What is grace? According to Ephesians 2:8–9, we are “saved” by grace:
Ephesians 2:8–9: 8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
Grace is the gateway to the Christian life. Simply put, grace is God giving His people what they do not deserve. Grace is a “gift.” The gift is having our position before God totally flipped from Ephesians 2:3: “we were by nature children under wrath, as the others were also.” The gift of God is to be moved from being children under God’s wrath to being made alive in Christ by God’s grace (Ephesians 2:5).
We need to be “saved” because of the result of our rebellion against God—the reason we are children of God’s wrath (Ephesians 2:3). Romans 6:23 says that the cost of our sin is death—separation from the righteous Creator, God. Ephesians 2:1 says that we are dead because of our rejection of God’s righteous rule over our lives. The opposite of being dead is to be alive, and that is exactly how the work of God is described in Ephesians 2:5. God breathes His life into those who trust in Christ alone to make them right before the judgment seat of the Father. Indwelled by God the Holy Spirit, the believer walks in this new life to do the good works that God has saved him to do (Ephesians 2:10).
To know Christ is to recognize your standing before God is based on nothing that you can do. Grace is to realize that God’s gift of love can only be received, never earned. Grace calls the believer to surrender their pride in what they do, solely trusting in what Christ has already done. Grace allows the child of God to rest in the finished work of the Son.
Grace does not mean we live however we want (Romans 6:1–2). On the contrary, God’s grace moves us to live a life of worship (Romans 12:1–2). Grace moves the people of God to do good works. Good works do not earn God’s love, but are done in response to the grace God has bestowed on all those who trust in His love.
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