Grace is a weighty matter.  It is the single point of theology that separates Christianity from every other religion.  What does it mean to you?  How would you define Biblical grace to someone if you were asked?

For those of us who hope in Christ, who have a pastor who preaches the gospel in truth, we should at least be familiar with the word.  Perhaps what comes to mind first is Ephesians 2:8-9, that “by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”   Many of you have memorized those verses, if not; I would greatly encourage you to.

My hope is that after today, you will have a greater understanding of what grace truly is Biblically, and we will correct what I perceive to be a common misunderstanding or misuse of the word.  Specifically, I am going to attempt to show, Biblically, how grace must always be Christo-centric, rather than self-centered.  Why is this important?  Primarily two reasons:  First, if grace is primarily spoken of as being centered on the individual, it robs God of His glory.  Secondly, if grace is centered on the individual, it ironically may cause a person to struggle with legalism, and lose faith in their salvation.  If that doesn’t make sense, I’ll explain why later.

What do I mean by self-centered grace?  If you think of grace as being this invisible covering extended to you daily, that is essentially thinking of grace in terms of self.  What I want to change is when we speak of or think of grace, before first dwelling on the implications of grace to us, I want us to see and savor the source of grace, namely, the blood of Christ shed for all who believe.  The color of grace is crimson.  Grace was fulfilled through pierced hands and feet on a cross.

While it is true that grace covers us daily, it would be a mistake to think of grace as growing as we sin.  This misunderstanding was present in Biblical times, as well as today.  Sometimes people misrepresent the intentions of the people of Rome when they respond to Paul’s explanation of salvation by grace through faith.  Romans 6:1-3 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”  If God’s grace grew with sin, then His work on the cross would be more glorious the greater amount of sin His death “covered”.  This is not necessarily an appeal towards licentiousness as some claim, rather a wanting to see the glory of God increase by grace abounding all the more over sin.  That is heresy by the way, because that was the misunderstanding Paul was correcting.

No, we cannot add to what was accomplished by Christ.  In one moment of time, the shed blood of the perfect spotless Lamb of God, bearing the wrath of God for sin, purchased grace for all time.  Limitless grace, infinite grace.  The infinite wrath of a Holy God absorbed by the infinitely holy, pure sacrifice, purchased infinite grace.  This is why whether Jesus died for 1 person or 20 Billion, His sacrifice would be the same.  The grace available would be the same.  His death would be no more or less glorious.

So when we speak of grace, it must not in our minds be separated from the once and for all sacrifice of Christ.  His broken body and blood is our grace, fully.  It is finished.

Now, with that established, it may be apparent how a misunderstanding of grace could lead one towards legalism.  On the one hand, yes it is true that we, as redeemed children of God, still sinners in the flesh, experience grace daily.  However, the belief that we are in need of “additional grace” to cover sins for today can be very unhelpful.  “I know Christ paid for all my sins before, but is there grace enough for what I’ve done today?”  “I was doing so well, but now I’ve fallen, I need to alter my behavior to make sure I don’t “run out” of grace.”  These are the lies of Satan to keep someone away from God, when they should be running towards Him.  Is Christ to be crucified again?  Was He just kidding when He said “It is finished” and sat down at the right hand of God?

You are not accepted because grace covered 90 sins, and you only committed 89… whew!  Just barely made it, right?!  In truth, you are much worse than you realize.  You haven’t offended God once, or twice, or 89 times; you’ve offended Him infinitely even on your very “best” day, because He is INFINITELY holy, and you are not.  It is not a matter of doing, but rather being.  Therefore, you need a new name, you need to be reborn, you need to be a new creation, a new being.  Jesus accomplished this for you on the cross.  His shed blood was and is sufficient.  Therefore, my position before God is not based on my number of sins vs available grace, but on the grace born from my reconciliation to God through Christ.   Let your hope be singular in Christ.  Look to Christ crucified, and see your salvation and a grace that is infinite.  Let your hope not be in “grace enough”, but in the all sufficiency of Jesus Christ.  He is our grace, and He is more than enough.

My encouragement is to retrain yourself to view grace in this way, as being complete and all sufficient through the blood of Christ.  Let every moment of every day be an opportunity to remember that you live because He died.  Let the peace of God, through the infinite grace of Christ’s shed blood, and love for Him rule your mind and heart.  Colossians 3:1-4 – “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

Grace and Peace,

Adam