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From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.
JOHN 1:16-17 NLT
Would you like to know why grace is so amazing and the key to victory in your life? One of the most important facets to winning any battle is knowing the greatness of the objective you’re fighting for. So to win the victory for grace, you must understand a bit about the glory of your objective.
During the Civil War in America, we’re told, the Northern troops were losing when one day the emancipationist Julia Ward Howe overheard some of them going into battle singing “John Brown’s Body.” The tune was rousing, but the lyrics were depressing. She mentioned her dismay to the Reverend James Clarke, who suggested she write new lyrics to the familiar melody.
That night she went home and prayed, and in the middle of the night she was awakened with the lyrics of what has become known as the “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” coursing through her mind. In Julia’s own recollection of the experience, the words simply and divinely flowed from her pen onto the paper.1
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat;
O, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
Chorus: Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.
It’s been said this song changed the course of the war because it inspired the Northern troops to victory by reminding them of the glory of their cause.
Grace is as great a cause as emancipation, because grace is divine emancipation and blessing. But how can such a glorious objective be described? Grace is so glorious and so divine that it takes a myriad of definitions just to attempt to understand it.
Grace for Grace
A group of us was ready to have a delicious Mexican meal after Sunday morning services. The only table available for a party of eight in the restaurant was in a corner by a large-screen television. I was able to ignore most of the scenes that flashed on the screen—until a certain hair straightener was demonstrated. I lost all awareness of the conversations around me and became mesmerized. The transformation of all the different hair types was amazing. With one lingering stroke of the gizmo, a woman’s curly hair turned into spun silk. Then another model’s unruly hair became perfectly coiffured. Moving on, a woman with stick-straight hair suddenly sported luxuriant curls.
I realized I needed this gizmo in my life. My hair needed this gizmo! Before I’d walked into that restaurant, before I’d taken a bite of my cheese enchilada, I hadn’t known I had such a need in my life. I hadn’t even known it was possible to so easily change the disposition of my hair. But now that I knew, I wanted that gizmo. I pulled a pen out of my purse and grabbed the nearest napkin. Turning to my friends, who were staring at me in perplexity, I explained that the item advertised on the TV intrigued me. They watched with me as I waited to copy the phone number and website so I could purchase this amazing tool.
Just then they announced it—the deal got better! No longer would only the gizmo come into my possession if I called the number; there would be more. Along with the straightener I would get the world’s best hairbrush. Oh, but that wasn’t all. They would also throw in some beautiful hair clips. And if I called within the next 15 minutes, they would slash the price to a mere half of what other retailers were charging for a similar item. I was hooked!
Most of us have seen the same type of offer again and again, but because they’re rarely the great deal they’re advertised to be, we’ve grown leery of anything that seems too good to be true.
So it is with many Christians. They live outside the realm of grace because it simply seems too good to be true. They constantly live under the tyranny of trying to be good enough to merit God’s favor. The abundant life Jesus promised is reduced to the drudgery of trying to follow rules, regulations, and rituals, which is no abundant life at all.
Yet grace offers us an even better deal. Yes, I’ve enjoyed my gizmo and the brush and the hairclips that came with it, but that pales in comparison to the presence of the great and amazing grace I’ve received through Christ Jesus. As with the gizmo advertised on television, I hadn’t realized how desperately I needed this grace until I began to see it applied to the life of people I knew. When I saw its transforming effect on others, I knew I had to have it!
Grace is so enormously wonderful that those who have experienced it struggle to define it. What can we say about grace?
•Grace is much more than an attitude or a disposition, yet it’s an attitude of kindness and generosity.
•Grace is even more than simply God’s favor, yet it’s God’s active goodness and attention riveted on us.
•Grace is more than merely a power, yet grace contains substantial power.
•Grace is more than God’s forgiveness, yet through it we are freely forgiven.
•Grace is more than God’s riches through Christ, yet it contains God’s richest blessings through Christ.
•Grace is more than salvation, yet it’s through God’s grace that we are saved.
•Grace is more than God canceling our past sin and remembering it no more, yet it’s by grace that God cancels our sins and buries them in the deepest sea.
•Grace is more than God’s willingness to overlook our faults and deficiencies, yet it’s because of God’s grace that He overlooks our faults and deficiencies.
