God's Gift of Grace by Life, Hope & Truth

God’s Gift of

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Author: Kendrick Diaz

Doctrinal Reviewers: John Foster, Bruce Gore, Peter Hawkins, Don Henson, Doug Johnson, Chad Messerly, Larry Neff

Design: Elena Salyer

5 Introduction: The Case for Grace A Biblical Definition

Grace Saves

Sidebar: How Animal Sacrifices Under the Old Covenant Foreshadowed Grace

Sidebar: God’s Gracious Calling

Undeserved Does Not Mean Unconditional

Sidebar: What the Story of Jesus and the Woman Caught in Adultery

Teaches Us About Grace

Paul on Grace

Sidebar: What Does It Mean to Be Under Grace and Not Under Law?

The Case for Grace Introduction

Most of us, when we look into the mirror, don’t see an evil monster. More often than not, we see a well-intentioned, decent person who has faults but is nowhere near as bad as some other people.

At least that’s what we tell ourselves. After all, we’re not Stalin or Hitler. They were evil, we say.

But how would our opinions about ourselves change if we used a different standard—the standard of God’s law? For instance, what if we considered whether we write down hours we didn’t work, lie on occasion, get irrationally angry and call someone hateful names, obsess over products we see in a store window or Instagram ad, or entertain lustful thoughts about a person of the opposite sex?

Those are just five behaviors that illustrate breaking the letter and spirit of God’s law, which forbids theft, bearing false witness, murder, covetousness and adultery (Exodus 20:1-17; Matthew 5:20-30).

Practicing just one of these is enough to be considered evil in God’s eyes, and we all likely have done a combination of such things more times than we can count.

Are we really as good as we think we are?

The universal need for grace

The one thing nearly everyone gets right about grace is that we all need it.

David, under divine inspiration, wrote, “The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one” (Psalm 14:2-3).

He wasn’t saying that no one has ever done something righteous. He was drawing our attention to a deeper truth about who we are when measured against God’s perfect standards: we are all sinners.

The Bible is clear on the fate of sinners. From Genesis to Revelation, the warning is consistent: “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

We can’t outrun sin, shake it off or balance it out with good deeds. All sin will result in condemnation—and as Moses warned the Israelites, “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23).

The only way out is through God’s forgiveness. To be saved from sin’s eternal consequences, we need to come under God’s grace.

Clearing the confusion

Maybe this isn’t news to you.

Maybe you have already thought this through, realized your need for a Savior, taken action and now live under grace.

Maybe. But don’t be too sure.

What were you taught about grace? Does it align with the Bible, or is it rooted in human traditions?

While virtually all churches preach the need for grace, their answers to many of the important related questions are either unclear or downright unscriptural.

What do you need to do to receive grace? Can you lose grace? Is it related only to the forgiveness of sin? Does grace replace law? Can everyone receive grace now?

We will answer these questions and more throughout this resource.

For too long, grace has been mystified or reduced to a cliché, leaving many confused or with only a superficial understanding of what it means. Millions of people sing its praises in hymns like “Amazing Grace,” but would struggle to give a concrete definition if asked.

If we want grace—and it’s evident that we should—then correctly understanding it is essential.

That’s why we’ve prepared this publication—to help demystify grace and bring clarity to what it is and isn’t.

Finding hope in God’s grace

The reality is, a good mirror can be brutal, exposing our flaws and shortcomings in uncompromising light. But the upside is, our God sits on a “throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16).

The point of taking an unflinching look in the mirror isn’t to pummel ourselves endlessly with guilt and shame. It’s about recognizing that our only hope for a change comes from the fact that God rules with kindness and understanding.

The grace God offers transforms how we view our relationship with Him, and it’s the key to understanding how God will give us a future brighter than words can convey.

A Biblical Definition 1

Sola gratia, meaning “grace alone,” served as a rallying cry in the early 16th century during the Protestant Reformation. It proclaimed that salvation comes only through grace, a revolutionary idea at a time when the Roman Catholic Church dictated sacraments, pilgrimages, indulgences and other “works” as necessary for salvation.

The Protestant reformers correctly took exception to the Catholic Church’s position, but unfortunately their interpretation of grace went beyond what Jesus and His apostles believed and taught.

Their “rediscovery” of the apostolic message on grace was mixed with personal theological conclusions—leading to doctrines like the Calvinist concept of predestination (God’s unconditional promise of salvation for some and not for others) and justification by faith alone.

Grace morphed into a theological “superword”—a catch-all term for the complex and nuanced teachings of Reformation theology.

Many of those views enjoy near-sacred status within the Protestant community and remain largely unchallenged to this day.

Because grace is essential to salvation, and misconceptions can have serious consequences, we should search the Scriptures and test modern notions of grace.

We need a biblical definition.

By examining how grace is used in the Bible, we can clear up the confusion and arrive at a clear, straightforward understanding of what grace is and what it entails.

Two important terms to know

Understanding what grace means in the Bible starts with unpacking the Hebrew word for it, ḥ ēn. While ḥ ēn can describe anything beautiful to see or hear, it usually refers to the unexpectedly positive treatment someone receives, especially from someone of higher rank and status.

According to The Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament, the word ḥ ēn suggests “a sense of acceptance and preference” and “some special standing or privilege with God or people” (Warren Baker and Eugene Carpenter, 2003, p. 354). This explains why English Bibles often translate ḥ ēn as favor. Even though “grace” and “favor” are interchangeable, “favor” offers the simpler, more direct understanding of ḥ ēn .

Take, for instance, a moment in Ruth’s story. When Boaz, a wealthy landowner, generously allowed her extra privileges while she gleaned grain in his field, she was grateful and asked, “Why have I found favor [ḥēn] in your eyes?” (Ruth 2:10). Here, a person of higher status (Boaz) treated a person of lower status (Ruth) with more kindness than was required.

This is ḥēn in action.

The Hebrew concept of ḥēn carries into the New Testament with the Greek word charis. Defined as “favor, goodwill, benevolence” (Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament, 1992, p. 1469), charis is essentially the New Testament equivalent of ḥēn. In fact, the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament, consistently uses charis for ḥēn, highlighting the close connection of these words. It’s also interesting to note that charis emphasizes the character of the giver rather than the gift itself or the recipient.

An instance of charis appears early in the story of Mary. When an angel visits the soon-to-be mother of Jesus, he proclaims the coming miraculous conception. “Do not be afraid,” the angel assures her, “for you have found favor [charis] with God” (Luke 1:30).

Here, God shows Mary charis by choosing her for the extraordinary and undeserved honor of carrying and raising the Messiah.

Yet unlike the Old Testament’s focus on “favor,” the New Testament mainly translates charis as “grace.” When we consider how frequently charis is associated with salvation, the emphasis on “grace” makes sense—but it can also be misleading.

Whether “favor” or “grace,” ḥēn or charis, the core concept is the same: receiving favor from another and being viewed positively as a result.

Human examples of grace

Grace and its effect on others take center stage in several biblical stories. By exploring these examples, we can better understand grace in its historical context.

Esau and Jacob

The story of Jacob and Esau is an early example.

As their father Isaac grew old, Esau, the firstborn, was set to inherit the blessings originally promised to Abraham—wealth, land and geopolitical dominance. But their mother Rebekah preferred Jacob and believed he should be the inheritor. God had told her, “The older shall serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23), but things didn’t seem to be going that way.

