Grace is a free gift like when your parents bought you a new car that you needed to replace that old unsafe broken down heap. You didnt deserve it, you couldnt afford it, they gave you the car so you would have a reliable transportation. So would it make sense if you accepted the gift and then kept driving the broken down hell on wheels that couldnt get you to your destination. Has their purpose of getting you there come true, no because you didnt use the gift they gave you. You have to let go of the old car and drive the new car with new parts in order to accept their gift of reliable transportation and make your destination, so it is with grace.
Many Christians have been deceived into believing that grace is a doctrine of forgiveness that has no moral conditions attached, and nothing more. There are many who consider themselves christian or sit in church pews today who will hear; "I never knew you: depart from me..." Why? Because the people have forgotten that God is holy. God has been blottted out and replaced with a false worship and doctrine that the sinner is who defines sin not God or his laws and many now follow a false spirit that tells them sin is alright and they dont have to repent or turn from sin as they will get a pass to eternal life even with a unchanged heart full of sin. This is why Jesus plainly states that those with iniquity will be turned away: Luke 7:21-23 "21Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Many now vainly believe in salvation without holiness, that worship without godliness is acceptable, and that indifference to the divine truths in God's word is permissible. That is why Christ will say to many " I knew you not" as they are unrepentant and unbelieving. Sinners need first to know they need a Saviour with his gift of grace or they will not have a reason to give up sin and be drawn to accept a Saviour.
In the book of Romans Paul preached the law as a preparation for receiving Christ. The doctrine of righteousness by faith is only properly presented when it is joined to the biblical doctrine of judgment. People need to be told that the "wrath of God [will soon be] revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." (Romans 1:17,18)
The sinner who says the binding claims of the Law of God are discarded, misunderstands Christ's mission. It was the apostle Paul himself who wrote, "For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified." (Romans 2:13) If it is true that no one is saved by their good works it is equally true that no one is saved in sin still loving and holding on to it. Many who profess to be followers of Christ have forgotten this.
What is grace? Let's go to our Bibles for an answer. Lets look at Titus 2:11-14:
The very first thing that this grace teaches us is to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. Revelation 21:27 assures us that nothing that defiles or makes a lie will enter into heaven. Thus it is immediately made certain that unrepented sin will not enter heaven and no one who follows a false spirit or false gospel that allows sin will enter heaven. Many will be deceived by false and deceiving spirits that teach a false gospel that teach them this lie, that no change from sin is needed in our lives or our hearts. The true gospel intimately impacts how we live and our hearts and mind.
The grace of God is the process which brings salvation. But it is not salvation within itself, but it covers sin so a change can occur in the hearts and minds by the Holy Spirit. The grace of God is a quality of God, a description of the mercy of His character. It is sent out in search of us. We do not deserve it or merit it, but it has been sent out in search of us since God is trying to bring salvation to us. Grace is that quality of who our heavenly Father is that makes salvation available to us. It encompasses His mercy and His attributes. But grace does not equal salvation. Salvation depends on the total application of grace to us.
Through grace God wants to bring us salvation. That salvation means that we will live differently. We will deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. There is a way that we should live under grace, and that is "soberly, righteously, and godly." People want to talk about God's "extravagant grace;" they want to emphasize the quantity of it; but He wants to emphasize the quality of it. And so He says that when, through grace, salvation is occurring in your life, your life will be one bearing the qualities of sobriety, righteousness, and godliness.
Those are qualities of the actual grace that brings actual salvation. If you have grace, you will be awake and clear-headed. If you have grace, your life will be a vivacious orchestra of righteous actions. If you have grace, your life will be a pungent expression of godliness cutting its way through the darkness engulfing the world.
These aren't false gospel substitute which says you can continue with your sinful lifestye and have eternal life even with unrepented sin; they are the real changes from the Holy Spirit that fills our hearts and minds so that sin loses its hold over us.
When they print the horsepower or gas mileage for new cars a lot of car enthusiast notice that "performance always lags" from what is posted. They feel that they can never achived what is listed in the specs and this "performance lag" is what to always expect. But when it comes to God, performance doesn't always lag. Enoch walked with God, and the Father took Him home to heaven. Was Enoch's experience lagging? Not at all. And of course, we would all agree that Jesus' experience was never lagging. Jesus shows us clearly that experience does not always lag.
