If there would be a major component of the Christian faith that encompasses all precious things that we find in Christ, it would undoubtedly be God’s grace. Every aspect of the Christian life is rested solely on God’s grace poured out to us. To put it differently, His grace covers every perimeter of our lives, and His grace is also sufficient for us.
The hard truth about that grace is that God doesn’t move on our behalf because of what we’ve done according to our own merit or righteousness. The main reason is that there was nothing that we could have done within our human power and will in order for us to have been able to gain His acceptance along with His loving favor. Instead, it’s all about His grace bestowed upon us through His Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Grace is defined as unmerited favor of God. As mentioned previously in another post, if we’re given something that we did not deserve while we have been in terrible need of it, or we’re given the only thing that was desperately needed in order to pull us out of an extremely dire situation, we just can’t take it for granted. The same analogy also applies to God’s grace given to all men.
We can’t somehow go around and keep on doing the exact same things that had already offended God’s justice in the first place. Additionally, we can’t keep on doing the very same things that God Himself in order for Him not to give us what we truly deserved had to go to the extreme in order to pay the full price for our sins committed against Him. It actually costs God enormously in order for Him to dispense that grace to us through Christ.
Moreover, we can’t continue to live the same kind of deplorable life that Christ has saved us from by the tremendous cost that He paid on the cross for our salvation, so that we can be set free from our sins and be able to live for Him alone.
As a result, the way we choose to live our lives determines whether His grace was in vain or not. With respect to His grace, it’s God providing us something that we did not even deserve by withholding what we truly deserved which is His righteous divine judgment.
Grace is What Makes us What We Are Today.
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain… (1 Corinthians 15:10)
As children of the Most High God, the main reason that we’ve become who we are in Christ today is based entirely on His grace. Grace is all about God investing something so precious in us while being in a state completely unacceptable, repulsive, and detestable to him. Truthfully, grace by nature has absolutely nothing to do with the person who receives it. Alternatively, it all depends on the one who dispenses it. God is gracious to us because of His unconditional and sacrificial love for us as people He has made in His own image (Genesis 1:26).
Therefore, by responding accordingly we will certainly come out of that ungodly state that His grace is intended to enable us to get out of and step into holiness. Remember that we could have never paid off the cost of our sins on our own, so that’s why God has dispensed His grace to us. As a result, we owe Him everything such as our gratitude, obedience, worship, honor, and so on.
While we turn our back completely on God, and as we are living in outright rebellion to Him. As we don’t want Him to be anywhere in our lives because of our sinfulness. As we are consistently setting our minds only on doing the things that God hates, and as our only desire is to have more and more freedom, so that we can do what we want, however we like to do it, and whenever we want to do it.
Nevertheless, God through His unconditional love is seeking us because of the fact that His grace is sufficient to restore us completely, if we are just willing to surrender our lives fully to Him. Since that grace flows directly through Christ, He is our only source of hope (John 1:14). Apart from Him, there’s no other name by which men can be saved (Acts 4:12).
God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
The way that God’s grace works is that He did not allow our sinfulness to hold Him back from dispensing His grace to us. By the way, He knew beforehand that we were going to get messed up, but He gives us His grace anyway. It’s all about God willingness to save us, change us, transform us, restore us, and bless us if we are willing to come to Him by turning away from our sinful ways to His ways. The grace of God is the means through which His goodness, salvation, love, compassion, mercy, faithfulness, blessings, and protection flow in our lives like a mighty river.
How Should We Respond to God’s Grace?
Let’s take a look at this Scripture found in (Ephesians 2:8) which states that “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” It’s noteworthy that from Genesis to Revelation that God always wants men to take their personal responsibility when dealing with Him. Our responsibility to respond to God accordingly is very critical because that’s what will decide if we will receive whatever God has promised us. By grace God has already made everything readily available for us. However, we are responsible to respond to that by placing our faith in Him based on what He has done through His Son Jesus Christ.
Our faith in God is the key element that will activate everything that comes along with His grace. In fact, our entire Christian life revolves around our faith in God. In other words, faith is the core foundation of our Christian life. Moreover, faith walks hand in hand with obedience. Therefore, if we’re claiming that we have faith in God on the basis of what Christ has done on our behalf through grace, we must be willing to obey Him.
Without obedience faith by itself won’t get us anywhere. To sum it up, genuine faith in God must always lead us to respond to God obediently. Interestingly, Christ Himself uses our obedience in order to determine whether we love Him or not (John 14:15). Our obedience to God by trusting Him is the only means by which we can demonstrate God that we dearly value His grace.
Since we are dispensed with something that far exceeds in significance, any earthly things deemed as valuable we could have ever received in this life. We’re left with the sole responsibility and duty to use it in such a way that brings great pleasure to the person who gives it to us. We should always nurture a spirit of gratitude and appreciation to God on the basis of what He’s done for us, regardless of our own unworthiness.
What’s The Main Reason That God is Gracious to Us?
For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. (John 1:16)
Everything that God has provided has a very specific purpose and meaning. God has been gracious to us with the sole purpose of giving us chance upon chance and time after time, so that we can get right with Him by turning away from our sins. That’s the core foundation of that grace, and every blessing that comes along with it will come after genuine repentance.
The reason is that God cannot bless someone while that person is still living a life contrary to His Word. However, God is expecting men to take their own responsibility for their sins by turning to Him for forgiveness during the time they have to do so because grace won’t be there forever. Unfortunately, that’s not the case at all for so many people.
Oftentimes, because we’ve not experienced any physical consequences yet due to practicing our favorite sins; we misuse His grace in order to keep on indulging further and further into sinful living despite we know what we’re practicing is sinful to God. In many cases, we know plainly the truth of Scripture, but we allow ourselves to be caught by sin to the extent we become careless about our eternity. Well, because God is gracious to us does not mean that if we’re living outside of His will we still don’t deserve His judgement. The thing is that if we don’t take advantage of that grace by running to Christ, God’s judgment is still hanging over our heads.
Lot of times, people have become so harden by sin, which then feeds then with all kinds of evil attitudes and tendencies toward God as well as the things of God. They live their lives as people who don’t care at all about the Lord’s sacrifice on their behalf. The idea of not wanting to live holy out of gratitude for someone who gave His life for you is the worst form of ingratitude imaginable.
They deliberately indulge into sin with the belief that God will keep on forgiving them because He is a gracious and loving God. Humanly speaking, it’s evident that nobody would ever like somebody else to keep on doing to them the same thing that keeps hurting them or treating them contemptuously. When we deliberately choose to rebel against God, it literally breaks His heart because He knows very well the full consequences of sin that lie ahead.
He knows that if we ever fall from His grace, we’ll certainly get to a point in which He will be left with no choice but to put completely aside His grace in order to deal with us as required by His justice. Remember God’s grace to anyone has an expiration date on it. As the Word of God, it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31). Nobody would ever like to find himself/herself in such horrendous situation. The thing is that not wanting something bad to happen to you is just not enough. What will truly make the difference is your strong willingness to take proper actions according to what’s prescribed in order to prevent it.
Conclusion
Given these points, the good news is that God’s grace is infinitely greater than our sins. It’s God will for everyone to benefit from His grace in a meaningful and life-changing way. God has already made the first move by displaying His incredible love for us through Christ. However, all God is asking us to do is for us to turn away from our old ways by turning to Him through total submission in Christ. Then through the means of our submission and commitment to Him, we’ll be equipped by His Spirit to live the kind of fruitful and victorious life that His grace through Christ has made it possible for us to live.