So, Rebekah helped Jacob deceive Isaac—and Esau became furious. He vowed, “I will kill my brother Jacob” (Genesis 27:41), and Jacob fled to his uncle Laban.

Years later, Jacob returned, anxious about Esau and hoping to “find favor [ḥēn]” in his sight (Genesis 32:5).

But instead of seeking revenge, Esau ran to meet him, embraced him and kissed him (Genesis 33:4). Even though Esau had every ability to carry out his threat, he chose to show grace. And that grace saved Jacob’s life.

Joseph

Joseph, one of Jacob’s 12 sons, had his life take a remarkable turn because of grace. His story is well-known: because of his brothers’ hatred toward him, they sold Joseph into Egyptian slavery.

Despite these trials, we read that “the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all he

did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor [ḥēn] in his [Potiphar’s] sight, and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority” (Genesis 39:2-4).

This kindness extended far beyond what a foreign slave would normally expect, especially from someone of Potiphar’s status. In other words, Joseph was shown grace. He was accepted and esteemed by Potiphar, and benefits followed.

Later, when Joseph was falsely imprisoned, something similar happened with the prison warden.

“But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor [ḥēn] in the sight of the keeper of the prison” (verse 21).

God influenced the prison warden to show Joseph grace, and the story unfolded as it had before. Joseph received undeserved kindness, allowing him to make the best of his misfortunes. After this, God also gave Joseph favor in the eyes of Pharaoh, who appointed him to a high position in Egypt (Genesis 41:37-41).

All these events in Joseph’s story were pivotal and demonstrated how grace transformed challenges into opportunities.

We could say more: David’s favor with Saul earned him the position of the king’s armor-bearer (1 Samuel 16:21-22); his favor with Jonathan provided crucial support in a desperate time (1 Samuel 20:3); King Ahasuerus’ favor toward Esther set off a chain of events that saved the Jews from total annihilation (Esther 2:17; 5:2).

The key lesson is this: When grace was shown, circumstances changed. Opportunities were unlocked. Lives were altered. All for the better.

This is a recurring theme in Scripture—grace changes things, shaping lives and sometimes even the course of history.

The gracious God

If showing grace is a good thing—and it is—and if even humans are capable of it—which they are—then it only makes sense that God shows the most enriching and life-changing kind of grace there is.

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew adjective hannûn, meaning “gracious,” almost exclusively applies to God (with a possible exception in Psalm 112:4). Gracious captures so much of who God is in a single word. He is full of grace, and His generosity and favor toward humanity are boundless.

Consider the Exodus story as one of many examples. God didn’t turn a blind eye to His people while they were enslaved in Egypt. He intervened

powerfully, unleashing a series of miracles that humbled the Egyptians until the Israelites were practically driven out.

Then God led His people to the foot of a mountain in the wilderness where He—the Creator of the universe—personally introduced Himself and reaffirmed His commitment to give them the Promised Land.

We might expect that witnessing such historic events would have left the Israelites feeling deeply indebted to God. Humility and a pledge of faithfulness would have been a reasonable response to the Deliverer’s graciousness. And they were faithful for a short time.

But soon they sinned. They brazenly worshipped a golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai. It was a colossal betrayal.

Despite their actions, God continued to extend grace. Moses interceded on the Israelites’ behalf, and God mercifully held back His righteous anger. He spared the rebellious Israelites.

Why? The reason is revealed in a powerful declaration God makes about Himself: “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands” (Exodus 34:6-7, emphasis added throughout).

Many years later, David wrote a psalm praising God for His graciousness, maybe with the Exodus account in mind. “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:8-10).

Instances of God’s graciousness fill Scripture. To name just a few: He unconditionally promised Abraham tremendous blessings (Genesis 17:1-8); He mercifully spared Lot and his daughters from being incinerated along with Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:16-17); He gave the wicked city of Nineveh a reprieve (Jonah 3:10).

And in the ultimate display of graciousness—He sacrificed His Son for the entire world (John 3:16).

God’s actions prove His graciousness. Showing favor to the undeserving is an expression of His very character.

Can grace be lost?

Grace belongs to the giver. The giver decides whether to give or withhold grace.

The Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament captures this well: “For the one receiving ḥēn, this gift is unlike most in that it never really becomes his possession. One quite literally finds favor in the eyes of another, and

that is where the favor remains. It is comparable to one’s reputation, which is likewise not its owner’s possession” (G. Johannes Botterweck, Helmer Ringgren, and Heinz-Josef Fabry, eds., 1977-2012, Vol. 5, p. 26).

What does this mean for our understanding of grace? It means that God—who is both gracious and just—can choose to withdraw His grace. The decision lies solely with Him, as He declares in Exodus 33:19: “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

Just as humans aren’t compelled to extend their favor to anyone, God isn’t obligated to show His grace.

The Israelites learned this the hard way. Shortly before they crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land, God gave Moses a sobering prophecy about their future. He said, “This people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.

“Then My anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them [a metaphor for withdrawing His favor], and they shall be devoured” (Deuteronomy 31:16-17).

Hundreds of years later, that prophecy unfolded with horrifying precision. The northern kingdom of Israel had already fallen to the Assyrians, and Judah was on the brink of destruction. After they refused every opportunity to repent, God reminded the people of Judah of His previous warning:

“You have done worse than your fathers,” He chastised the people through Jeremiah. “For behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me. Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor” (Jeremiah 16:12-13).

Judah’s transgressions had reached a tipping point. Unfaithfulness and disobedience had marred the nation’s history from the start, but God would no longer stand for it. The consequences came exactly as God prophesied. Nebuchadnezzar’s forces invaded Jerusalem and hauled most of the nation into Babylonian exile.

Psalm 137 records the captives’ grief: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion” (verse 1).

Fortunately, the story didn’t end there. God expressed His grace once again and restored Judah. After 70 years of exile, He allowed many of

the captives to return to their homeland, rebuild Jerusalem and reconstruct the temple.

Reflecting on their history, Nehemiah acknowledged his people’s pattern of sin in contrast to God’s graciousness. He thanked God, saying, “For many years You had patience with them, and testified against them by Your Spirit in Your prophets. Yet they would not listen; therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless in Your great mercy You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them; for You are God, gracious and merciful” (Nehemiah 9:30-31).

Judah’s story of exile and restoration reflects the fact that grace is entirely in the hands of the giver. While God remains gracious, for our good He sets limits on what He will endure before withdrawing His grace. God decides how, when and under what conditions He will show grace.

Just as grace can be given, it can be lost.

What one act of grace can do

The New Testament concept of grace is built on the Old Testament concept. Here’s what we’ve learned so far:

• The words translated favor and grace were common words used to express goodwill and unmerited kindness.

• God’s gracious character drove many of His personal interactions with people.

• When grace is shown, it’s a blessing.

• When it’s withdrawn, things go badly.

These concepts converge powerfully in the story of the great Flood. In some ways, God’s actions toward Noah and his family are a preview of the New Testament and our first glimpse at the magnitude of grace.

The account begins in Genesis 6:5, where we read a very grim picture of humanity left to its own devices.

“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually . . . So the Lord said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them’” (verses 5, 7).