So when does our verse say that this sober, righteous, godly salvation experience is supposed to occur? "In this present world," or some translations have it, "in this present age." We learn in the text that we were redeemed not so that continue in our sin or so "our performance could lag", but "that He might redeem us from all iniquity." Now, iniquity is sin. Jesus has bought us back from sin. Sin doesn't own us anymore. He bought us back to "purify" a special kind of people to Himself, a people zealous for God that bear fruits of the Spirit. Grace -- real grace -- means real Christians, changed people, people moving away from sin, people who are being changed by the Holy Spirit.
Grace is not about a spiritual tally of sin, but Christs open invitation to let him come into your heart to cleanse it. Letting him in is grace, letting him cleanse your heart brings salvation. Grace is real. Grace brings salvation. Salvation is real. Salvation showcases grace.
The grace of God that brings salvation is supposed to be on bold display in our lives. But the Evil one is afraid that we will catch hold of what grace means and then live it before a world in moral-meltdown.
Real grace means release from bondage. We are to walk in newness of life. "If we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection" says Romans 6:5. If we will do just as Jesus did -- if we will lay hold upon the power of the Father, of our own selves doing nothing (John 5:30), yet in fact doing what we see the Father do (John 5:19) empowered by grace, we will not serve sin any longer. We'll recognize, as we are shown in Romans 6:6 that "our old man is crucified with Him" when we lay hold of grace. The power of our fallen nature combined with our habit-patterns of sin -- the wicked characters that we have become -- will be broken and reshaped and renewed as we call to Him for power and stop serving sin.
So this is True Grace, Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ:
1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
When we accept Christ as our personal Savior, we are joined with Him -- joined in His death and joined in His resurrection. He was made to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. The glory are all His; the shame of the sin and wickedness we have done are ours. He stepped between us and the ultimate wages of sin, received our penalty, empowered us to live differently, and handed us His salvation.
Paul then makes clear in Romans 6:14-15 just where he was going on what is grace. He shows us the understanding of truth of what it meand that we are not under the law, but under grace:
1 John 3:4
Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
We are under grace. Grace makes obedience to the law possible and real. So what shall we say then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Many Christians have been deceived into believing that grace is a doctrine of forgiveness that has no moral conditions attached, and nothing more. There are many who consider themselves christian or sit in church pews today who will hear; "I never knew you: depart from me..." Why? Because the people have forgotten that God is holy. God has been blottted out and replaced with a false worship and doctrine that the sinner is who defines sin not God or his laws and many now follow a false spirit that tells them sin is alright and they dont have to repent or turn from sin as they will get a pass to eternal life even with a unchanged heart full of sin. This is why Jesus plainly states that those with iniquity will be turned away: Luke 7:21-23 "21Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Many now vainly believe in salvation without holiness, that worship without godliness is acceptable, and that indifference to the divine truths in God's word is permissible. That is why Christ will say to many " I knew you not" as they are unrepentant and unbelieving. Sinners need first to know they need a Saviour with his gift of grace or they will not have a reason to give up sin and be drawn to accept a Saviour.
In the book of Romans Paul preached the law as a preparation for receiving Christ. The doctrine of righteousness by faith is only properly presented when it is joined to the biblical doctrine of judgment. People need to be told that the "wrath of God [will soon be] revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." (Romans 1:17,18)
The sinner who says the binding claims of the Law of God are discarded, misunderstands Christ's mission. It was the apostle Paul himself who wrote, "For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified." (Romans 2:13) If it is true that no one is saved by their good works it is equally true that no one is saved in sin still loving and holding on to it. Many who profess to be followers of Christ have forgotten this.
What is grace? Let's go to our Bibles for an answer. Lets look at Titus 2:11-14:
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Grace involves how we live, what we are changed from, and what we are changed to. Grace involves salvation. In Titus two, Paul is discussing behavior, and in the ninth verse he points out that it is because "the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men" that we will live differently. The very first thing that this grace teaches us is to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. Revelation 21:27 assures us that nothing that defiles or makes a lie will enter into heaven. Thus it is immediately made certain that unrepented sin will not enter heaven and no one who follows a false spirit or false gospel that allows sin will enter heaven. Many will be deceived by false and deceiving spirits that teach a false gospel that teach them this lie, that no change from sin is needed in our lives or our hearts. The true gospel intimately impacts how we live and our hearts and mind.
