School of the Foundations of the Christian Faith “The Creator and His Creation.” Lesson 7. The Grace of God. The school consists of 22 lessons. The founder of the school is the Christian Bible Institute.
God’s mercy consists in delivering us from the punishment we deserve, while His grace is an expression of His goodness, through which He gives us blessings that we do not deserve at all.
The grace of God is an undeserved gift that He gives to a person.
Both God’s mercy and God’s grace can be expressed only toward people.
God’s mercy can be explained only as an expression of His good will toward a sinful person. At the same time, His grace is impossible to fully understand or explain. The grace of God, in its incomprehensible greatness, surpasses His mercy!
Paul says that grace is a vivid manifestation of God’s might (God’s power) working in believers.
God not only had the power to show mercy to those who deserved punishment and cursing, but He also filled them with tremendous blessings they absolutely did not deserve.
Eph. 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, showed us such great love, Eph. 2:5 that although we were dead because of our transgressions, He made us alive with Christ. You are saved by grace. Eph. 2:6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms, united with Jesus Christ. Eph. 2:7 In this way, He wanted to show in the coming ages the immeasurable riches of His grace, demonstrated to us through Jesus Christ. Eph. 2:8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not your own achievement—it is the gift of God. Eph. 2:9 Not by works, so that no one can boast that they supposedly earned salvation. Eph. 2:10 We are now God's new creation, created in Jesus Christ to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
This biblical text clearly demonstrates the riches of God's grace.
God's grace, more than anything else, should motivate us to worship Him.
The Bible tells us that God's grace helps us worship God; it also helps us become like Jesus Christ; and it directs us toward serving Him.
People who truly know God's grace genuinely want to serve God. For them, it is joyful, engaging, and deeply fulfilling.
What, then, is grace?
1. The Essence of God's Grace
It is the expression of God's good will. Grace originates in God. Grace depends entirely on God—on His desire and His decisions. No one and nothing can force God to show grace. This is its meaning and value!
We are completely unable to earn grace!
Eph. 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, showed us such great love, Eph. 2:5 that although we were dead because of our transgressions, He made us alive with Christ. You are saved by grace
Before these words, in his Letter to the Ephesians, Paul describes the miserable condition of people—they are spiritually dead, they serve the prince of this world, and they are slaves to the desires of the flesh. As a result, they face God's completely deserved wrath, which He will pour out on those who rebel against Him!
There is nothing bright in this picture at all—until the words “But God…” appear.
Light, goodness, and salvation come from God, not from us, because there is nothing good or bright in us. We people have only darkness and rebellion against God within us. There was nothing in us for which God could pour out His gifts of grace upon us!
People living in the modern world often think of human beings as the most important creatures in the universe (this is called anthropocentrism). We are accustomed to seeing certain values and merits in ourselves (at least the fact that we are no worse than others). We are accustomed to saying that we deserve to be treated with respect. Therefore, people often demand that God respect them.
But the Bible clearly says that absolutely every good thing God gives us became possible only because God Himself desired it. No one can force God to show goodness toward us.
In another passage, Paul marvels at God, saying:
Rom. 11:35 “Who has ever given Him anything that He should repay?” Rom. 11:36 For everything comes from Him and through Him, and everything exists for Him. Praise be to Him forever! Amen.
God shows His grace when He saves and blesses those who deserve only death. He does this only because He Himself desires it. This reveals His personality and His nature!
How does the grace of God work in practice?
2. The Work of God's Grace
There are many people who sincerely desire good for others. For example, many people today sincerely want the war in the Middle East to end. But unfortunately, they cannot make this happen. God's grace is not like that. God is powerful and able to do what He has determined in His plan! His grace achieves results! It succeeds!
Paul explains how the work of God's grace is expressed in practice.
Eph. 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, showed us such great love, Eph. 2:5 that although we were dead because of our sins, He made us alive with Christ. You are saved by grace. Eph. 2:6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms, united with Jesus Christ. Eph. 2:7 In this way, He wanted to show in the coming ages the immeasurable riches of His grace, expressed toward us through Jesus Christ.
1. God's Grace Brings Life
Eph. 2:5 made us alive with Christ, even though we were dead because of our transgressions. You are saved by grace.
After humanity’s fall, death entered the world. The Bible says that every person is dead to God, and that everyone will physically die in time. But God, through Jesus Christ, gives people life!
By their sinful nature, people are completely spiritually dead. There is no life in them. They cannot have a relationship with God and cannot be saved.
The fact that people are physically alive constantly confuses them, so they cannot fully understand the horror of their spiritual death. Yet every person also dies physically. Their body ages and decays. They are under the power of death and will die in time!
The problem of every person on earth is that there is nothing in them for which God could give them life.
But look at how the Bible answers this insurmountable problem. It says that God Himself began to act! God the Father sent His Son to earth in human form to give people His life through death on the cross! Jesus Christ is God incarnate in human form. This is what the Bible says about Jesus Christ:
John 1:4 In Him was life, and that life was the Light of humanity.
God, by His grace, gives us the life that was in Christ when we entrust our lives to Him!
2 Tim. 1:9 God saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but for the fulfillment of His purpose and by His grace, given to us through Jesus Christ before the beginning of time. 2 Tim. 1:10 And now this grace has been revealed to us through the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ, who destroyed death and, through the Good News, revealed life and immortality.