Had the story ended there, humanity would have effectively amounted to a botched science experiment, too disgraceful to be salvaged.

But there’s a hopeful turn: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord ” (verse 8).

The importance of grace at this pivotal moment in history shouldn’t be understated. Grace for Noah meant protection from a devastating flood. It was the only thing standing between him and total annihilation.

This story isn’t just about how flawed and depraved humanity had become; it foreshadows the incredible deliverance God offers us. We can receive spiritual salvation. We can be rescued from death. In the next chapter, we’ll explore how God’s entire plan revolves around saving humanity from a fate worse than a physical flood. And it’s a plan driven by His grace.

Grace Saves 2

When the floodwaters finally receded and Noah and his family got reacquainted with dry ground for the first time in over a year, they must have breathed a huge sigh of relief. They had just survived the most catastrophic event in the annals of planet earth. They were spared from divine judgment.

The major lesson for us is this: Noah was a forerunner. He symbolized everyone who, through undeserved favor from God, will be saved from death.

The story’s core elements show its gospel overtones. Humanity was utterly corrupt and sinful. God gave the ultimatum of repent or be destroyed. Noah believed God, acted on faith and received grace. As a result, he and his family were saved, and the rest perished.

Sound familiar? That’s because Noah’s story is a condensed version of themes fleshed out in the New Testament.

Peter drew the parallel: “For this they [scoffers] willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth

standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.

“But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:5-7).

Our sin-filled world is headed in the same direction as the world before the Flood.

But there’s a bright side. Just as God didn’t take pleasure in destroying Noah’s world, He doesn’t want to see any of us perish now. Being a God of love, He desires that we live—eternally as members in His divine family (1 Corinthians 15:50-53; 2 Corinthians 6:18).

This is the message of Noah’s story and of the gospel: God offers a lifeline through His grace.

Noah is an early introduction to the link between spiritual salvation and grace. How grace connects to salvation is a major emphasis of the New Testament and the focus of this chapter.

A world in desperate need

Before we explore how God shows grace and what it accomplishes, we need to delve into why we came to need it in the first place.

Though Scripture doesn’t tell us how long Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden before they sinned, we know that while there, they lived in what would seem to be a utopian dream. They had all they could ask for, lovingly provided by God Himself. As long as they obeyed God, they had nothing to worry about.

But then they ate from the forbidden tree and disastrously altered humanity’s course.

The consequences for their disobedience were severe. Their sin resulted in a curse from God: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return . . .

“So He [God] drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:17-19, 24).

The first sin plunged humanity into a radically different kind of existence, one marked by two major distinctions: death and separation from the tree

of life. One decision changed everything, and death became a hallmark of the world, which the Bible calls the “present evil age” (Galatians 1:4).

The apostle Paul later reflected on the profound impact of Adam’s choice: “Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).

Since Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they set a pattern of sin for their descendants, and we’ve never known anything different. We’ve all repeated the same mistakes as our first parents, disobeying God’s law and deciding for ourselves what we consider good and evil. In short, sin has claimed everyone, making us all subject to the same penalty and curse placed on Adam and Eve—death.

Now if God didn’t care about His creation, this wouldn’t be a problem. We would all die in our sins and humanity’s story would turn its final page. Thankfully, God does care. Immensely.

As you probably realize by now, being on death row isn’t consistent with what God wants for us. We are the crown jewel of His creation for a reason.

But how do we deal with the major hurdle of sin? If “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23) and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), how can we ever fulfill God’s purpose for us? God cannot and will not overlook sin. The demands of the law must be satisfied.

This is where grace comes into play. Grace is the key to solving the problem of sin without compromising God’s perfect justice.

So, how can we be redeemed?

What a difference a Savior makes

One misstep by our first parents was all it took for our future to depend entirely on God’s undeserved favor. Since either we die or someone else dies for us—and there’s no way around it—God took the initiative and provided a sacrifice.

From before the foundation of the world, God planned for a Savior (1 Peter 1:19-20; see also the prophecy in Genesis 3:15). The wait would last for millennia, but at the predetermined time, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” finally came in the person of Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:29).

Jesus embodied God’s grace so completely that John was inspired to describe Him as “full of grace and truth” (verse 14).

Let everything He did on our behalf sink in.

Jesus surrendered His glory in the spirit realm to become a mortal man and bear the penalty of humanity’s sin. Then He accomplished what no other human has ever been able to do: He lived a sinless life. Throughout His 33½ years, He obeyed God’s law perfectly. Even during His betrayal and through the travail of crucifixion, He maintained perfect control of His thoughts and emotions—never threatening, always forgiving.

Then, when the time was right, He was pierced with a Roman spear, and God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Hebrews summarizes it for us: “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9).

God relinquished His Son, and Jesus embraced His role as our sacrifice. This is the supreme demonstration of grace.

John 3:16-17 is a classic reference on this point, and it’s worth repeating: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

God loved.

God gave.

God sent His Son.

Jesus’ sacrifice paid the price necessary to make salvation possible for all humanity, for all time.

Paul drew the sharp contrast: “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift [grace] came to all men” (Romans 5:18).

The gift Paul referred to is the open door to salvation that hinges on Jesus’ sacrifice. Because God showed us a favor we don’t deserve, we can escape eternal death and live out our eternal purpose.

This is the ultimate expression of God’s grace.

And to magnify it even further, the Bible tells us that there’s even more to God’s grace.

Introducing the covenant of grace

No act of selflessness, even if we lived a million lifetimes, could ever match what God did for us. The gift of Jesus’ sacrifice is entirely undeserved and impossible to repay.

But, as profound as it is, God’s grace goes even deeper than that.

How Animal Sacrifices Under the Old Covenant Foreshadowed Grace

Imagine it—the animal being led to its death, the blood, the smell of flesh burning on the altar. This was an everyday experience in ancient Israel, but why? Why did God command such a graphic ritual? Hint: it wasn’t for the reasons pagans sacrificed to their gods—to appease them and avert some catastrophe.

From the very first pages of Scripture, we learn that sin is detestable. It destroys innocence (Genesis 3:7-8), causes death (Genesis 2:17), corrupts physically and spiritually (Genesis 6:5) and, devastatingly, separates us from God (Genesis 3:24).

But maybe worse than the heavy price of sin is the fact that people are bent on doing it, even to their own hurt. This creates a major problem when the holy God wants to live among us and have a relationship with us, as He wanted to do with Israel.

That brings us to God’s way of dealing with sin under the Old Covenant: animal sacrifices. Leviticus 17:11 explains, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls.”

“Make atonement” here is from the Hebrew verb kāpar. It denotes “covering.” In the context of the sacrificial system, sin was covered by animal blood, and the result was pardon.

In summary, God gave the Israelites a ceremonial system that included a graphic symbol of sin’s horrific consequences to deter them from sinning and to represent atonement of sins.

But, most significantly, animal sacrifices served the purpose of foreshadowing the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and what His death would accomplish.

Every animal sacrificed under the Old Covenant was a limited placeholder for Jesus Christ. His life could provide real atonement because it was worth infinitely more than both

20 God’s Gift of Grace

animals and humans. As Hebrews explains, “It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4).

When the appointed time came and “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) arrived on the scene, God gave Him to be sacrificed as an act of grace.

Jesus met the total indebtedness of our sins with one payment: His shed blood.

