Understanding Grace

I want to move on to talk about grace in this message, but I’d like to start by reviewing a few of the most important things that we’ve already said about law. We’ve seen that a law is a constant truth or reality, that never changes, and that demands obedience or conformity whenever it acts upon something else. This is true of all kinds of laws, whether we are talking about outward written laws, natural laws (like gravity) or spiritual laws, like the law of sin and death, or the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. 

We’ve talked about how, in the beginning, there was no need for any outward or written law, because the life, power, nature, and will of God was operating like a law in all of creation, as long as creation remained in submission to Him. It was only when man stepped out of this happy submission, and transgressed the nature and power and righteousness of God that an outward law was added. It was added because of transgression until the Seed would come, whose coming is both outward and inward. 

And we saw that the problem with this outward law, given to man in words, commandments and requirements, was that it could not give or impart what it described. It described righteousness, but did not give the life of righteousness, and in this way it was weak and unable to “make perfect” those who lived by it or under it. But what this law could do, and what it HAD to do by its very nature, was point out every way that the natural man fell short of the purity and perfection and expectation of his Creator. The law was holy, just and good, but it worked as a ministry of condemnation to the transgressing nature, exposing and condemning everything in man that was contrary to the nature and will of God.  

And lastly, we saw that, though this is a very unhappy and unfortunate relationship between the law of God and the sinful nature of fallen man, it is compared to a permanent marriage that cannot be ended apart from death. The law doesn’t die, it continues to describe and require the righteousness of God. But what can die, and what must die by the cross of Jesus Christ, is the sinful nature of flesh, or the old man, so that the soul can be joined to the One who was raised from the dead, and so bring forth fruit in righteousness. And in this way, the law is never abolished, changed, forgotten, or repealed. It is rather fulfilled by the righteousness of Christ living and reigning IN those who walk by and in His Spirit. 

And so now, having understood these things concerning the law, we are in a good position to begin to talk about the gift of God’s grace. Because grace is the coming of what the law could not do. Grace is powerful where the law was weak, and unlike the law, grace IS able to perfect those who draw near to God. And it is of the utmost importance that every Christian rightly understands and experiences this incredible gift. I say rightly, because the enemy has filled this world with lies about the grace of God, several of which were already becoming popular in the days of the first apostles.

What is grace? Most Christians associate the word grace with a free gift from God. When I was young, I remember hearing somebody try to define the words grace and mercy by saying, “Grace is when you get something you don’t deserve, and mercy is when you don’t get something that you do deserve.” I think at the time I thought that was a rather profound statement. But as accurate as it may be, this definition doesn’t tell us anything about what grace actually is. It only says that we don’t deserve it… whatever it is. People often say, “Grace is a free gift!” Ok, but a free gift of what? How do you experience it? What does it do? 

There are many who speak of grace as though it has to do with the removal of a law for righteousness, saying things like, “Under the law there were strict requirements and fixed rules for righteousness, but now Christ’s death and resurrection has taken all of that away and given us grace.” These speak of being “under grace” (Rom 6:14) as though it were some sort of new status or legal position with God where He has removed all sin (past, present and future), or where He doesn’t see sin, or at least is far less concerned with it than he was in the days of the Old Covenant. But all of this is a terrible mistake. We have already seen in this series that Christ said, “Not one jot or one tittle will by any means pass from the law till all is fulfilled;” and that Paul said, “The law has dominion over a man as long as he lives.” Grace doesn’t remove the law, it fulfills it. Grace doesn’t kill the law, it crucifies the flesh that is condemned by it.

So again I ask, what is grace? If you look up every occurrence of the word grace in the New Testament (something that I encourage everybody to do, there are about 130 of them), I believe you will see very clearly that the word grace has to do with the power of God freely offered to man and working in man. Grace, in a very general definition, is the effective working of God’s power. Now, in the great majority of the verses in the New Testament the word grace refers to God’s power COMING in a very particular way, and DOING a very specific thing in the heart of man. But it is always connected with the effective working of God’s power in and upon man. It is not a new status. It is not a legal position. It has nothing to do with God putting away His righteous requirement, or reconciling Himself with sin, or with man in sin. All of this is pure invention. Grace is the living power of God working in man. 

