
Grace is a divine favor from God that enables Him to provide us with something we could not obtain otherwise. It is His favor when we consider eternity through a salvation plan that He graciously laid upon us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, His Son, who lovingly and willingly died to fulfill it. Every believer should know that through their repentance and acceptance of grace by faith in Jesus Christ, He removed them from the guilt of all past, present, and future sins. One must receive grace to be accountable to the Lord; otherwise, grace will not complete its purpose on one’s behalf.
Many Christians testify that they are saved by Christ’s redemptive work, failing to see how grace plays a part in it coming to pass, simply because they were taught that grace is a favor they do not deserve. On the contrary, grace is the conveyor of all divine works, which He proposed to be present before the foundation of this earth existed. The work of grace in a marriage is not founded on what each does to deserve it, but on a simple truth that says God has favored us, so we are to favor each other. This grace is a gift given to us, but it carries an underlying acceptance of unmerited favor and all that it conveys. It is given as a constant favor that any fault or sin cannot take away, since nothing we did brought it into being in the first place.
Eph 1:3-8 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Grace, Not an Excuse for Sin
The words – Hath chosen us – are not a pretext to grace but a non-condemned statute He entitled us to before sin came about. Humanity in the beginning was destined to be as holy as He is and without any judgment, in love. 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; 8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Some may think that this means we are no longer judged for our sins, but that is not true. Thus, we are under grace that is rich in His forgiveness of our sins. Rom 14:11-13 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. 12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. 13 Let us not therefore judge one another anymore: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way. In the reality of who we are as believers, no one has the right to judge another for their faults or sins, because we are not the original progenitor of grace; God is. Therefore, we are only right in judgment of our own actions and others’ actions that might cause someone to fall or stumble.
Believers have no excuses for not having grace toward our spouses or those of the creation deemed as God’s chosen in Christ. However, the message of grace today seeks to place us in a position of favor, asserting that sinful acts are without further judgment. I prefer to teach married couples that grace is a priority element in marriage because strife and malice always find an opportunity to abound without it. Too often, husbands and wives are not conscious of how much grace means to them on a personal level in the affairs of living out a marriage.
When one gets caught doing something that is unacceptable, they have no excuse for it or for any circumstances resulting from it. Most believers do the same thing: We walk out of our salvation in Christ into the world’s ways, do what we know we should not do, and still expect favor from God even though we know He knows we did it.
Noah found grace in God’s sight but was not perfect, so the question should be: What did he do to get there? Was it because he did what God told him to do and then blessed God for who He was? Gen 6:8-9 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. 9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. I think Noah had no problem building an altar and giving thanks to God after He had just delivered them from a great flood. God’s grace for Noah was not based on his action of building the Ark but on a way of living long before any request to do so was made. Thus, being in God’s favor means living out what He expects from you.
Noah was not the only one who could have built the Ark in a natural sense. Still, he was the only one God saw as living contrary to the evil imaginations and wickedness of heart prevailing in his time, which made the Ark have a spiritual purpose. Gen 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Noah could have chosen to live a life like those who were versed with God before him, but since he was from the lineage of Seth, the third son born to Adam and Eve after Cain was banished for killing Abel. This little truth is significant because Seth’s name is special in Hebrew; it is (tamin) and means perfect, blameless, whole, complete, or full.
Noah was counted as perfect in his generation because he lived according to God’s actions through the eight generations before him: Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Methuselah, Enoch, and Lamech. He chose not to live as those who caused God to repent over His creation of humanity; thus, any favor through a future Christ was accounted to him. Today, grace is primarily viewed as unmerited favor from God, something we did not earn. However, grace to be applied presently must have a clear path through righteousness to be its presenter. Everyone who is a child of God is under grace, even though they were not living a life of perfection in their generation of sin.
John 1:16-17 And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. 17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. This grace and truth came through the sacrifice Jesus made on that cross, removing the account of sin so that righteousness could abound. If anyone lived in sin and darkness after coming to Christ, they would nullify grace, shutting off the promises and blessings that flow because of it, even though they were still righteous in Him.
God’s grace extends to the whole creation, but only those in the body of Christ are to acknowledge and accept it by faith in what Christ has done. Rom 5:15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. Because sin is no longer accounted for when we extend grace to one another, it is not an acceptance of sin but an action through which love is conveyed, rooted in the forgiveness of others, as Christ has also forgiven us of our sins. Spouses holding on to past offenses are not acting in grace through forgiveness.
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