By instituting animal sacrifices, God provided a concrete, but temporary, symbol of the grace He would show humanity in the future—grace that can be found only in the death and resurrected life of Jesus Christ.

John’s Gospel uses this description: “For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:16, English Standard Version). The Amplified Bible puts it this way: “Out of His fullness [the superabundance of His grace and truth] we have all received grace upon grace [spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing, favor upon favor, and gift heaped upon gift].”

Here, John painted a picture of grace as a continuous stream of blessings, not as just a single gift. In other words, as Christians, we can receive grace and then more grace—grace stacked on top of grace.

The point is that God the Father and Jesus Christ are overflowing with grace, which they demonstrate through both the sacrifice and the unending stream of blessings that flow from it.

Paul recognized this incredible abundance of grace: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3).

So, if grace is God’s ongoing outpouring of blessings, how can we be sure to receive them? And what exactly are those blessings?

This brings us to the New Covenant—where God expresses His grace toward us through the benefits of a covenantal relationship.

On Passover, during His final hours, Jesus inaugurated something that would forever change His disciples’ lives. He “took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you’” (Luke 22:20).

“And they all drank from it” (Mark 14:23).

To understand the significance of this event, we need to know that a covenant is essentially a contract. The Bible mentions several of them: the Abrahamic covenant, the Noahic covenant, the Sinaitic covenant, the Davidic covenant. We could say a lot about the role of covenants in Scripture, but the important thing to note is that they define obligations and commitments between two parties.

Their basic structure goes like this: if party a does x, then party b will do y. Covenants between God and man are agreements offered by our gracious God that allow and define a relationship with Him.

By saying, “new covenant,” Jesus alluded to the covenant God established with Israel.

For the ancient Israelites, their greatest honor was being chosen by God to be His covenant people, which came with numerous blessings: descendants, land, wealth and protection. The Old Covenant was, as Paul said, “glorious” (2 Corinthians 3:7).

But the New Covenant is utterly superior. The author of Hebrews explained, “He [Jesus] has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises” (Hebrews 8:6).

The “better promises” of the New Covenant aren’t based on physical wealth; they’re based on the spiritual blessings of grace.

Jesus offered His disciples something never offered under the Old Covenant: the promise of eternal salvation from sin—eternal life. And by entering the New Covenant, the disciples came under grace.

This marked a major change in their lives. They were no longer just sinful human beings deserving condemnation. They had become righteous saints on the path to salvation—to becoming children of God. From that point forward, under the terms of the New Covenant, the disciples would be showered with spiritual blessings, or “grace upon grace.”

In Jeremiah, we find an outline of what those blessings include: “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people . . . For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jeremiah 31:33-34).

The atoning of sin, enabling of a relationship with God, having His laws inscribed in us, and becoming His chosen people—these make up the framework of the New Covenant promises made possible through Jesus’ sacrifice.

Jesus’ sacrifice was the basis for all subsequent promises of grace. The grace promised in the New Covenant fills our lives in ways that would be otherwise impossible, and every spiritual blessing has a unique part in guiding us along the path toward salvation.

HGod’s Gracious Calling

ave you ever wondered why more people don’t take advantage of God’s grace? Don’t salvation and fulfilling our God-ordained purpose sound like a good idea? On paper, it’s a no-brainer.

Here’s the surprising answer that adds a deeper layer to our understanding of grace: most people haven’t accepted God’s grace because they haven’t been called yet—that is, it hasn’t been offered to them yet. If we think everyone has free and equal access to God’s grace now, we’re overlooking a vital biblical truth: today isn’t the only day of salvation.

But doesn’t God want everyone to be saved? Absolutely—but God has the perfect timetable for each person (1 Corinthians 15:23).

Right now, only a relative few have been given the opportunity for salvation. In His perfect wisdom, God has chosen some to receive His grace now, while others will have their chance at a future time. Biblically, this opportunity is known as a calling.

Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). He meant that unless God intervened and led us to Him—enabling us to understand who He is and how desperately we need His grace—we’d have no hope of salvation. God must remove “the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations” (Isaiah 25:7).

The “covering” and “veil” here refer to the spiritual barrier that prevents us from coming to God on our own initiative.

Paul clarified the origin of the veil: “The god of this age [Satan] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel” (2 Corinthians 4:4, New International Version).

Humanity’s blindness is the work of the devil. When Adam and Eve succumbed to Satan’s deception, we all became his unwitting pawns. So, until God removes the veil from our minds, we grope through life with spiritual blinders on, ignorant of His plan and purpose.

Even the original apostles weren’t exempt from this condition. Jesus explained why they could grasp spiritual truths that others couldn’t: “It has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given” (Matthew 13:11). The apostles weren’t born with the spiritual knowledge of how to receive salvation; it had to be “given” to them through an act of God’s grace—His calling.

So, what’s the takeaway? Even the positive step we take in coming to God can’t be accomplished without His grace. God makes it possible for us to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). Think about it—it’s not about how good we are, how special we are, how smart we are or how perfectly we follow religious rules. It’s God’s grace that leads us to Jesus Christ. Grace makes all the difference. He removes the veil and opens our eyes to His offer of salvation. Peter beautifully summed up the role of God’s grace in our calling: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

Grace and forgiveness

Paul linked forgiveness and grace: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

The depth of God’s grace is revealed by the mercy He offers.

No human being is without need of mercy, as we have already seen. Paul said emphatically, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

David echoed the same point in more detail, lumping all of humanity together in our shared sinfulness. “They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good.

“The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one” (Psalm 14:1-3).

If we believe God’s Word, we recognize our need for God’s grace and forgiveness. Doing even just a cursory examination of ourselves and the world around us makes it undeniably clear: we all deserve death.

It should awe us then that God offers a clean slate. Jesus assures us, “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28).

Remission is the dismissal of the penalty for sin. That is, through His sacrifice Jesus makes it possible for our sins to be forgiven, canceling our debt. No one has to come to God feeling defeated and hopeless, believing that his or her sins are too big to be covered. The kind of person one is prior to genuine repentance has no bearing on whether he or she can receive forgiveness. The mercy God offers through His grace allows anyone’s sins— your sins—to be purged by Jesus’ blood.

That gracious gift is available to those who repent and have faith in Jesus Christ.

The gift of the Holy Spirit

In addition to the grace of forgiveness, believers are also promised the Holy Spirit.

Receiving the Spirit of God follows a process that Peter outlined in his sermon on Pentecost. “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized,” he said, “and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Peter was echoing promises Jesus had made weeks before (John 14:16, 26).

But what exactly is the Holy Spirit, and how does it connect to God’s grace? In simple terms, the Holy Spirit is God’s power (2 Timothy 1:7; see our online article “What Is the Holy Spirit? ”). Although it’s invisible, like everything in the spirit realm, it’s incredibly dynamic. The Holy Spirit is the

essence God imparts to our minds, enabling us to become His children and inspiring the growth we need to accomplish His purpose.

How?

First, God’s Spirit assists us in the renewing of our minds. It enables us to think spiritually and see our lives and purpose through God’s own lens. It reveals insights about God’s mind and His plan that are impossible to understand on our own.

Paul explained this in 1 Corinthians 2:14 (NIV): “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”

Second, God’s Spirit strengthens our will to obey Him.

