The Truth About Grace
Scripture: Romans 1:17-18; Titus 2:11-12; Ephesians 3:20; Hebrews 13:9
When Paul opened his letter to the Christians in Rome, he wrote, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.’” (Romans 1:17) In this statement he makes it known that God’s righteousness is revealed in the gospel on the ground of faith as the absolute condition of salvation and is only effective in those who believe. So he says “…in the righteousness of God is from faith to faith.” As we grow and continue in faith, more and more of God’s righteousness is revealed. But listen to what he said following this statement in verses 18-19. “(18) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, (19) because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.” (Romans 1:18-19) He said that God has also revealed His wrath against all of the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. God’s feelings towards sin are not hidden and are not a mystery for He has revealed it to mankind. Now this is what I want you to take note of: Paul said the men doing the ungodly and unrighteous things “suppress the truth in unrighteousness…”
New Light, Paul is talking about people who profess to be Christians. He said that when we attempt to justify the wrongs that we do what we are really doing is suppressing the truth concerning what the Bible says about sin. In other words, we hold down, suppress, imprison, and bridle the truth when it interferes with our desire to sin. Paul said we suppress the truth in our unrighteousness because “what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.” God has shown us a lie that justifies how we are living. Paul spends the rest of the opening chapter of the book of Romans giving us examples of how the unrighteousness of men – the unrighteousness of Christians – was suppressing the truth in the Church at Rome.
New Light, the title of the message this morning is “The Truth About Grace.” The passages that we just read in Romans provide the launching point for the message this morning. What we are going to see this morning is what the Spirit says about grace and what grace truly does because of how it has been distorted in the Church. As it is currently taught, the purpose of grace allows us to justify, continue in, distort, and celebrate sin as an inherent weakness Christians that cannot overcome, and therefore is covered under grace. This is not what grace does, actually it’s the opposite.
Let me share a few statements that we make in the Church about grace that are simply not truth. These statements, because they are believed and accepted as truth, are great examples of how we “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18). I am sure all of you have heard the statement “I am a sinner saved by grace.” I am sure you have also heard the companion statement, “Grace covers a multitude of sins, or my sins are covered by God’s grace.” Then there are the “grace” statements that we say in our efforts to explain why something may or may not have happened. “By the grace of God I survived such and such. By the grace of God I am what I am. By the grace of God I got the job over all of the other candidates. By the grace of God; by the grace of God, by the grace of God!!!” I want you to know that, while some of these statements sound spiritual and sound true, they are not, especially the ones that justify our continuing in sin. The grace of God has great power, but to the surprise of some and contrary to what many teach in the Church, GRACE DOES NOT COVER SIN!!! New Light, the Bible does not teach this. Christians who continue to sin, believing that grace is covering them, are suppressing the truth in their unrighteousness, and are slowly walking away from God into an eternity in hell. You see, the problem is we rely on what we hear from the pulpit versus going to God’s Word and reading it for ourselves. We cannot continue to do this. So, if grace is not covering all of my sins, then what is grace doing? What is the purpose of grace? What is the truth about grace? Well, let’s go to the Word and find out.
In order to understand the purpose of grace, we must know what it is and what it is not. So, let’s define grace according to its use in Scripture. The Hebrew word for grace is “chen” and it means, “kindness, favor, precious or acceptance.” The Greek word for grace is “charis” and it means “the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in life.” Grace marks the difference between believers and unbelievers. When we examine the Greek word for grace, it denotes God doing something upon the heart which becomes evident in how we live. People tend to confuse grace and mercy. Grace is not mercy. Briefly, if we sin and repent of that sin, God extends to us mercy instead of executing on us the judgment for that sin. But the key to receiving His mercy is to have a repentant heart. Now, let’s talk about what grace does. Turn with me to Ephesians 2:8-9.