What is grace? It’s all the above and more!
The Attitude of Grace
I remember my daughter Kristyn’s frustration when she was five years old and learning to ride a bike. We took her out to the cul-de-sac in front of our house and ceremoniously removed her training wheels. Kristyn felt ready to ride like a big girl, and she smiled as she climbed onto the seat. Her father held the bike steady and ran with her as she pedaled in big circles. But her confidence waned the moment her daddy let go, and she took one tumble after another.
Her three-year-old brother watched from the sidelines. After helping her up after a fall, he commandeered her bike. “Watch me!” he coached as he climbed on and began to perfectly maneuver the small pink bike. Kristyn was not amused! She’d tried so hard to follow all the biking rules she’d learned, but that made her overly selfaware and cautious. This also prohibited her from simply enjoying the freedom of riding her bike. Her little brother, on the other hand, had never had training wheels, never learned the bike rules, and never had the awareness that he could fall. He simply grabbed the bike and rode.
Did we scold Kristyn after she fell? No way! We congratulated her and praised her for trying. Did we give up on teaching her to ride a bike? No! We kept working with her until she gained the confidence and skill to ride the bike all by herself. When the day came that she could independently climb on that bike and ride like a pro, her father and I shouted and cheered!
I would describe our attitude toward Kristyn as gracious. It was one of patience, love, kindness, and perseverance. At the forefront of our hearts were Kristyn’s welfare and joy.
God’s attitude toward us is even more gracious! He’s dedicated to giving us the abundant life He promised. Jesus said, “ ‘I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly’ ” (John 10:10). When Jesus spoke these words, He wasn’t just talking about a quantity of life but a quality of life. Again, the Gospel of John records Jesus saying, “ ‘These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full’ ” (John 15:11).
God is the ultimate Father, a good Father who’s interested in the welfare and joy of His children. He looks on us with absolute kindness. The psalmist made note of this in Psalm 103:13-14: “As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.”
So many have the mistaken and unbiblical notion that God is waiting—and wanting—for us to mess up. They picture Him eager to have some excuse to disqualify us from His grace. However, grace by its very essence means beneficence, or goodness. It’s the attitude God constantly displays toward us. He’s deeply interested in our welfare. He’s for our ultimate best. To give us His best, God sent Jesus to pay the penalty our sin deserved so we could receive the lavish blessings He desires to pour out on His children. That’s one reason grace is worth fighting for!
God’s Grace Is Favor
In the Bible, the word grace is often translated “favor.” In Luke 1:28 the angel Gabriel greeted Mary by saying, “ ‘Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you.’ ” He was also saying, “Rejoice, highly graced one, the Lord is with you.” Mary’s favor came because God was aware of her and had chosen to bring through her life His greatest treasure—Jesus.
Mary probably felt ordinary or maybe even oppressed. She lived in an obscure village the notables of Jewish society looked down on. She was engaged to what today we’d call a blue-collar worker—a carpenter. Though she was of the lineage of David, as was her fiancé, Joseph, such a heritage was a liability. The Roman government, King Herod, and the family of the high priest were threatened by the prophecies of the eternal monarch who would arise from the dynasty of David. Mary’s country was under the oppressive rule of Rome. She was, in her self-description, of “lowly state” (Luke 1:48).
Until the moment of Gabriel’s visitation, Mary may not have realized the favor she held with God. God had been watching, observing, and making plans to bless and exalt Mary’s life. Mary described this grace in her song of praise when she said, “ ‘Behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me’ ” (verses 48-49). Then she prophetically offered this same grace to any who would fear the Lord: “ ‘And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation’ ” (verse 50).
Do you desire to know the favor of God on your life? Mary came to know it through the angelic announcement. However, through the Word of God, we, too, can be assured that God’s grace is on our lives. This is why the apostle Paul began every one of his letters with a greeting almost identical to “Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Grace and peace is our heavenly greeting and our constant assurance! The grace on Mary’s life allowed her to conceive in her and bring forth Jesus into the world. This miraculous process took place when the Holy Spirit came “upon” her and “the power of the Highest” overshadowed her (Luke 1:35). In the same way, God favors us so we can have Jesus living in us, and then we, too, can present the life of Jesus to the world.