By nature, we resist God. When clear commandments clash with what we want, we find ways to justify breaking them. Our loyalty wavers, and we obey mostly when it’s easy or convenient. Even the good things we do for God often have a hint of self-interest.

Surrendering completely to His rule in every aspect of our lives? That’s a struggle.

Why do we resist God’s authority? Paul got to the root of the problem: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” (Romans 8:7).

A clearer translation goes like this: “Because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so” (NET).

Paul was describing the natural human mind, which, without the Holy Spirit, refuses to commit wholeheartedly to God.

Just how deficient are we in this regard? Take a look at the history of the Israelites. They repeatedly fell into a cycle of disobedience, and their mistakes are worth remembering. But let’s also keep in mind that they lacked the power to fully obey the spirit of God’s law—which was Paul’s point in Romans 8:7.

The Israelites’ obedience was partial and erratic without the Holy Spirit. Their example serves to illustrate the fundamental truth that human nature is fickle.

When God lamented in Deuteronomy 5:29, “Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments,” He meant it—they just didn’t have the heart or desire.

The good news is that the New Covenant offers a change of heart through the presence of God’s Spirit—a transformation of who we are at our very

core. The Holy Spirit is a gift offered to us through God’s grace—just as having our sins forgiven is.

There’s nothing we can do to deserve access to the very power of God Himself.

The Spirit empowers us to obey God at a deeper and more consistent level, which is critical to our salvation. Thanks to His grace, we’re able to fulfill the law’s requirements. It’s not through our own efforts, but through the grace and mercy of God.

The blessing of reconciliation and fellowship

Adam and Eve literally walked with God. Face-to-face contact with the Creator could have been an everyday occurrence in Eden.

Then sin entered the picture, and the relationship between God and humanity was fractured.

The grace extended through the New Covenant doesn’t physically transport us back to Eden, but it offers something important: the privilege of continual fellowship with God. Through grace, God calls us to repentance and claims us as “His people” and gives us unfettered spiritual access to Him.

By grace—when God cleanses us with His Son’s blood—the wall of sin that separated us from Him comes crashing down, and the door to a relationship with our Creator swings open. We can then know God deeply and intimately and become His spiritual sons and daughters.

Paul marveled, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand” (Romans 5:1-2).

Peace, a necessary ingredient of reconciliation, becomes ours through Christ. And once peace is present, nothing prevents us from having a relationship with the Creator of the universe. When we have reconciliation through Christ (Colossians 1:19-20), we stand in grace.

Under the New Covenant, we’re united with God and experience His ongoing presence in our lives. It’s an active relationship that grows stronger as we follow His guidance and connect with Him through prayer and Bible study.

Consider what Jesus said the night before He died: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:23).

The promise of God the Father and Jesus Christ dwelling in us is absolutely awe-inspiring. The fact that we can symbolically “enter the

Holiest by the blood of Jesus” (Hebrews 10:19) to petition the holy God through our prayers is a privilege worthy of praise.

As David wrote, “In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

The grace of being glorified

Make no mistake about it: God wants to shower us with grace. By God’s grace, we’re called, we’re forgiven, our minds are renewed by the Holy Spirit, and we’re offered a personal relationship with the Supreme Creator. These are astounding gifts. Nothing, not even our highest level of personal righteousness, could ever match the value of what God offers us in His love and kindness.

But another display of grace—one that boggles our minds even more— is still to come. Peter gives us a hint: “Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13).

Clearly, Peter understood a future aspect to grace that he used to encourage his readers. What was it?

Under the New Covenant, God promises a mind-blowing upgrade. He plans to transform us into immortal beings. As Christians—past, present and future— we await the time when we will ditch the frail, human flesh and become everlasting spirit. Through God’s grace, we’ll be elevated to the spirit plane.

The big reveal, the moment when faithful Christians are literally born into God’s eternal family, happens the day Jesus Christ returns (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

Paul was certain about this future: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye . . . The dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:51-53).

So little is known about what life will be like when we are spirit children of God. We know that we’ll have positions of service in the Kingdom of God, experience life as God experiences it and reign with Jesus over the earth for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:4). But after that?

Even our speculations about eternal life are primitive since our limited physical minds can’t begin to comprehend life at God’s level (1 John 3:1-3).

One thing we can be sure of, though, is that God has even more grace to show us beyond living forever with Him, as profound as that is. Paul

explained that the saints will witness “how infinitely rich is His grace” in the “ages to come” (Ephesians 2:7, Complete Jewish Bible).

This doesn’t refer just to the grace we will receive when we’re resurrected, but to the grace that will continue to unfold in the “ages to come”—the endless chapters of eternity.

There’s even more of God’s grace still ahead.

An overview of grace

Grace is not some hazy, theological mystery.

Grace is the undeserved favor God shows us that radically transforms our relationship with Him. Before receiving grace, we are condemned sinners with no hope beyond this physical life. After receiving grace, we are pardoned of our sins and seen as righteous saints destined for eternal life in God’s family.

And when you zoom in further, grace encompasses all the interconnected blessings God promises through the New Covenant.

Let’s rehearse these blessings:

• Being called opens our minds to the truth of our sinful condition and the possibility of being saved from it.

• Being forgiven washes away our sins, aligns us with God and puts us on the path of salvation.

• Receiving the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to understand the Scriptures and God’s plan for us, while also giving us the strength and guidance to take each obedient step.

• Having fellowship with God sustains us on the journey.

• Being resurrected as a glorified spirit being unites us with our Creator for eternity.

Grace is the thread that weaves all these blessings together, leading us to salvation and the fulfillment of our ultimate purpose.

Undeserved Does Not Mean Unconditional 3

Imagine this.

A father wants to give his son a brand-new car for his graduation. The son has been driving the family’s old pickup for a little while and can’t afford to buy something himself. So, the father, because he’s generous, kind and loves his son, mentions he is considering purchasing him one as a gift.

But in the following months, the son behaves irresponsibly. He gets speeding tickets, his grades plummet, and he constantly breaks curfew. So, the father has a change of heart.

“I’ve decided this isn’t a good idea, at least not right now,” the father tells his son.

“But, Dad, you have to buy me a car,” the son interjects.

The father patiently explains, “I want to give you the car, but until you show me that you can be responsible and mature, it’ll just have to wait.”

No reasonable person would think that the father is the bad guy here. It’s his gift to give, so of course he can set terms and

conditions. He has the right—if not the responsibility—to exercise tough love for his son’s benefit.

So why do so many professing Christians struggle with the idea of God’s grace being conditional?

“You’re trying to earn salvation!” some argue. But is that a fair accusation? Does believing that God expects something from us somehow diminish grace?

The heart of this issue lies in the differing views about the relationship between law and grace. But the truth is, there is no conflict between God’s law and His grace. Valuing and upholding God’s law doesn’t contradict the truth that God’s grace is free and undeserved. This is the correct, biblical teaching.

Receiving and staying under God’s grace requires something of us: obedience. To be clear, grace is an extraordinary gift that we could never deserve or hope to earn. But it defies logic to argue that our actions have no effect on whether God decides to show us His grace. Intuitively, we understand that, as the above scenario reveals. And we can prove it scripturally as well.

Jesus and the law

We’re on solid footing for understanding the role of God’s law when we start with what Jesus said about it.

