God’s grace is amazing—it is His gift of salvation and provides forgiveness that leads to redemption and reconciliation. God’s grace is His unmerited favour—a gift we don’t deserve but don’t have to earn. God loves us despite our sins and extends His mercy to those who humbly repent, honestly confess and genuinely believe. His grace is an expression of His love for the sinner despite his or her sin. God is a good Father who longs for His children to return to Him. He is the Creator who wishes His creation to live in harmony.
The relationship with God is based on grace, not merit. God doesn’t reject the sinner; He seeks to get him or her out of sin. God accepts us based on His grace, not our performance. Good behaviour is a response to God’s grace, not a way to earn His blessing. Acceptance by God comes before performance by us—He first accepts us and our performance follows acceptance by God. This is the glorious Gospel of God’s grace! People are free to accept or reject this gracious invitation. We are free to choose, but we are not free from the consequences of this vital choice and other choices in life. Choose wisely.
Grace as Instruction
And then there’s something more about grace. Consider the following.
‘For the grace of God has appeared, brining salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds’ (Titus 2:11–14).
God’s grace not only brings salvation (v 11), but is also ‘instructing us’ towards godly living (v 12). His grace is instruction towards a lifestyle pleasing to God: ‘to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly’ (v 12). It doesn’t just forgive our sins and the wrongs we have committed, but also directs us to live a life as God originally intended. Grace is instruction in the ways of God. There is a ‘blessed hope’ (v 13) that empowers us to live godly for ‘good deeds,’ based on faith in Christ who died for us (v 14). To believe in God also means to live for God the way He instructs.
Grace, Merit and Works
Christianity is not merit based, but founded on grace. Christ saves us ‘by grace through faith’ (Eph 2:6, 8). We are not saved by works (v 9), but for works (v 10), the very good works God has prepared before we were even born! It is a new lifestyle by grace for godly living with a zeal with good deeds (Titus 2:11–14). God didn’t create us for bad things, but for us to do ‘good works.’ God’s forgiveness and acceptance come first—and He empowers us for godly living. We are to let our light shine by good works in such a way that people will glorify God, not us (Matthew 5:16). We are saved by grace, not merit, but for good works to God’s glory.
True faith is expressed by works, else it’s dead faith (James 2:14–17), just as the body without the spirit is dead (v 26). Works is the consequence of faith in God and grace received by God. We don’t perform good works in order to be saved (religion); we do good works because we are saved (Gospel). It's the outworking of our faith empowered by God (Philippians 2:12–13). It’s simply a natural consequence to please God in righteous living after He poured out grace lavishly and generously on us. Wouldn’t you be good to someone who was good to you? We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). We do good because He was been good to us! Through the ‘abundance of grace’ and the ‘gift of righteousness’ we have received, we are to live a life pleasing to God (Romans 5:17).
The same grace we have received we extend to others. Not forgiving others after been forgiven ourselves would reveal a false heart and be displeasing to God (Matthew 18:21–35). We are to forgive others as God has forgiven us (Matthew 6:14–15; Ephesians 4:32). Living in sin after being rescued from it or not forgiving after receiving forgiveness would simply show that something is fundamentally wrong with us. There is always fruit to show the substance of genuine faith. Fruit reveals who we truly are see (Matthew 7:17–20; Luke 6:43–45). And that fruit depends on one’s repentance.
Forgiveness and Repentance
When Peter first preached, he called the listeners to ‘repent’ for the forgiveness of sins and to receive God’s Spirit (Acts 2:38). He also admonished the crowd to be saved from the perversity of that generation (v 40). There is perversity in each generation from which we must be saved and turn away from. We must be saved from sin and all its different expressions in our day and age. Some things might be ‘in fashion’ or ‘trendy,’ yet only God’s moral law is what should guide us in our lifestyle choices. We should not take these things lightly. Playing with fire will get us burned at some stage.
It is sometimes wrongly assumed that grace is a ‘free ticket’ or ‘licence’ to sin. Some think, ‘I can sin because Christ died for me and He will forgive me anyway.’ True, grace abounds where there is sin (Romans 5:20–21), but it would be a wrong logic to sin more in order for grace to abound still more (Romans 6:1–3). Christ’s death on the cross for sin is also a symbol for us dying to sin. Sinning on purpose because we can just get forgiveness from God would be dishonourable to the One who died for our salvation from sin. Paul asked, ‘How can we who died to sin still live in it?’ (Romans 6:2) We are called to live and walk ‘in newness of life’ (v 4) and have our lives renewed on a continuous basis (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:23). We are to express a new lifestyle, pleasing to God (Ephesians 4:17–32), one worthy of His calling (v 1), and one imitating God by walking in love (5:1–2). We are saved by grace, and this in order to live a life pleasing to God, not to continue living in sin. True grace is not a licence to sin, but an instruction for godly living.