The knowledge that she was favored sustained Mary through many hardships, threats, and perplexities. We’re told she “pondered” and “treasured” these things in her heart (Luke 2:19 KJV; Luke 2:51 NLT). Her life wasn’t easy or exalted. Her morality and godliness were doubted. Rome imposed taxes upon her fiancé. In her ninth month of pregnancy, she had to travel over 90 difficult miles to the overcrowded village of Bethlehem. There she gave birth to her firstborn, the Messiah, in a stable surrounded by animals because there was no room for them in the inn (Luke 2:1-7). When the child Jesus was still young, she had to flee with her family to Egypt to escape the threat of the murderous King Herod. After the death of Herod, she and her family settled in Nazareth because of a new threat from Herod’s son (Matthew 2:13-15). Mary endured all these circumstances with the knowledge that God’s favor was upon her.
We all desire the assurance of God’s favor. However, our circumstances might tempt us to deny this radical truth. Yes, we must battle to recognize God’s favor on our lives when circumstances threaten to tell us otherwise. If we don’t realize God’s favor, we’ll walk in defeat rather than in purpose, wisdom, and victory!
God’s Grace Is Power
Grace is God’s power working in us. This is a concept we will explore in greater detail in another chapter. However, I want to whet your appetite just a bit. In Ephesians 3:7, Paul described grace as the “effective working” of God’s power given to him. Grace is God’s infusion of spiritual power to do what we can’t do naturally. God never intended for us to try to live the Christian life in our own strength. If the abundant life were doable in our own strength, we would have little or no need for God. The fact is He calls us to a life that is spiritually, physically, mentally, and emotionally impossible without the power of His grace working in and through us. This spiritual power is so great, so perfectly sufficient for every need, that it’s worth the battle to experience it!
God’s Grace Is Forgiveness
Grace is the means by which God has forgiven our sins. The basis of our forgiveness now rests in our faith in Jesus Christ, not in the sacrifices we offer, the rituals we observe, or the methodologies we practice. Paul stated in Ephesians 1:7, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Did you see that? Our forgiveness is because of what Jesus has done for us, not what we have done for Jesus. That’s grace!
The word forgiveness means to cancel a debt. Nothing is more emancipating than when a debt against us is canceled! This is exactly what God, in His grace through Christ Jesus, has done for us. We didn’t deserve to be forgiven. We didn’t earn forgiveness. It was given to us. Jesus Christ lived the perfect and sinless life we should have lived. Then Jesus suffered the death our sins deserved. The wages of our sin, the just penalty for the sins we commit, is death. Jesus canceled that debt by dying in our place. That’s grace!
Have you ever owed a great debt? Perhaps you broke the law? When I was 19, I received a traffic ticket I justly deserved. I waited anxiously for the letter that would tell me the cost and requirement to deal with my infraction. When it arrived, I learned the cost would be determined at a court hearing.
My father agreed to appear before the judge with me. I felt so much guilt. I’d been on a road trip and was giddy in the company of friends. I’d been speeding, unaware of how fast I was driving. The police officer who pulled me over was truly gracious. According to California’s laws he could have taken me to jail, but he let me go with a ticket.
The court appointment came, and my father drove with me to the Ventura courthouse, about 70 miles from where we lived. He even took a day off from work. We had to go to a certain counter and register. We waited in line, hoping to just pay the debt and leave, while the woman looked for the right document. Dad pulled out his checkbook. I’d had no idea he planned to pay my debt for me. The lady returned and said I would have to appear before the judge.
We entered the designated courtroom. My only solace was my father’s presence next to me. I was shaking. He reached over, took my hand, and held it tightly until my name was called. As I moved forward to stand before the judge, Dad took a seat closer to the front of the courtroom so he could be near me.
As the judge looked down at the charges, he began to justly scold me. Had I been going even five miles faster he would have thrown me in jail for three nights. He said, “Even right now, as I look at you, I am tempted to throw you in jail as a good lesson.” Tears poured down my face. My whole frame was wrecked. Then the judge pronounced a monetary price for the penalty of my crime and dismissed me.