In Matthew 19:16, a young man asked Jesus a question that concerns us all: “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”

Now if Jesus had believed there was nothing to do besides make a proclamation or say a short prayer, then this would have been His chance to say so. But notice His response: “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments” (verse 17).

Then, when asked to specify, Jesus left no room for misunderstanding: “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (verses 18-19).

It’s a pretty decisive statement. Jesus was making a clear reference to the 10 Commandments given at Mount Sinai—laws that were central to Israelite identity for centuries. As a Jew, Jesus grew up observing these laws, so it’s no surprise that He fully endorsed them. He even claimed that attaining eternal life would be impossible without obeying them.

More proof of Jesus’ stance on the law comes from the Sermon on the Mount.

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets,” He declared, “I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled” (Matthew 5:17-18).

Think about it: If Jesus had intended to dissolve the law, why did He emphatically state the opposite? Why did He clearly say that He didn’t come to overturn the teachings of the law and prophets if that had been His ultimate intention?

Also, note the duration Jesus gave for how long the law was to be in effect: till heaven and earth pass away. If you’re reading this, then the earth is still here, so the law is still in force.

Jesus then issued a serious warning: “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven” (verse 19).

In other words, downplaying any of God’s commandments is extremely serious. Yet some who profess Christianity ignore this admonition and dismiss certain commandments, sometimes rationalizing that Jesus “did it all for us.” But if that were true, why didn’t He say so?

After He warned against being a partially obedient disciple, let alone a full-on transgressor, Jesus gave the contrast: “But whoever does and teaches them [the commandments], he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (verse 19).

The Sermon on the Mount spans three chapters, with obedience as a major theme. On topics such as murder, adultery and bearing false witness, Jesus elaborated on the importance of following each commandment, not just in the letter but in the spirit.

The NIV Study Bible makes this insightful comment: “Jesus affirms the importance of keeping the requirements of the law, holding his followers to a righteousness that is greater than that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law.”

Understanding Jesus’ view on obeying God’s law isn’t a puzzle. If we take His words at face value, His message is clear.

Following the law is mandatory for His disciples. It is an essential condition to receiving and maintaining God’s grace.

What did Jesus’ disciples teach about God’s law?

It’s enough to base our position solely on the words of our Lord and Savior. We will never go wrong following the example and teachings of Jesus Christ.

What the Story of Jesus and the Woman Caught in Adultery Teaches Us About Grace

The scribes and Pharisees wanted to have something to accuse Jesus of, so they brought forward a case to test Him. They dragged a woman who had been caught in the very act of adultery before Jesus and demanded a verdict.

According to God’s law, she deserved to be stoned. No bail. No bond. No plea deal. Her case was clear-cut; her sin was punishable by death.

Imagine her relief when Jesus exposed the self-righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees instead of pointing the finger at her. He said, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first” (John 8:7).

One by one, her accusers dissolved into the crowd as she watched.

“Where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” Jesus asked the adulteress (verse 10).

“No one, Lord,” the woman responded (verse 11).

Then Jesus—God in the flesh, the only truly sinless One, who had every right to administer perfect justice—pardoned her. “Neither do I condemn you.”

Jesus showed grace . The law demanded that she should be stoned. She was undeniably guilty. But to reveal the depth of His mercy, God’s willingness to forgive sin, Jesus let her off the hook.

The lesson here? God always leans toward mercy, and we should strive to do the same.

But when we consider the rest of Jesus’ statement, there’s an equally important takeaway about personal responsibility and obligation. His parting words were, “Go and sin no more.”

The woman couldn’t undo her past sin, and neither can we undo ours today. The only way to avoid condemnation is through

God’s grace. But just as with the adulteress, grace comes with an essential condition: sin no more.

That means to change from being a law-breaker to a lawkeeper, from acting sinfully to acting righteously.

God extends grace to people who know they’re sinners but are willing to do something about it—to change their lives.

But we’d understandably be confused if His own students later contradicted Him. What would carry more weight then—the words from Jesus’ mouth, or the seemingly more updated, post-crucifixion views?

It’s a question we don’t have to wrestle with because the apostles were in total agreement with Jesus.

The General Epistles give us insights from men who spent many hours in Jesus’ inner circle. That’s worth considering when trying to establish New Testament doctrine regarding the law. Why? Because if Jesus had given private instructions about teaching the law after His death, it would be reflected in their writings.

So, what did they say?

The two prominent apostles (Peter and John) and Jesus’ half-brothers (James and Jude) continued the thread of obedience Jesus started, revealing a consistent message from the Gospels through General Epistles.

Let’s note a few key concepts from their letters.

James

When it comes to James’ epistle, it’s not challenging to find scriptures that uphold the law. Plenty of verses make his position clear.

Near the end of the first chapter, he admonished the Church: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22).

For James, it’s simple: hearing God’s Word (which includes His laws and commandments) without changing your behavior means that you’re deceived. God’s Word should be transformative, but if you refuse to let

it guide your actions, what’s it worth? Christianity at that point is like a bumper sticker or an arm badge.

“But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it,” James wrote, “this one will be blessed in what he does” (verse 25).

To James, God’s law was so admirable that he even called it “the royal law” (James 2:8) and echoed Jesus’ warning against selective obedience: “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder’” (verses 10-11).

This is another straightforward passage that’s hard to misinterpret. Nelson’s NKJV Study Bible comments insightfully:

“God does not allow selective obedience. We cannot choose to obey the parts of the Law that are to our own liking and disregard the rest . . . James is saying that the whole divine law has to be accepted as an expression of God’s will for His people. The violation of even one commandment separates an individual from God and His purposes.”

James continued with probably his most memorable comment: “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” (verses 19-20).

These are passages we can’t overlook. James categorically rejected any view that prioritizes faith over obedience. His writings show both are equally important.

Peter

Peter also stressed how much actions matter.

He urged us to be “obedient children” and to live “holy” lives (1 Peter 1:14-15). The things we’re to avoid are “malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking” (1 Peter 2:1), all of which are condemned by God’s law.

He pleaded, “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (verse 11).

But Peter’s most direct comment on the law is his exhortation that we be like Christ, who never broke the law.

He wrote, “Indeed, this is what you were called to; because the Messiah too suffered, on your behalf, leaving an example so that you should follow in his steps. ‘He committed no sin, nor was any deceit found on his lips’” (verses 21-22, CJB).

If Jesus didn’t commit sin, and we’re to follow in His steps, then what is Peter telling us? Be like Jesus and obey the law.

John

John’s first epistle is filled with straightforward statements on obedience as a fundamental Christian duty. He took this strong stance to counter a budding heresy in the late first century. Impostors had infiltrated the Church, attempting to water down God’s law, and it prompted John to address their false teachings.

“Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3). In other words, if we have internalized the importance of obeying God, we can confidently say that we know Him.

But John went on: “He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (verse 4). This means that the way people live their lives is the best indicator of whether they truly follow Christ. Simply stated, true Christians are those who obey God.

He underscored this point again: “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (verse 6). How many people truly model their lives after Jesus Christ, striving to obey God as He did?

Finally, John said, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). Clearly, any commitment to God the Father and Jesus Christ is a commitment to obeying the law—not reluctantly, but joyfully and enthusiastically.