2. God’s grace unites us with Christ
The life God gives us by grace does not come by itself. This life does not belong to us and is not our own. It is the life of Jesus Christ. It cannot be received apart from Christ! It can be possessed only through being united with Him by the new birth! A person who receives life from God becomes a servant of Jesus Christ forever and is united with Him forever.
In His grace, God not only delivers us from death and gives us life, but also unites us with Himself forever.
Eph. 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, showed us such great love, Eph. 2:5 that, although we were dead because of our transgressions, He made us alive with Christ. You are saved by grace. Eph. 2:6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms, united with Jesus Christ. Eph. 2:7 In this way, He wanted to show in the coming ages the immeasurable riches of His grace, demonstrated toward us through Jesus Christ.
Imagine that God calls us—sinful and lost people who rebelled against God and resist Him, people living according to their own lusts—to Himself, redeems us, and cleanses us with the blood of Jesus Christ. He not only opens access for us to fellowship with Him but makes us part of Him!
2 Pet. 1:3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of God, who called us by His own glory and goodness. 2 Pet. 1:4 Through them He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
3. God’s grace gives us a glorious inheritance in heaven
Everything God has prepared in heaven for His Son now belongs to those who, by God’s grace, have become children of God.
Eph. 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, showed us such great love, Eph. 2:5 that, although we were dead because of our transgressions, He made us alive with Christ. You are saved by grace. Eph. 2:6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms, united with Jesus Christ. Eph. 2:7 In this way, He wanted to show in the coming ages the immeasurable riches of His grace, demonstrated toward us through Jesus Christ.
Let us now see how the apostle Paul presents grace to us—
Eph. 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. Eph. 1:4 For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him. In His love, Eph. 1:5 according to His good pleasure and will, He predestined us through Jesus Christ to be adopted as His children. Eph. 1:6 In this, all the glory of His grace is revealed, which He has given us in the Beloved. Eph. 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood and the forgiveness of sins according to His boundless grace
Let us now look at the fruits that grace produces in our practical daily lives.
3. The Fruits of God’s Grace
God has arranged things so that a person who has received salvation can experience His blessings in practical ways in their life today.
Eph. 2:8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not your own achievement—it is the gift of God. Eph. 2:9 Not by works, so that no one can boast that they supposedly earned salvation. Eph. 2:10 We are now God’s new creation, created in Jesus Christ to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
First, the fruit of God’s grace is that a person who receives it and lives by it has no opportunity to boast in themselves.
1. Grace Takes Away Our Ability to Boast in Ourselves
Salvation by grace takes away any opportunity for a person to be proud of himself. It removes the foundation from under human self-importance. Salvation by grace says that a person has absolutely nothing to boast about. Everything good in his life is a gift from God, which God gave him entirely undeservedly!
Scripture often speaks about this:
1 Cor. 1:28 He chose what is lowly and despised, what in the world has no value, to bring to nothing what is considered important, 1 Cor. 1:29 so that no one may boast before Him. 1 Cor. 1:30 Because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us the wisdom of God, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. 1 Cor. 1:31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
Grace is precisely what helps a person become truly grateful. A person who lives by grace always realizes and understands that absolutely everything he has has been given to him by God's grace. We do not deserve it, and therefore all the glory for the good in our lives belongs only to God, and to Him alone.
1 Cor. 4:7 For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive from God? And if you received it, why do you boast as though it were not given to you?
Grace helps us see and understand God.
Many people cannot understand God's sovereignty simply because they do not know God's grace and do not live by it! Such people continue to think about their merits and worthiness. Therefore, they continue to invent a god for themselves who must take their merits into account. But in reality, as we have already said, the Bible teaches that a person has no merits and cannot have any.
2. Grace Makes Us God's Co-Workers
First, grace takes away a person's self-confidence and presumption; then it fills his life with true meaning and makes him able to bear genuine fruit in his life.
Eph. 2:8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not your own achievement—it is the gift of God. Eph. 2:9 Not by works, so that no one can boast that they supposedly earned salvation. Eph. 2:10 We are now God’s new creation, created in Jesus Christ to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Only a person saved by God's grace, who knows grace and lives by it, can become a true co-worker in God's work on earth! Such a person can truly become a participant in God's plan.
Notice that for a person to become fit for good works, he must first be deprived of every opportunity to boast in himself.
Paul is speaking here not simply about some works of God, but about the works God prepared for us to do—works that, according to God’s plan, will bring success and results.
God is building the Church on earth! This is the main work He is doing on earth. Therefore, a person who becomes God’s co-worker strives to do what God is doing! The Church is very important to such a person. God’s will is very important to them.
This gives a person the strength and ability to grow in practical holiness. It is grace that enables them to become a mature Christian. Living by God’s grace gives a person the ability to rejoice always, despite all difficulties and trials!
1 Cor. 15:9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. 1 Cor. 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain: I labored more than all the others, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
Review Questions
- What is grace?
- How is grace manifested?
- Why did God send His Son to earth?
- Can a person be saved from God’s wrath by living correctly?
- What is the problem with people who boast before God about their merits?
- What is the responsibility of a person saved by grace?
Source: Christian Bible Institute
