As per Scripture we learn that God’s grace is the source of our forgiveness of sins and salvation. But how does this grace work in our lives and what actually is the real meaning of purpose of it? Most people join grace also with their works to please God and even believers also revert to their old beliefs of earning salvation. Instead of focusing on the LORD God and His Son, then, good works, fasting and other acts become the focus.
Grace and why do we need it? A very rich man fell sick with a lung infection and was admitted to the hospital. Because of this he was placed on ventilator support to help him breathe properly. When he was healed the hospital gave him the bill for his treatment and included in that was charges for breathing apparatus and oxygen. On seeing the details of the bill he started crying bitterly with a loud noise and the head of the hospital was called. It was presumed that he was crying over the amount in the bill and was offered a rebate. But on being asked, he said, ‘All these years I have used the God given breathing apparatus, my lungs and His oxygen, without being charged anything. Moreso I have never ever thanked Him for all this’. Everything that God has given us is absolutely free for He created all that man, birds and the animals would ever need before creating them (Genesis 1:29-30). Thus, God’s grace is His favour and kindness not according to what we deserve or on merit but out of His love. Grace is when God gives us what we do not deserve and its details differ in its form in both the Old and The New Testaments.
Grace defined – The Hebrew Word ‘khen or channun’ in the Old Testament describes a favour, usually from a superior to the one lower. A king would show kindness or help to his people that they could not demand or earn. The LORD God revealed Himself to Moses on Mount Sinai, ‘stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD’ (Exodus 34:5-6). Since the name reveals who He is, the proclamation was about His traits, ‘The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious’ and other things. God’s ‘channun’ is a generous and compassionate favour, not casual but deliberate from deep within, His heartfelt love towards the needy and undeserving. It is God’s willingness to forgive, restore and bless mankind in spite of their failures. God’s grace was first expressed in His visit and call, as before, in the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve, ‘Where are you?’ (Genesis 3:9). As then, He calls out to us in our darkness, when we are hiding from Him due to our sin, to move towards Him and be blessed.
Grace in the New Testament is ‘charis’ representing the means by which we are saved but also the power bestowed on us to live in faith as believers. It is revealed in the redemption through the finished work of Lord Jesus on ‘the cross and the empty tomb’ and His presence in us. God became Man and entered our fallen world to free us from the darkness of sin and the lies of the devil.
Grace as God’s free gift – Apostle Paul illustrates this, ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith’ (Ephesians 2:8-9). It is God’s free gift and not earned by us through our good deeds. No one can boast in receiving this blessing from Him. God called Abraham to move to an unknown location to receive an impossible blessing. Abraham followed and ‘believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness’ (Genesis 15:6). God settled the accounts for Abraham and after cleansing his sinful past, transferred His righteousness into Abraham’s account. God acts in His grace to give us a new life in His light and truth.
God’s work of sustenance as grace – By His grace, God frees us from bondage, forgives, transforms, empowers and sustains the saved. His presence guides and strengthens us to live godly lives, even while being surrounded by evil. When the devil afflicts us and we cry out to God, we may not immediately get an answer. Apostle Paul, in his sufferings, did not get any relief from God but was told, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness’ (2 Corinthians 12:9). Through grace we not only get to know Him but also develop a close relationship with Him and get strengthened to face adversity.
As His children we can ‘come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need’ (Hebrews 4:16). Esther, the queen, fasted for three days, for saving her people, the Jews, from the decree of destruction, mischievously taken by Haman. No one could approach the king, even his queen’ without being called by him (Esther 5:2). The king ‘held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand’ and she could be in his presence and eventually save her people, the Jews from annihilation. How can we ever come before the King of kings, the Creator of everything without His grace being extended towards us? He brings us into His presence to live abundantly and then eternally in His mansion.
Grace and mercy – The basic difference is that mercy means that God holds back what we deserve. We know that all of humanity ‘have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:230. His mercy was in moving Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden and placing cherubim, ‘and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life’ (Genesis 3:24). Without this they would have eaten of the tree of life and be separated from God, in their sinful lives, forever, with no chance of redemption. In like manner coming of the Son of God as our Redeemer is His great act of mercy towards all, ‘that the world through Him might be saved’ (John 3:17).
God’s grace is in His not giving us what we deserve, as forgiveness of our sins through faith in His Son, though we deserve to be condemned into hell-fires. We must understand that grace is not a license to sin or continue sinning. It is not about continuing to be whatever we want to be but be transformed from within. Apostle Paul addressed this issue, ‘Shall we continue to sin that grace may abound?’ (Romans 6:1-2). Grace gives us the ability to overcome our sinful nature and not be slaves to it. Second, it is much more than mere forgiveness. We are equipped by God’s power working in us to undergo transformation from within. Our newborn status as children of God guides us into committing to follow and live for God by following His ways. Third, grace is not only a one-time gift but continues throughout life. ‘Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land’ (Matthew 27:45).