Jude

Jude’s epistle reinforces what’s already been made clear from the others.

Jude’s opponents were “ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness” (Jude 1:4). They taught the unbiblical notion that the more you sin, the greater God’s demonstration of grace would be. Their reasoning was so dangerous and fallacious that Jude referenced the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as an example of the fate of people who embrace that idea (verse 7).

Jude’s letter openly rebukes those who abuse God’s grace by using it as an excuse to live however they want.

From these four authors and seven short letters, the evidence that God expects obedience is undeniably clear. To reject that is to ignore, downplay, override or rationalize away direct statements from God’s inspired writers.

Still, some might push back, arguing that these scriptures show that obedience has only practical value but isn’t a rigid “requirement” for grace and salvation.

In this light, consider a few biblical stories.

The danger of exploiting God’s grace

Most of us know the Old Testament story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the two wicked cities God destroyed with fire and brimstone. It isn’t exactly cheerful since it’s intended to illustrate how seriously God views sin. But instead of focusing on the cities’ inhabitants, let’s take a lesson from the ones who escaped.

“Then the men [angels] said to Lot, ‘Have you anyone else here? Son-inlaw, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city—take them out of this place! For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it . . .

“When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, ‘Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.’ And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him” (Genesis 19:12-13, 15-16).

Lot knew that he and his family were spared because they “found favor,” or grace, with God (verse 19). Their protection wasn’t based on personal merit but on God’s merciful disposition. But even though they were promised safety, everything hinged on following one crucial instruction: “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed” (verse 17).

God gave grace, but His condition was obedience. If they just did what God commanded—run and not look back—they would be spared.

Unfortunately, not everyone in the group took God at His word.

“So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But his [Lot’s] wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt” (verses 25-26).

She didn’t just glance over her shoulder to see what was happening. She longed to return to her life in Sodom. The grace God showed Lot’s wife was revoked when she disobeyed. The lesson for us? God’s grace has boundaries. It always has. Just like Lot’s wife, we risk forfeiting grace if we turn our back on what God says.

Jesus reinforced this message when He told the disciples years later, “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32).

Under the blood and inside the houses

Another biblical account we can learn from is the prelude to the Exodus. After God sent three devastating plagues across Egypt, He drew a dividing line between His people, the Israelites, and the Egyptians. While the Egyptians would be forced to endure another horrific onslaught of plagues, the Israelites would be miraculously protected.

God showed Israel grace.

But just before the 10th and final plague got underway, something crucial happened. God gave the Israelites explicit orders to follow if they wanted to be saved.

“Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning.

“For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you” (Exodus 12:21-23).

The Israelites could have reasoned that God’s grace was guaranteed regardless of whether they did anything. After all, they were His chosen people. And they had proof too. They had been spared from God’s judgment on previous plagues while everyone around them suffered. It would have been an easy assumption to make.

But instead they obeyed.

“So the people bowed their heads and worshiped. Then the children of Israel went away and did so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

“And it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead” (verses 27-30).

There was mourning in every Egyptian house, but this wasn’t the case for any of the houses in Goshen, where the Israelites lived. They had followed

God’s instructions, and their firstborn were protected. But had they failed to listen and ignored the condition God had given them, their firstborn would have been destroyed as well.

God would have ceased showing them grace.

Do law and grace conflict?

Obedience is more than just practical; it’s essential for anyone who wants to stay under God’s grace. But we need to address the deeper question of why. Why is obedience so critical that not even grace can make it unnecessary? So much of modern Christianity overlooks this point, often pitting law and grace against each other.

God’s grace leads to salvation, which is eternal life in His family. As that family exists now, consisting of God the Father and Jesus Christ, there is an unbreakable bond of peace. This isn’t a fragile kind of peace that’s based on some fleeting mutual interest between people or nations. The profound peace the Father and Jesus Christ share comes from being completely unified in thoughts and values.

The laws of God are stepping stones to learning the heart and character God wants to preserve in His family for eternity. They show us what God is like and how He thinks. They define His perfect and righteous character.

Following the laws of God is like setting up guardrails in our minds for how we allow ourselves to act and think. And the more those guidelines become second nature to us, the more we become like God. In other words, we make His character, our character.

This kind of transformation is basically the entrance test for becoming a part of His family. Have we internalized His way of thinking to the point that we can be trusted to follow it for eternity? That’s what God is after.

God’s law reveals to us His perfect moral character. Obedience to God’s law can’t remove the death penalty we incur for having broken it (Romans 6:23), and no amount of law-keeping in the present or future can erase the things we’ve done in the past. Though obedience to it is lifechanging and brings joy and satisfaction, the law by itself can’t transform our minds.

This is where grace comes in. The things God’s law can’t accomplish become possible through His intervention and grace.

God graciously helps us see ourselves in light of His righteous standards. And He leads us to repentance, forgives us and then empowers us to obey Him.

Philippians 2:12-13 tells us, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” This is a description of how grace interacts with law.

Through God’s law, we’re provided the ultimate goal and pathway to God’s character. Through God’s grace, we’re granted forgiveness and the means to obey Him and learn the peace necessary for salvation.

So, the whole debate of law versus grace comes from a faulty premise, as if we’re forced to choose between the two. But it’s never been about only one or the other. It’s always been about both. Law and grace don’t pull us in opposite directions.

They’re complementary It’s not “law or grace.” It’s “law and grace.”

God’s Gift of Grace

Paul on Grace 4

Unfortunately, this issue has persisted. Many professing Christians today embrace a false notion of grace because of how they mishandle Scripture, especially Paul’s writings.

To make certain we don’t fall into the same trap as those who twist Scripture “to their own destruction,” let’s consider some “hard to understand” passages in light of the straightforward ones we’ve already read.

We will find that Paul expands on the concept of grace more than any other New Testament writer, but that his insights always supplement rather than contradict those of Jesus and the other apostles.

Let’s get to the heart of what Paul really taught about grace.

A gift, not an owed payment

Before Paul became an apostle, he was an ambitious Pharisee—a member of the “strictest sect” of the Jews (Acts 26:5). This meant that Paul the Pharisee took immense pride in how meticulously he followed the law. He even admitted seeing his strict obedience as a kind of credential (Philippians 3:3-7).

But the problem Paul and the Pharisees had was not that they were striving to obey God. It was their mindset. Many were arrogant and felt entitled because of their religious accomplishments, which warped their thinking. Spiritually, they sank to the level of feeling that God owed them His favor because of their strict obedience (Luke 18:9-14).

In short, they were entrenched in legalism—the idea that our worth and status before God depends solely on the things we do.

Paul had a lot to unlearn from his upbringing, and his transformed thinking shows in the way he hammers the point of grace being free and undeserved.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

This is exactly the kind of statement you would make if you had escaped the clutches of Pharisaic legalism and wanted to point your audience to the true source of salvation.

And note that Paul didn’t say works weren’t crucial. He clarified in the very next verse: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (verse 10).

Paul’s point was that while “works” are absolutely necessary, they don’t save anybody. The function of God’s law is to define the correct path of life, but it cannot save us when we deviate from it.

Only grace can save us—and that comes from God alone.

Paul reminded Titus that God saved us, “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy” (Titus 3:5). God, in His mercy, gives us the gift of grace, and it’s through His grace that we can be saved.

