The grace of God is one of the most comforting truths of the gospel.  It saddens me that too often we are forced to deal with the many false teachings on grace to really appreciate the doctrine of grace itself.  Being saved by grace does not mean that there is nothing for man to do to be saved.  Paul’s great statement in Ephesians 2:8 proves this.  He does not only say that by grace we have been saved, he says that we have been saved by grace through faith.  Faith is our part in being saved by grace.

Some try to apply the words, “it is the gift of God” in Ephesians 2:8 to faith, but that is clearly the wrong exegesis of that passage.  Those words apply to the salvation that comes by grace through faith.  It is the salvation of that passage that is a gift from God, not faith.

The Bible is filled with examples of people being blessed by God’s grace, yet, the blessing depends on the recipient doing something.  Noah was saved from the flood by the grace of God, but he had to build an ark.  The Israelites were given the city of Jericho by the grace of God, but they had to march around the city and blow trumpets.  Naaman was healed from leprosy, but he had to dip seven times in the Jordan River.  These passages show us plainly that just because God demands that man take some kind of action to receive a blessing from Him does not change the fact that the blessing comes by grace.

Yes, God demands that man obeys the gospel to be saved (Romans 1:16), but this salvation is still by grace through faith.  Why?  We are saved by grace because He has done for us that which we could not do for ourselves, beginning with the sending of His Son (John 3:16).

Man needed an appropriate sacrifice for his sins but could not provide one for himself.  The animal sacrifices of the old law would not suffice (Hebrews 10:1-4), but God prepared a body for His Son, that through the offering of that body, we could be sanctified (Hebrews 10:5-10).  This was all a matter of grace.  We did not deserve it, nor did we have the ability to earn it.  God simply acted out of the loving-kindness of His heart, and thankfully, His Son, Jesus, was willing to comply.  Paul said, that Christ made Himself nothing by taking on the form of a servant and being made in the likeness of men (Philippians 2:7).  That is grace.

Providing a sacrifice was not the end of God’s grace.  Blood had to be shed, without which, there could be no forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22).  Jesus did this for us on Calvary’s cross (Philippians 2:8), tasting death for everyone (Hebrews 2:9).  But, even the death of Christ was not enough.  God had to raise Him from the dead, not allowing the gates of Hades to prevail (Matthew 16:18).  He did this, resulting in the justification of all who believe in Jesus (Romans 4:25).

The grace of God extends even further than our original justification.  By grace, God has provided us with the means to have our future sins forgiven.  The same Son who died for us on the cross now serves as our advocate with the Father to help secure our forgiveness when we sin (1 John 1:7-2:1).

Thank God for His grace, demonstrated by all the things He did for us freely; things that we had no control over and could not do for ourselves.  By God’s grace, we get what we do not deserve—the forgiveness of sins and the hope of heaven; and, we avoid what we do deserve—condemnation and an eternity of punishment.  We should all be thankful for the grace of God that we receive through faith.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.