And this is why, when speaking of the child Jesus, Luke 2:40 says, “And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.” Could this possibly mean that a new legal status was upon Jesus? Or that God was overlooking Jesus’s sins by grace? Of course not. The living power of God, the effective working of God’s might was upon the incarnate Son of God. Or in Acts 4:33, “And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.” What could this mean but that the power of God was manifestly present with them all?

So let’s turn to the first chapter of John, verses 14-17.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’” And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

John says the law was given through Moses. Once again, what was that law? It was the description and requirement of righteousness that came upon men because of transgression. And though it was holy, just, and good, it was nevertheless weak and unprofitable because it could not GIVE the nature that it described. “The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” What then is grace? Grace is not a description of righteousness in words, and it certainly is not the removal of God’s requirement of righteousness. Grace is the POWER of righteousness, the life of righteousness, the Substance and Person of righteousness given to live and reign in the soul of man. 

Remember Paul’s words: “If there had been a law which could have GIVEN LIFE, then righteousness would have been by the law.” Well, we have seen that the written law could not give life, and for that reason it was weak. But GRACE can give life. Grace DOES give life. This is what grace is. It is a gift or measure of the life and power of the One who is righteousness. 

We also saw how Paul said the law was added because of transgressions, until the Seed should come to whom the promise was made. The law pointed to the life, nature and righteousness of Christ, it showed the need for Christ, it was a tutor to lead us to Christ. And the coming, giving, sowing of this Seed is called grace. Christ the Seed came outwardly, and He also comes inwardly. Or maybe it is more accurate to say that this Seed came outwardly SO THAT He could come inwardly. And His powerful coming and working, both outwardly and inwardly, is called the grace of God. 

I believe the fact that Paul uses the word Seed in Galatians to refer to Christ (“…until the Seed should come”) is significant for several reasons. One reason is no doubt because it speaks of Christ as the beginning of a spiritual lineage, or birth, or family. But the word also brings to mind the images of planting, growing, and fruit-bearing that are often used by Christ to describe His kingdom in man. 

So again, the FIRST thing that we need to understand about grace is that it is the power of God, the effective working of His life and light, which is given to man, and which works in man what the written law could not do. It is a gift of God’s power, or the working of His life, light, and Spirit, which comes from the One who is full of grace and truth. “Of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.”

And now, the SECOND thing that we need to understand about grace has to do with how it comes to man, or how man experiences it. This is also a subject of great confusion today. How is it that man experiences the effective working of God’s power? Well, it can certainly have various manifestations. As we saw in Acts the word grace can be used to describe a visible working of God’s power in signs and miracles; or as we saw in Luke, it can refer to the power of God secretly working in Jesus when He was a child. However, I think it is correct to say that the gift of grace, or the effective working of God’s power, is generally experienced to be something like a heavenly SEED. In other words, the experience of grace begins as something small in the heart, though it has the potential and the purpose of reigning over all. You could say that it starts like Joseph sold into Egypt, or like David when he was watching his father’s sheep, or like Jesus when He was born in a manger. It is the very power of God, a gift of His light, life, and Spirit, but it begins in the heart as a seed of life that must arise out from death, in order to grow, fill, overcome, and reign.