Forgiveness requires confession and repentance. The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer called forgiveness without confession and repentance ‘cheap grace.’ It would be a justification of sin, not the sinner, and not changing our wrong lifestyles.[1] This is not biblical grace. Biblical grace is costly, it’s precious! Whenever we sin, we must also confess and repent. God forgives and restores. Grace is not cheap—it cost Christ His life! We cannot treat it as ‘cheap.’ We cannot waste it or take it for granted. We must value it highly because it cost Christ everything.
The forgiveness of sin Jesus offers comes from confessing sin, repenting from it and believing in His work of forgiveness, love and grace in the atonement on the cross. Repentance means a ‘turning around,’ or a ‘turning away’ from sin. John wrote the things he wrote to the believers ‘so that you may not sin’ (1 John 2:1, emphasis added). The purpose of biblical instruction is ‘training in righteousness’ and being equipped to serve in ‘every good work’ (2 Timothy 3:16–17). But John was aware that sometimes we do still sin; as we all, although we try to do the right thing, we sometimes get it wrong. So John goes on to write that although he doesn’t want anyone to sin, if we do sin, Jesus is our Advocate, the One who speaks for us based on the sacrificial, atoning death on the cross (1 John 2:1–2). As a consequence of God’s goodness and grace in Christ, we are to keep God’s commandments (v 3), which is the evidence of truly knowing God, and the way to perfect God’s love in us (vv 4–5). There is beauty and power in obedience, and it is based on love (John 14:15).
Denying our sins (1 John 1:8) would be fooling ourselves; confessing them brings forgiveness (v 9). Making excuses, blaming others or trying to conceal our sins is foolish; an honest confession will lead to compassion, mercy and forgiveness (Proverbs 28:13). Hiding sins and refusing to confess will cause us trouble and rob us of our sleep as our conscience will weigh heavy on us; confessing sins to God leads to forgiveness and peace of mind (see Psalm 32:1–5). It’s ok to be honest towards God; He is merciful and compassionate.
There is an initial repentance where we confess our sins, turn away from a sinful lifestyle and surrender our lives to God, but there will always be moments in life where we need to confess our sins in this process of sanctification. We become a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), but some old habits need time to change. There is an ongoing process of renewing our minds (Romans 12:2) and lifestyles (Ephesians 4:17–24). It’s important that we are sincere in our repentance and relationship towards God: the quality of our lifestyle depends on the depth of our repentance. We are called to become like Christ (Romans 8:29) and be complete as God Himself is (Matthew 5:48). We are also to be merciful just as God is merciful (Luke 6:36). God Himself is our standard of excellence to strive for and He will empower us on this journey—by His grace! Other people may serve as good examples, yet we are called to imitate Christ, not other Christians.
Living God’s Way
Grace is instruction to live God’s way. Scripture is teaching us how to do so. Here are a few key issues. We are to live in love, purity, wisdom and God’s will (Ephesians 5:1–16). God wants us to live in freedom, serve in love, and walk and live by His Spirit (Galatians 5:13–26). We should live in unity, serve God’s purpose, walk in humility and honour, and follow Christ’s example in all things (Philippians 2:1–11). Living God’s way is to be heavenly-minded, living in humility, compassion, love and forgiveness, and living according to His Word and for His will and glory (Colossians 3:1–4, 12–17). A life surrendered to God with a renewed mind will enable us to understand and live according to God’s will, serve in the gifts He was ordained and a live in love without hypocrisy, genuine brotherly love, honour for one another, diligently serving God, having strength during hardships, being a blessing to others, living in unity with those around us, and responding to to evil by overcoming it by good (Romans 12).
As we follow God’s instructions, the life of pleasing God according to His will becomes possible. This will bring blessing for us and everyone around us. Remember, we are free to choose, but we are not free from the consequences of our choices. Choose wisely.
[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Nachfolge. Gütersloh: Chr. Kaiser, 1994. 29.
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