It couldn’t be any other way. If we could earn grace, we’d be putting ourselves on a pedestal and diminishing God and His intervention in our lives. Grace wouldn’t be a gift from God at that point; it would be a payment He owed us.

This is the logical case Paul made in Romans: “If by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace” (Romans 11:6).

Paul’s position was unmistakably clear: Grace has never been and will never be something we earn. There’s no formula that says if we obey x commandment y amount of times, then God is obligated to show us His favor. This is the kind of thinking God challenged when He asked Job, “Who has a claim against me that I must pay?” (Job 41:11, NIV).

Believing that God owes us salvation completely undermines His gracious character and erodes the foundation of the gospel message. No wonder Paul emphasized the undeserved and free nature of grace as much as he did. He wanted his readers to understand that being offered salvation was not a payment for their physical efforts, but a demonstration of God’s generosity and kindness.

Grace is a gift.

A license to sin?

You can probably imagine what Paul’s teaching on grace looks like when taken to an extreme: If we can’t earn grace, then nothing we do really matters and God’s law is unnecessary.

If you follow that logic, then before long you’re justifying sin and treating grace like a permanent “get out of jail free” card.

At least some variation of this teaching arose in the first century. It’s been called “antinomianism,” which literally means “against law.” But, fortunately, Paul was around to counter the way so-called Christians were misinterpreting his words.

He presented the simple question: “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1). In other words, should we keep on sinning so we can experience even more grace? “Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (verse 2).

Could Paul have been any clearer?

And notice, sin here isn’t some vague, undefined wrongdoing. Sin means violating some aspect of God’s law—whether in the letter or in the spirit. This means God’s law is central even in Paul’s writings, defining sin and setting the boundaries of acceptable conduct (Romans 4:15).

So why would anyone, after repenting of breaking those boundaries, choose to cross them again? It would be an abhorrent thought. To exploit God’s grace by gratifying sinful desires would be a misinterpretation of Scripture and an affront to God’s mercy.

The same idea is expressed as a warning in Hebrews, which some scholars believe was written by Paul. “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:26-27).

Despite his opponents’ attempts to misrepresent him, Paul wasn’t an antinomian. It’s clear from these two verses that how we respond to God’s grace in our lives is crucial.

But if there’s a wrong way to respond, and it’s evident that there is, then what’s the right way?

What should grace lead us to do?

What Does It Mean to Be Under Grace and Not Under Law?

The second part of Romans 6:14—“for you are not under law but under grace”—is what many use to argue that we no longer need to obey all 10 Commandments. But scripturally, this interpretation doesn’t hold up because it would mean Paul was contradicting Jesus and the apostles, making the Bible inconsistent and unreliable.

At first glance, it might seem like Paul was saying we’re free from the need to obey God’s law, but that’s not actually what

he said. Not being “under law” and not being “obligated to obey law” are two different statements. So, what was Paul getting at?

The context of this passage is the spiritual condition— freedom—of those who have received God’s grace through Jesus Christ. But it’s not freedom to do whatever we want; it’s freedom from sin’s control and penalty.

Note carefully the context, beginning in verses 6-7: “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.”

Paul likens our relationship with sin to that of a slave to a master, a concept he repeats in verse 12: “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.” Before conversion, sin was our boss. It controlled us through our sinful desires. We each followed its lead to varying extents and were thus condemned to eternal death. No amount of human willpower could alter that.

However, he who has died with Christ through repentance and baptism (verses 3-5) has been “freed from sin” (verse 7). That is, the power of sin to rule our lives has been broken.

Since sin is embedded in our very nature, it’s clearly a lost cause to try by our own strength to reach the righteous standards expressed in God’s law. Despite that, many believe they can earn a good standing with God by becoming more strict in their behavior.

This approach, known as “legalism,” is a flawed system for salvation. It exposes sin without providing a way to break free from it. It doesn’t promise freedom, only continued slavery and ultimately eternal death.

But Christians who are “under grace” are no longer in this hopeless spiritual state. Through the power of His Holy Spirit, an extension of grace, God gives us the means to escape the clutches of sin and live in obedience to Him.

Notice again how the context makes this clear: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments

of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:12-14).

Sin has no authority over our lives because Christ rescued us. Thus, we are no longer “under law” and its penalty, but “under grace.”

And with his next statement, Paul makes it very clear. “What then? Shall we sin [break God’s law] because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!” (verse 15).

The only worthy response to grace

Earlier, we saw that the reason God grants grace is ultimately to bring us into His family. It naturally follows then that the right response to grace involves doing the things God expects us to do for that awesome purpose.

From where this process starts to where it ends—the Kingdom of God—is the narrow and difficult road of Christian character development (Matthew 7:12-14). And even though God equips us for the journey, we have a significant role to play.

Like the other New Testament writers, Paul acknowledged that our responsibility is to follow the footsteps of Jesus Christ and grow spiritually.

He told Titus, “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” (Titus 2:11-12).

God’s grace should inspire us to be sober, righteous and godly. It’s not because God is a hard-nosed Father who wants to deny us fun and pleasure. It’s because He wants to transform our minds. And when we work against that goal by disobeying, we stifle our growth and miss the whole point of grace.

Paul expanded on this thought in Romans: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living

sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1-2).

When we come to God, our minds aren’t blank slates; they’re shaped by the world’s values and etched with sin. But as we strive with God’s help to be “holy” and “acceptable,” our minds undergo the spiritual transformation God wants. This was Paul’s heartfelt plea to the Church in view of God’s mercy: be transformed.

In Colossians 1:10, Paul wrote, “Walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” Basically, he was saying that we should live in a way that honors what God has done for us—by growing spiritually. When Christian character development becomes our priority, then we’re living out the essence of our calling and the purpose of grace.

Ultimately, through God’s grace and help, we’re expected to reach the goal of becoming “a perfect man” and attaining “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).

A Gift Waiting for You Conclusion

He confronted his audience with some of the same truths you’ve just read.

“God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ,” Peter proclaimed (Acts 2:36).

Of course, not everyone in the crowd was directly complicit in Jesus’ execution. Even so, Peter’s “you” was applicable to everyone—his generation, ours, and every individual throughout history.

We have all sinned, and each of us bears personal responsibility for the death of the Son of God.

Notice the reaction of some in the crowd: “When they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’” (verse 37).

Peter’s words struck a deep chord. The people felt a razor-sharp conviction of their sins. They knew something needed to change but weren’t sure what to do.

So, Peter told them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call” (verses 38-39).

What those in the crowd desperately needed was God’s grace. He was offering to forgive their sins and start them on the path to salvation.

They got what they needed that day: “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them” (verse 41).

The good news is that the template Peter gave for receiving grace is still in effect today.

What should you do? Like those in the crowd, you should repent and be baptized.

God offers His grace as a gift to you now, just as He will eventually offer it to all humanity.

LifeHopeandTruth.com exists to fill a critical void in this world: the lack of understanding about the purpose of life, the lack of realistic hope for a better future and the lack of truth!

Neither religion nor science has satisfactorily addressed these issues, so people today are of divided opinions, confused or, worst of all, don’t care anymore. The ancient words of the prophet Isaiah ring so true today: “Truth is fallen in the street.” Why? Is it because God was right when He warned that humans are inclined to reject Him and usually choose not to know Him?

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