This heavenly gift has many names, illustrations, and descriptions throughout Scripture, not because it is complicated, but because it does so much in man to bring about the redemptive work of God, and because no single name or figure can capture all that it is or does. It is called a seed, or a grain of mustard seed because it is alive, grows, and produces an increase of its kind; and also because it needs to be received and protected in good soil. Throughout the New Testament it is called a living Word (or the “implanted Word,” or “the Word of faith,” “the Word of His grace,” “the Word of life,” “the living and active Word.” etc.) because it perfectly communicates or reveals the mind, purpose, and knowledge of God, and because we can only hear it with circumcised ears. It is called a talent or a mina because we need to handle or manage it as our greatest treasure, seeking its increase and not burying it in our earth; and then we will find that it multiplies and pleases our Master. It is compared to leaven because it spreads, fills, and changes all parts of man, all three measures of dough. It is called a costly pearl or a hidden treasure because of its great value, and because it is extremely difficult to find or to buy when man clings to self and the things of this world. It is compared to heavenly bread or manna, because it must be taken and eaten, and must become the true inward food of every day, etc. All of these names or pictures (and there are many more) speak of the same GIFT of God that is offered to man in his fallen condition, which (as James says) “is ABLE to save your souls.” 

So then, grace is the effective working of God’s power, a gift of His light, life, Word, or Spirit, and in order to accomplish its redemptive work, it appears in man as something like a small seed that needs to increase, fill, overcome, and reign. You see, every other working of God’s power, every sort of outward miracle, or act of kindness, bodily healing, outward provision, or anything else that God’s power could do for man, would fall short of resolving his problem if it did not produce in him the birth, growth, and victory of the life of God in the soul of man. The fall of man was not a loss of outward things. I mean, it was not just a loss of bodily health, outward comforts, super powers, or a physical garden of Eden. The fall of man was a loss of the life and light and Spirit of God. It was a death to all goodness, an actual death to the life of God. And therefore the restoration of man, the redemption of man, the salvation of man, can be nothing less than the birth, growth, and victorious dominion of the life of God in the soul of man. 

This is what grace must accomplish. And this is why the effective working of God’s power is given to man. Grace is not primarily for fixing outward problems and removing outward difficulties. And grace should not be limited to the forgiveness of sins. Grace, the working of God’s power, comes to man with a specific purpose, to deal with a specific problem, and to bring about a specific result. Grace is given so that the soul can SEE it’s lost condition in true light, TURN from sin and self in the power that comes from grace, be BORN of God’s heavenly Spirit, born from above, and then “GROW in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” until Christ is formed in us. This is the work of grace. This is what grace needs to do.

All of today’s popular misconceptions about grace fall incredibly short of both identifying the problem and understanding the solution. Fallen man does not need a grace that winks at selfishness, pride and worldliness, and provides a way to live in sin without fear of punishment. What would that accomplish? Can we really call such an idea the grace of God? Fallen man does not need a way to throw off the righteous requirements of the law, or to find a legal contract where all sin past, present, and future is forgiven. Think about it; what would this accomplish for a man who is dead, blind, dirty, and alienated from God and all goodness? Forgiven flesh is still flesh. Man does not need an outward grace that uses God’s power for economic prosperity, physical beauty, success and health and influence in the passing shadows of a fallen creation. 

No. In his fallen condition man is alive in the flesh and dead to God. He is blind to all life and goodness, powerless to do good, powerless to help himself, he is enmity with God, unable to know the things of the Spirit, unable to return to the Tree of Life. And without a grace or power from God that actually changes what man is, raises him up in another life and nature, there is no hope. 

And now behold the incredible grace of God! Behold the gospel of God’s grace! What is that gospel of grace? It is the truth, the reality, the miracle, that God has provided such a power, a living seed or gift of His own light, life, or Spirit, that can change man’s condition, and change man’s eternity, by changing his nature. It is a gift of the life of God that, when not resisted, can effectively bring about the birth, and growth, and the reign of the righteous life of God in the soul of man.

This is the gospel of God’s grace. And if you look anywhere else besides THIS grace, you look in vain for a solution to man’s problem. I mean, if you look anywhere besides this implanted power, this heavenly Seed, then you look to something that cannot help you. Because again, what man needs is power from on high. He needs a heavenly light that will let him see his condition, that he is alive in a nature that is dead to God. He needs a power that will enable him to turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to the power of God. He needs the life of God to generate a birth in his soul, one that is “not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the Word of God which lives and abides forever.” And grace does not stop there. Birth is a beginning and not an end. This new life also receives power to increase, and overcome, and save from every other plant in the garden of man’s heart.