While I was being chastised, my father had already been filling out the check, and then he wrote in the amount required to pay for my violation. He stood up immediately to escort me out of court. As he did so he whispered, “It’s over, baby! You’re free now!”
Although Dad had been kind throughout the whole experience, I still expected a strong lecture or even a good berating over the stupidity, expense, and dangers of speeding. That’s not what happened. Instead he talked about the vacation we would soon be taking and all the great things we’d do.
My dad was a man who knew the grace of God, and he showed me grace that day. It’s a grace worth fighting for!
God’s Grace Is Blessing
We’ve already talked about how grace is God’s riches at Christ’s expense. If this were the only definition of grace, it would be glorious. Grace is the free flow of God’s blessings to us because Jesus dealt with the obstacles to those blessings.
Our God is a God of blessings. When He established the nation of Israel, He commanded the priests to put His blessing on the people. Do you know what that blessing included? You guessed it! His grace.
The LORD bless you and keep you;
The LORD make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace (Numbers 6:24-26).
God desires to bless us. It’s in His very nature to bless. Ephesians 1:3 informs us He “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” God desires to bless our lives by reason of His grace. He wants to lavish on us all the blessings Jesus deserves. Psalm 84:11 states, “The LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”
Take a moment to think through this reality with me. God is all-powerful. He has no impossibilities. He is Creator God. The evidence of His workmanship is visible all around us in the beauty of the sky, trees, plants, fruit, flowers, mountains, hills, birds, animals, oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams. As His creation, we’re naturally drawn to beauty, whether the beauty of a landscape or a human being. We love to observe it.
Recently Brian and I stayed in a room with a view of the Mediterranean Sea. Every night we sat on our balcony and watched the spectacle of God’s artwork as the sun dipped into the water. Oh, it was glorious! We were transfixed by its beauty. This God of creation and beauty is determined to bless our lives. He desires to infuse us with the manifestation of His grace. Now, isn’t it worth fighting to have the blessing of God on our lives?
God’s Grace Is Salvation
Safe to say, we, as fallen humanity, did not deserve the grace of God that saved us. Read Paul’s description of our fallen condition from Ephesians 2:1-3:
You He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
God desired to extend the grace of salvation to this lost humanity. This salvation didn’t come by the result of men recognizing their lost condition, crying out for help, or even wanting to be saved. It was “God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (Ephesians 2:4-5).
God was the initiator. God was moved by His grace to save man. His plan of salvation had to appease His righteousness and His love. His righteousness demanded a penalty against rebellion and sin. His love compelled Him to rescue rebels and sinners. God appeased both demands through the sacrifice of His righteous Son, Jesus. Jesus, as the Son of God, volunteered to wage war against sin and gave His righteous life to pay the penalty mankind’s sins incurred. This was the ultimate act of grace, but not the last. Through this act of saving grace, all the great grace of God can be realized, known, and experienced. Isn’t that a grace worth fighting for?
God’s Grace Cancels Our Sin
How often have you heard someone say, “I might forgive you, but I will never forget what you’ve done”? What does that mean? It means the person who committed the wrong will forever be identified by the wrong he did. He might not have to pay the penalty, but the stain will always be visible. Not so with God! God promises to forgive our sins and remember them no more. In prophesying the New Covenant God would make through the Messiah, the prophet Jeremiah mentions this amazing provision: “ ‘I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more’ ” (Jeremiah 31:34). It’s wonderful to have the debt of sin canceled and paid in full. It’s even more glorious to never be associated with that sin again.
As a young girl, I had the privilege of hearing Corrie ten Boom speak from the podium in the main sanctuary at my father’s church. She was the Dutch Christian who helped many Jews escape the Nazi Holocaust during World War II by hiding them in her closet, and then was imprisoned. It was not uncommon for her to come to church and take a seat in the front row. Whenever my father saw her, he was sure she had a word to share with the congregation, and he inevitably invited her to take the pulpit and speak.
On more than one occasion Corrie reminded us of this divine faculty of God to “remember our sins no more,” quoting Micah 7:18-19: “Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” After reading this Scripture she would look at all the people gathered and announce, “God throws our sin into the deepest sea and then places a sign over it saying, ‘No fishing!’ ”
God refuses to identify us by our past. He makes all things new. He gives us fresh and bright beginnings. Second Corinthians 5:17 is a familiar but powerful text that reminds us of this truth. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” So not only is the debt of sin canceled, but our evil doings are forgotten. That’s amazing grace, don’t you think?