As per Jewish tradition the morning sacrifice was offered in the Temple in Jerusalem at 09.00 AM, the mid-day one at 12.00 noon and the evening sacrifice was offered at 03.00 PM. Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, was crucified at the time of morning sacrifice. He attended to His worldly responsibilities like forgiveness of the Jewish leaders, assurance to the repentant sinner and care of His mother Mary during the first part. From midday onwards the spiritual aspects came into play and the sins and all evil of all generations of mankind till His second coming were placed on Him on the cross. The darkness of all the world was put on Him and the Just God, who hates evil, turned His face from Him. Thus, it is not only our sins that were committed till the time of our baptism but throughout life are forgiven.
The devil reminds us of our sins to create doubts in our hearts. We must receive and administer grace to us daily by seeking forgiveness. In his letter to all believers, Apostle John has taught, ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:9). While the land of Israel suffered a great famine, Elimelech of Bethlehem, with his wife Naomi and two sons moved to Moab (Ruth 1:1-17). The sons married Moabite women but all the three men in the family died, leaving three widows. Naomi asked her daughters-in-law to move back to their own people, remarry and start life afresh, while she planned to move back to Bethlehem. While one of them grieved with Naomi, she went back and the other, Ruth, refused to leave Naomi alone. Ruth told Naomi not to ask her to go back ‘for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God’. This is the type of change that God’s mercy and grace bring about in a believer.
Lord Jesus commanded all believers to first love the LORD your God with our whole beings and then also, ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ (Mark 12:30-31). In addition to loving God in our broken ways, it becomes comparatively easier to love others also. That is God’s grace and mercy working for us.
Apparent signs of the working of God’s grace and mercy in our lives – The Sermon on the Mount is about living a righteous life as ‘citizens of the heavenly kingdom’. We are commanded by the Lord, ‘Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect’ (Matthew 5:48). But in this fallen world, with a sinful nature, we sin and the difference is the number and the gravity of that. So how do we follow this command of Lord Jesus in our lives here on the earth? Grace and with that mercy constitute the greatest treasure that God has given to us despite our sinful nature. We have the free will to receive or reject, as many do, and continue to live in sin.
Finally, David became king over all the tribes of Israel and for his close friendship with Jonathan, King Saul’s son, he sought any of his descendants to show mercy (2 Samuel 9:1-8). One of Jonathan’s sons, named Mephibosheth, became lame in his feet, for his nurse, on hearing the news of Saul and Jonathan’s defeat and death fled with the child. In the hurry and panic, the child fell down and suffered. On seeing him, David said, ‘Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for Jonathan your father’s sake, and will restore to you all the land of Saul your grandfather; and you shall eat bread at my table continually’. To avoid any uprising against his rule, the new king would kill all remaining heirs of the previous king but David showed mercy and love.
God has blessed us in like manner, for we were in rebellion against God, following the ways of the devil but now are made part of His family, as Mephibosheth was with David. The first effect of this grace is humility, for the indwelling Holy Spirit continues to shower this grace on us (James 4:6). For ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble’. We start understanding the greatness of this blessing and our past state, becoming humble. The devil tries to remind us of our past to lead us astray but God uses that to make us humble.
Second, thankfulness for this wonderful blessing from God, though we neither knew about it nor sought it. Lord Jesus blessed us by choosing us to bear fruit before anything was (John 15:16). When we seek Him in our prayers and receive answers, as per His promise, we are filled with awe and this leads to gratitude.
Third, sense of belonging – After their sinful disobedience, Adam and Eve not only hid from God but also blamed each other, even God for that sin (Genesis 3:10-13). God has promised, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’ (Hebrews 13:5). Lord Jesus has called us His friends and we are joint-heirs with Him.
Fourth, submission to God in obedience – David was the youngest son of Jesse, sent to shepherd the sheep, with little chance of any inheritance (1 Samuel 16:11-12). When he was brought before Prophet Samuel, the LORD said, ‘Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!’ Most of the psalms are written by him and he coordinated the worship of God with singing and music. His desire to build a magnificent Temple, the house of God in Jerusalem was denied by the LORD God but it did not stop him from getting all the materials ready (1 Chronicles 29:3-4). He told the people, ‘Because I have set my affection on the house of my God, I have given to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house, my own special treasure of gold and silver’. He gave three thousand talents of gold of Ophir, the purest available, and seven thousand talents of silver ‘to overlay the walls of the house’. A talent of gold equals 34 kg in today’s weights, and David gave more than a hundred tons of gold and 238 tons of silver out of his own wealth.
Fifth, boldness to approach God with assurance of an answer, which is based not on our works but on Him and Him alone. Lord Jesus has promised, ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you’ (Matthew 7:7). The promises of God are absolutely true and blessed with His grace and mercy we pray, claiming the answer. Though there may be a delay in the answer, for God prepares us to receive what we ask from Him.
The grace of God, like Him, is endless with neither a beginning nor an end and flows continually on the most undeserving sinners, all of us. We receive thankfully and commit ourselves to His glory through a life lived in obedience.
The grace of our LORD God fills us with His love leading us to the way of transformation from within. Then His presence within equips us to change but this only comes to be through submission to Him and His Word. From the cross He has poured out on all of humanity the very sea of His grace and those who stand in the shadow of the same cross of Calvary get filled to the overflowing. Then they readily move forward to love others and be a blessing to them. The more we distribute to others; the more is the flooding of His grace in us!