THIS is the grace that man needs. And this is why Paul says that he was disturbed and surprised that the Galatians were “turning away from Him who called them in the grace of Christ to a different gospel,” and then severely warns that anyone who offers another gospel besides this grace is accursed or “anathema.” Christians of our day are familiar with this verse, and frequently quote it, but they have changed the definition of grace. They say with Paul that there is no other gospel but the gospel of grace, but then they redefine grace in such a way that it has nothing to do with a heavenly power that changes the nature of man, overcomes sin, and brings about a new creation. They say that all is grace, and that grace is amazing, but then they preach that the greatness of grace is the fact that God won’t punish for sin, or that man is free to live his life without the hindrance of the old covenant law. 

But it must be said that these teachers of grace have not been taught by grace, for they clearly show themselves to be unfamiliar with its power, and entirely ignorant of its teaching. 

And this is perhaps a THIRD thing that we need to understand about grace: Grace is a teacher. Grace doesn’t sit there and do nothing like a legal contract, or like a big umbrella under which we can remain in the flesh without fear of consequences. No, grace is a living thing, because it comes from a living God. And because it is alive, a living gift or measure of the light, and life, and power of God, its presence and influence in the heart always teaches to turn away from all that is contrary to God, and to look for, long for, pray for, and wait for the appearing and increase of all that He brings. This is precisely what Paul tells us in Titus 2:11-13:

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Grace is a teacher because it is the effective working of God’s power in the heart. First it grants light in the heart to divide between the living and the dead, between good and evil, Spirit and flesh, Adam and Christ; and then (when that light is loved and not hated, believed and not rejected) it grants power to turn from the one and to cling to the other. I repeat: light shines, and when light is loved, power is experienced. This is not man’s power, or any power from the fallen creation. This is the power of God shining and working and teaching in the heart. Some people say that grace excuses ungodliness and winks at worldly lusts. But Paul says grace teaches to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, to turn away from, flee from, and resist everything that wages war and hinders the growth of the seed of God. And not only this, but grace teaches to look for, reach for, long for, and expect the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ in the temple of the heart. “Speak these things,” Paul says to Titus, “exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.”

And is this not what every sincere man and woman finds and feels working in their own heart? Does not every honest believer have a witness inside him that these things are true? Not everybody experiences miracles in their body, or acts of power in the outward creation. But are we not all made, at certain times and seasons, to face and to feel that in ourselves dwells no good thing? That we are, by nature, dark, dead, vile, empty, and embarrassed to let others know what is transpiring in our own mind and heart? And yet, don’t we all find that a light visits us in this condition, shines in the midst of our darkness, exposes things that we don’t want to see, and calls us out from them? Who has not felt some ability given to them to see a distinction between the evil of their nature, and the goodness of purity of God? Who has not felt that good and evil, life and death have been set before them, and that a voice has warned them saying, “choose life!”? Where does this come from? Who is this teacher? This teacher is the grace of God.

And this teacher will never teach you anything that contradicts the nature of God, or His testimony in the Scriptures. For instance, it will never teach you that God is unwilling or unable to overcome the work of the devil in the heart of man, in this life. This is a common teaching of man, but it is not the teaching of grace. It will never teach you that it is OK to share the land of your heart with the uncircumcised Philistines and Amorites, that is to say, the fleshly transgressing nature. Such an idea never entered into the mind of God nor the testimony of Scripture. Grace will never teach you that God grants peace, blessing, and prosperity in the outward man, even while the inward man is an enemy to the cross, whose god is his appetite, and who sets its mind on earthly things. No, grace is a good teacher, and it both teaches the truth of God, and empowers man to live it.