“(8) For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, (9) not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) Remember the definition of grace from the Greek word “charis” is “the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in life.” The first act of grace is salvation – we have a heart change when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Now once we are saved through grace, grace begins to work within us, and that work is not the work of a blanket or eraser. When you are cold in bed, what do you do? You grab a blanket and cover yourself to remove the coldness and get warm. When you are writing with a pencil on a piece of paper and make a mistake, what do you do? You take the eraser and erase the mistake and correct it. Many people see grace as a blanket that covers sin or an eraser that erases sin. Do you all remember Linus from Charlie Brown? Linus always carried his blanket with him – it was his security. He never left home without it. Many Christians believe they are carrying grace around with them “in their minds” so that when they mess up, they sprinkle a little grace on it which covers or removes the sin and they keep right on going. They believe that they have unlimited grace for their unlimited sins. New Light, again, grace gives us access to salvation, but it does not act as a blanket to continuously cover sin. Remember what I said earlier. Grace is what marks a believer from an unbeliever. Unbelievers have access to God’s grace, now you need to hear me, so that they can receive salvation. That is the only time that it is available to them. But as I said, once we are saved, grace goes into action and the first thing it does, now get this, is to teach us to reject sin! Turn to Titus chapter two and we are going to look at verses eleven and twelve.
“(11) For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, (12) teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.” (Titus 2:11-12) Now let’s read these verses from the Amplified Bible. It says, “(11) For the [remarkable, undeserved] grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. (12) It teaches us to reject ungodliness and worldly (immoral) desires, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives [lives with a purpose that reflect spiritual maturity] in this present age.” (Titus 2:11-12 Amp) The first thing I want you to see is that the grace of God can bring salvation to all – but we know that all people will not accept it. God has offered salvation to everyone, but it is up to the individual to accept or reject His offer. For the person who says “yes” then grace begins to do something. Paul says that the grace of God is, “teach(ing) us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.” Paul wrote that grace teaches (instructs, trains and disciplines) us to deny (reject in all forms) ungodliness (wickedness) and worldly lusts. Grace does not cover sins; it teaches us to reject it! Grace does not erase sin; it instructs us how to not do it in the first place.
Think about grace like this: you get into a bad financial situation and your only hope is to get some money fast. You make the bad decision to rob a bank. In the process of attempting to rob the bank you get caught. As you stand before the judge, with your family members and friends sitting behind you with their heads bowed and shoulders slumped in embarrassment, and your enemies on the other side smiling and laughing at your misfortunes, you explain to the judge why you did it. The judge pronounces you guilty and deserving of prison time. However, he chooses to give you another chance if you can pay the fines and promise not to do it again. You committed the crime because you were in dire financial trouble, so you know you cannot pay the fines. You hang your head realizing that you are about to be sentenced to jail – separated from your family that you committed the crime to try and help. Just when you thought all was lost, a stranger steps up and agrees to pay all your fines as well as give you a donation to help you and your family get back on your feet. Now, you are facing prison time and huge fines and suddenly it is all being take care of for you, would you not be grateful? Because of the grace extended towards you in this situation, would you not feel humbled and so grateful that you would make a vow never to get into this situation again? Of course, you would. All of us would. Now if we would do this in the natural, why do we not do this when it pertains to sin? When it comes to sin, in this situation, we accept everything the person (the grace) does for us in presence of the judge and then leave the courthouse and do the exact same thing the next day expecting more “grace” to be given to us. Does this make even a little bit of sense? Grace empowers us to reject all things not of Christ! Grace teaches us to say no to sin and yes to godliness. If we are saying no to sin, then we are listening to and obeying the lessons that grace is teaching us! Now turn to Romans chapter five.
Let’s read verses twenty and twenty-one. “(20) Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, (21) so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:20-21) God’s grace empowers us so that we have the power to not sin. Some read verse twenty and walk away with the belief that when we are caught up in great sin there is enough grace to cover it. But I want you to see something. The word “abound” in this verse are two different Greek words. The first is pleonazo¯ and the second is huperperisseuo¯. The first “abound” means “to do, make or be more, or to increase.” The second “abound” means “to super abound, abound much more, exceeding.” If sin is trying to abound in our lives, God’s grace is so powerful that it super abounds or exceedingly abounds over the sin! What this verse is saying is there is more than enough grace available to us to enable us to resist the sin regardless of how strong the temptation. Do you see how this changes the thought that grace is covering our sins? When we sin, mess up and/or miss the mark, it is at this point that we need God’s mercy, not grace. His mercy is always extended toward us as believers after we sin, but His grace has been made available to empower us not to sin. We all need God’s mercy because with God’s mercy we are not getting what we deserve. While we might deserve God’s wrath and judgment upon us, we receive mercy instead – Praise God!!! But as I said, grace, on the other hand, is what God gives us so that we have the ability and the power to do what is right – we just need to make the choice. Paul said that “grace might reign through righteousness…” When we are making the right choices, grace reigns! Now let’s look at what is captured in Romans 6:14.