A friend of mine was constantly troubled until she had a divine revelation. Before she was saved, she lived a turbulent life, which included nine abortions. She struggled to forgive and forget her own past. Then one day. as she was reading about God’s forgiveness, she paused on the passage in Micah 7:18-19 and prayed, God, if You forget, why do I remember?
The Spirit of the Lord spoke to her and said, I allow you to remember so you don’t forget the damage caused by your old lifestyle and return to it. However, I have chosen never to remember it or call it to mind! What a comfort that became to her. Whenever she was reminded of her past, she used it as a catalyst to thank God for all He delivered her from and to keep her from ever returning to those old ways.
Isn’t this new identity a grace worth fighting for?
God’s Grace Overlooks Our Failures
Grace puts the expectation on God, not on us. The psalmist realized this when he said, “O my soul, you have said to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord, my goodness is nothing apart from You’ ” (Psalm 16:2). Paul realized this when he wrote, “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh), nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find” (Romans 7:18). Most importantly, Jesus said, “ ‘I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing’ ” (John 15:5).
So much more can be said on this subject, so we’ll explore it in another chapter. However, I mention it now to tantalize your appetite with the graciousness of grace. God knows our frame. He knows our weaknesses. He knows our great intentions and our inability to carry them through to the end. Part of God’s grace is His divine patience with us. He is like a Father who doesn’t put unreal expectations on His children.
When I was training to be a teacher years ago, I read a book on age-appropriate expectations. It highlighted what children, based on their age, were capable of learning and absorbing. Certain concepts are more readily grasped at certain ages than others. For example, at five, children can learn to recognize letters and their sounds and read. Because of the underdevelopment of their hand muscles, however, they aren’t ready to learn cursive writing. It was important, as a teacher, not to put unreal expectations on my students.
At one point Jesus said to His disciples, “ ‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now’ ” (John 16:12). Jesus knew what the disciples were ready for and what they were not ready for. He didn’t berate them for their inability to grasp the “many things” He wanted to say to them. He would wait until they were mature and experienced enough to receive them.
Mercy is a way of defining this characteristic of covering our faults and failures. God doesn’t disqualify us when we fail. He knows our weaknesses and compensates for them with His grace. Psalm 103:11-14 speaks about this very issue: “As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.”
Isn’t God’s mercy something to fight for?
When I talk about fighting, I’m echoing Paul’s commission to Timothy: “Fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12). There is such a thing as a good fight. A good fight is a cause worthy of all our efforts and discipline. It’s worth all the opposition and animosity. It’s worth the exertion. It’s worth the time. It’s worth the dedication. It’s worth the fight, because grace is the riches of God lavished on us through Christ Jesus.
Did you notice that all these attributes of grace belong to God? That’s because grace is exclusive to God. We put too many expectations on ourselves. Grace is not natural to our nature. We might have bits of grace, acknowledge our need for grace, or even admire the beauty of grace, but that’s because even in our fallen images we still bear residual characteristics of the image of God. The actual source of all grace is God.
The apostle Peter makes this clear when he states God is the God of all grace. First Peter 5:10 (NIV) says, “The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” We can find and receive this marvelous grace in only one place—in the throne room of grace. Our heavenly Father longs to infuse our lives with this grace so others will see the magnificent grace of Jesus through us. Don’t you long to be more than you are? Don’t you want this divine grace operating in your life?
Dear Lord, open my eyes to behold the wonders of Your grace. Show me the riches of what You desire me to have and hold through Christ Jesus. Remove all my misconceptions about grace and replace them with truths found in Your Word. Give me eyes to see, ears to hear, meekness to receive, and an understanding heart to believe. Thank You for the amazing grace You have richly bestowed on me through Christ Jesus. In Jesus’s name, amen!
For consideration:
1. What misconceptions have you held about grace?
2. How is grace even more than you thought?
3. Which aspect of grace do you need to appropriate the most?
4. Read Psalm 103 and write down all the gifts of God’s grace you discover.
5. List three reasons God’s grace is worth fighting for.