The grace of God is the process which brings salvation. But it is not salvation within itself, but it covers sin so a change can occur in the hearts and minds by the Holy Spirit. The grace of God is a quality of God, a description of the mercy of His character. It is sent out in search of us. We do not deserve it or merit it, but it has been sent out in search of us since God is trying to bring salvation to us. Grace is that quality of who our heavenly Father is that makes salvation available to us. It encompasses His mercy and His attributes. But grace does not equal salvation. Salvation depends on the total application of grace to us.
Through grace God wants to bring us salvation. That salvation means that we will live differently. We will deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. There is a way that we should live under grace, and that is "soberly, righteously, and godly." People want to talk about God's "extravagant grace;" they want to emphasize the quantity of it; but He wants to emphasize the quality of it. And so He says that when, through grace, salvation is occurring in your life, your life will be one bearing the qualities of sobriety, righteousness, and godliness.
Those are qualities of the actual grace that brings actual salvation. If you have grace, you will be awake and clear-headed. If you have grace, your life will be a vivacious orchestra of righteous actions. If you have grace, your life will be a pungent expression of godliness cutting its way through the darkness engulfing the world.
These aren't false gospel substitute which says you can continue with your sinful lifestye and have eternal life even with unrepented sin; they are the real changes from the Holy Spirit that fills our hearts and minds so that sin loses its hold over us.
When they print the horsepower or gas mileage for new cars a lot of car enthusiast notice that "performance always lags" from what is posted. They feel that they can never achived what is listed in the specs and this "performance lag" is what to always expect. But when it comes to God, performance doesn't always lag. Enoch walked with God, and the Father took Him home to heaven. Was Enoch's experience lagging? Not at all. And of course, we would all agree that Jesus' experience was never lagging. Jesus shows us clearly that experience does not always lag.
So when does our verse say that this sober, righteous, godly salvation experience is supposed to occur? "In this present world," or some translations have it, "in this present age." We learn in the text that we were redeemed not so that continue in our sin or so "our performance could lag", but "that He might redeem us from all iniquity." Now, iniquity is sin. Jesus has bought us back from sin. Sin doesn't own us anymore. He bought us back to "purify" a special kind of people to Himself, a people zealous for God that bear fruits of the Spirit. Grace -- real grace -- means real Christians, changed people, people moving away from sin, people who are being changed by the Holy Spirit.
Grace is not about a spiritual tally of sin, but Christs open invitation to let him come into your heart to cleanse it. Letting him in is grace, letting him cleanse your heart brings salvation. Grace is real. Grace brings salvation. Salvation is real. Salvation showcases grace.
The grace of God that brings salvation is supposed to be on bold display in our lives. But the Evil one is afraid that we will catch hold of what grace means and then live it before a world in moral-meltdown.
Real grace means release from bondage. We are to walk in newness of life. "If we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection" says Romans 6:5. If we will do just as Jesus did -- if we will lay hold upon the power of the Father, of our own selves doing nothing (John 5:30), yet in fact doing what we see the Father do (John 5:19) empowered by grace, we will not serve sin any longer. We'll recognize, as we are shown in Romans 6:6 that "our old man is crucified with Him" when we lay hold of grace. The power of our fallen nature combined with our habit-patterns of sin -- the wicked characters that we have become -- will be broken and reshaped and renewed as we call to Him for power and stop serving sin.
So this is True Grace, Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ:
1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
When we accept Christ as our personal Savior, we are joined with Him -- joined in His death and joined in His resurrection. He was made to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. The glory are all His; the shame of the sin and wickedness we have done are ours. He stepped between us and the ultimate wages of sin, received our penalty, empowered us to live differently, and handed us His salvation.
Paul then makes clear in Romans 6:14-15 just where he was going on what is grace. He shows us the understanding of truth of what it meand that we are not under the law, but under grace:
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Remember, the problem is not the law, it is the dominion of sin. Jesus came to save from sin (Matthew 1:21), not from the law. The Law is the divine standard which defines sin:1 John 3:4
Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
We are under grace. Grace makes obedience to the law possible and real. So what shall we say then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.