“For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:14) The only time sin had dominion over us was before we were born again. Sin cannot triumph over a Christian because we are under grace! We are under the power of grace! God's promises to us are more powerful and effectual for the crushing of sin than our promises to God. Sin may struggle in a believer and may cause us a great deal of trouble, but it shall not have dominion; it may vex us, but it shall not rule over us. Why? Because we are not under the law, but under grace, not under the law of sin and death, but under the law of the spirit of life, which is in Christ Jesus. Now turn to Ephesians chapter two and we will begin reading at verse four.
“(4) But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, (5) even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), (6) and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (7) that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-7) Paul wrote we have been made alive together in Christ because by grace we have been saved. Then in verse six he wrote we have been made to sit together in heavenly places with Him. But what I want you to focus on is found in verse seven. Paul wrote, “that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Notice that Paul describes God’s grace as “exceeding riches.” The value of God’s grace in our lives cannot be measured so therefore it is important that we understand what grace is and how to apply it in our lives. God’s grace empowers us to be saved, to stand, and to serve Him. We all know that we are saved through grace, but once we are saved there is more grace to be experienced because it is there to teach and empower us. Grace is the gift that God gives us in order to empower us to serve Him in a wicked, deprived world. Now turn to Second Corinthians 9:8.
It says, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” (Second Corinthians 9:8) Paul wrote that God would ensure that we have “all grace” in order to do what? All grace so that we will always have whatever we need in a given situation to handle our business – or better said, to handle His business. You see, again, grace is not covering anything – it is empowering. Now turn to Hebrews 4:16.
It says, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) As a child of God we have access to the throne of God through Jesus Christ our Savior. We can boldly enter into His presence and receive more grace – grace to stand and grace to serve. God will give us what we need and, in this case, more grace which will empower us to fulfill our purpose. The grace that is needed in our time of need again is not covering anything, it is empowering. I could have titled this message “God’s Empowering Grace”, but my focus is to help all of us to understand the truth about grace. Now turn with me to Hebrews 13:9.
“Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. (Hebrews 13:9) I opened this message with Romans 1:18 and what Paul wrote about men who “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” through their ungodliness and unrighteousness. This verse hits to that. The writer of Hebrews warned the people about not being carried away with various and strange doctrines, but that the heart should be established by grace. Again, when our hearts are established by grace, we are in a better position to recognize truth and stand on it. Here grace is not covering, but establishing through its teachings as we read in Titus 3:12. Grace allows and empowers us to adhere to the truth. Our hearts are established with the love of God and then we will love the truth and love it in the right manner. When our hearts are established by grace, which empowers us to stand firm, when we are thrown into trials and temptations, we should have some settled principles on which we can rely – some fixed points of belief that will sustain our souls. And, my friend, those points cannot be “I am just a sinner saved by grace. So, once again, grace will cover this sin that I do.” No, we have to take the stand that I live under grace and grace empowers me and it can empower you.
I want to close this message with what is found in Ephesians 4:29. It says, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” (Ephesians 4:29) Now I want you to listen closely to this point because you could miss it. We are told not to let any corrupt word proceed out of our mouth but only words that are necessary for edification. Who are we edifying? Those that we are interacting with. And what happens when we edify them? We impart grace to them! We are not giving them grace to cover their sins; we are imparting grace that empowers through the truth of God’s word! Remember, grace is about what God does in our hearts – divine influence. So, when we are edifying others we are conveying grace, or divine influence, to those we are talking to.
New Light, grace is extremely important to our lives, but not like it is often taught in our churches. We teach that grace covers sins. We teach that grace is given to us when we overcome something. We teach that grace was shown to us when we survive something. We teach that because we cannot stop sinning God shows us grace in acknowledgement that we are human and weak. This is not what grace does. Grace empowers. Grace teaches. Grace is God’s influence on our hearts and if God has influenced our hearts and we have not been changed then there was no influence. When you leave here this morning, I want you to walk out of these doors knowing that God’s grace is empowering you to change, not covering you so you can remain the same. “(20) Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, (21) to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
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