It is a typical moment in a typical church. The choir blends its talents in melodious harmony singing “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found; was blind, but now I see.” The pastor moves to the pulpit and begins a dissertation that includes such words as “grace”, “mercy”, “justification”, “sanctification”, and “redemption”. There are occasional “amen, though they have become muted as the years have progressed, and “amen” have become less fashionable.
After the service, you can hear the congregation buzzing about how great it was. And yet, were you to ask the average person, even some from the “amen corner”, just what the pastor meant by some of those words, they would possibly look at you as though you were from the CIA or the FBI interrogating them needlessly over something that didn’t matter.
The truth is that many of us use words, “spiritual buzz words”, if you will, on a daily basis, but if asked to define them, we would suddenly remember another appointment and run for the nearest exit. One of those words is the subject of this lesson. It is that amazing word, “grace”. It’s something we all want, something we all claim, and something we all appreciate. What we do know about it, we like; but what we don’t know about it, we all too often ignore. Let’s we begin an exploration of what may well be the most awesome aspect of all of God’s nature, His grace. Its facets are so all-encompassing; its attributes God is perfect love. That is His nature expressed. But that love takes two forms: a negative form, His mercy, and a positive form, His grace. His mercy is that aspect of His love that withholds from us the judgment we deserve. His grace is the opposite side of God’s love. It grants to us enablement we do not deserve. It allows us to do and to be what we do not deserve to do or be. Once His mercy has overlooked our frailties and pardoned our sins, His grace moves into our lives and literally allows us to experience the life of God in our sinful bodies. Mercy is His love revealed. Grace is His love bestowed. Mercy is deliverance from. Grace is freedom in. Both are equally divine revelations of who He is. You cannot separate them, and yet you must.
What is the grace of God?
- It is the delightful realization that inability is victory.
- It is the divine energy that follows emptying.
- It is the presence of God in the active tense.
- It is the meaning of “free” taken to its limits.
- It is doing what you cannot do.
- It is God living in us, doing what only He can do.
- It is spiritual power in a physical container.
- It is supernatural ability in a natural environment.
- It is uncommon power in common vessels.
- It is Christ in you; Christ in me… our hope of glory.
Until you experience it, you cannot understand it. Without His grace to interpret it, you cannot recognize it. Yet, once you have become the recipient of the grace of God, everything you do without it, robs you of it; and every time you presume upon it, you lose it. Because the moment grace appears deserved, it disappears. The moment grace is cosponsored, it dies. And thus we learn that though we can never totally understand its marvels, we need not totally understand it to appreciate it.
There are many definitions of grace that have stood the test of time. To some, it is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.
To others, it is the free, unmerited favor of God. It is certainly both of those. But perhaps those definitions fall short in one regard. They fail to communicate the active tense of the word. There is nothing passive about the grace of God. It flows out of the heart of God into the lives of His own with such force and power that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. It demonstrates itself with such intensity that Satan lives in utter fear of the word itself. No, it is more than unmerited favor. It is unmerited power! It is the energy of God enabling man by doing for man what man cannot do.
Four elements must be remembered for grace to be grace. Grace is:
- a- undeserved
- b- free
- c- eternal & supernatural
- d- sovereign
First of all, it is undeserved. If you deserve it, it’s not grace. Grace means that God looked down and realized that you, in and of yourself deserved nothing. So He gave you everything. To the degree that you think you deserve it even a little, you lose it. You steal God’s glory when you claim God’s grace by merit. God’s grace by definition cannot be merited, so like oil and water, the two don’t mix. (NKJV)
And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant… (I Timothy 1:12)
“I obtained mercy and grace enabled me”. There’s the balance. Look at Paul’s credentials for the ministry: He was a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent murderer. So God had mercy on him, He forgave him, shortened His anger, overlooked his past, and gave him a clean slate and then He poured grace upon him; He filled Him with divine enabling power. In other words, He saved him, changed him, and put him in the ministry. Never could Paul feel worthy of the calling. He was the “chief of sinners” in his own eyes. Never could Paul feel that he possessed power apart from God. Paul understood grace. It was undeserved.
Second, it is free. If you try to earn it or pay God back for it, you defile His Holiness. He gives grace because He loves. He loves because He is. You cannot earn a gift; once you do, it becomes wages, not a gift. Grace is free. Always free. Paul said:
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich. (II Corinthians 8:9)
Grace cost God everything. It costs us nothing. The minute it has strings attached, it becomes religion. As long as it is completely free, it is grace.
Third, grace is eternal and supernatural. It always works in the spirit realm for spiritual purposes with eternal consequences. Even when God provides grace in the physical realm, it is always for God’s glory and the kingdom’s good. Grace is a reflection of the eternal nature of God which is immutable. It will always be what it always has been… eternal in nature. Paul wrote: (NKJ)
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;
and perseverance, character, and character, hope. (Romans 5:1-4)
Whatever grace God has given us we glory in, not because of what it does for us, but because of what it does in us for His glory. Even grace in tribulation is profitable, not because it reduces the testing, but because it produces eternal fruit in the form of character. Grace is always eternal, and by definition, it is always supernatural. If God is doing it, it is supernatural. What you can do for God is not grace; that’s works. What God can do for you is grace. Never confuse the two.
And finally, grace is sovereign. That is, God gives it to whomsoever He wills, whenever He wills, regardless of whether or not we feel they deserve it. If they deserved, it wouldn’t be grace. Paul wrote to Timothy of the grace of God in this way:
…(He) has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began… (II Timothy 1:9)
God will have mercy on whom He will, and He will give grace to whom He will, with no regard whatsoever to man’s determinations or man’s expectations. Grace is a sovereign, free, undeserved gift that always bears eternal fruit. If any of those four elements are missing, it’s not grace. It may be from God, but it’s not grace. Grace is free, unmerited, sovereign, and eternally supernatural.
Dr. Henry Thomas is an Ordained Assembly of God pastor and is available to minister to your church or group. He is a powerful speaker that has earned him the nickname – Fireball – His presentations and sermons are content rich. He can be contacted at: www.henryathomas.com or henry@henryathomas.com
Tags: Gods Grace, Mercy
