Grace is beautiful—it’s God’s gift of salvation, forgiveness, redemption and reconciliation. It is also God’s instruction and empowerment for godly living, a life pleasing to the God who saved us. We are to live a life worthy of this gracious calling (Ephesians 4:1), reflected in a lifestyle of the newness of life (vv 17–32). Sincere people desire to live the right way before God, but often we fail and feel miserable. Our identity is at risk of being shaped by our mistakes. This is dangerous, but there’s a remedy. You are not the mistakes you have made. Here’s why.
There’s yet another aspect of grace that sheds light on something we have already touched on: and that is, God’s gracious acceptance. God’s acceptance comes at the beginning of our salvation. He accepts us first, and then changes us and shows us how He wants us to live. We are saved by grace through faith; not by works but for works (Ephesians 2:8–10). Acceptance is powerful.
Acceptance in Christ
Paul wrote that God ‘predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ,’ based on ‘His grace, which He [God] freely bestowed on us in the Beloved’ (Ephesians 1:5–6, emphasis added). Christ is God’s ‘beloved Son’ (Matthew 3:17) in whom we have redemption through the forgiveness of our sins (Ephesians 1:7). God’s acceptance of repenting and believing sinners is in Christ, the Beloved. Although we are lost in sin, God offers us salvation in Christ and a life with meaning and purpose (Ephesians 2:1–10). Paul speaks of ‘adoption.’ Sin is not just destructive, there’s also the sense of a lack of belonging. We are orphans, spiritually speaking. Christ said He won’t leave us orphaned (John 14:16–18). Finding God’s acceptance, the acceptance of the Creator, makes us feel at home, adopted, secure and well. The Saviour gives us full acceptance! The Creator gives us our true identity. God the Father’s adoption and acceptance is the ultimate validation humans need.
Christ is the Saviour of the world (Acts 4:12) because He carried our sins at the cross as ‘the Lamb of God’ (John 1:29). God accepts us ‘in the Beloved,’ Jesus the Son. God’s righteousness is given to us through Christ and being in Christ. It is because of God’s gracious work of salvation and reconciliation through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:18–21) that we are ‘in Christ Jesus,’ God’s righteousness for us (1 Corinthians 1:30). Our position before God ‘in Christ’ is that of righteousness, not sinfulness. Righteousness is right standing before God. The acceptance by God comes from His love for us and because Christ gives us right standing before God—by His grace! God accepts us as His children; He doesn’t reject us as sinners.
The key issue of the message of God’s grace, the Gospel as the power of God able to save those who believe (Romans 1:16), is this: acceptance by Him comes before performance by us. This is a fundamental difference to religion in general. Acceptance comes first, at the beginning of our relationship with God. Acceptance is ‘in the Beloved’ and we are ‘in Him.’ Christianity, unlike other religions, does not teach salvation by works, but salvation by grace (Ephesians 2:8–9). Works, as we have stated previously, are a result of our salvation, not a way to earn it. We are called and saved by God for ‘good works’ (Ephesians 2:10), not by good works (v 9). Only God can save us and He does so by His grace and acceptance ‘in the Beloved.’ Being ‘in Christ’ makes a sinner righteous before a holy God, not good works done to earn salvation. We fall short, but Christ is our righteousness before God. He died on our behalf to make us righteous, spotless and perfect. This is the message of grace! We are accepted in the Beloved by divine love.
Grace is a Gift
Grace is God’s unmerited favour; it is a gift. You don’t have to pay for a gift and you don’t have to earn it. You can receive it gratefully and humbly—and enjoy it responsibly. God offers the ‘abundance of grace’ and the ‘gift of righteousness’ in Christ, who saves us from death that came into the world by Adam (Romans 5:17). Adam’s sins brought death and condemnation, Christ’s atonement brought life and justification. We are justified by faith in Christ and gain access to God’s grace (Romans 5:1–2). It is a gift!
God ‘saved us and called us with a holy calling,’ Paul wrote to Timothy, ‘not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel’ (2 Timothy 1:9–10). Salvation is according to God’s purpose and grace, not according to our works. Jesus is the Saviour who brought eternal life to those who believe as proclaimed in the Gospel—the Good News of God’s salvation. God accepts us because of what Christ has done for us. You can receive this beautiful gift of God’s gracious salvation by faith.
Acceptance is powerful
Acceptance for who we are is powerful. Human beings have intrinsic value, that is, we are precious and loved. Having to earn our salvation would be an impossible task anyway. Just think about children who are loved by their parents: they feel confident and thrive because they are secure in their parents’ love and acceptance of them for who they are. Even when they fail, they know their parents love them. This gives great security and makes learning from mistakes and progressing from them easier. Children whose parents made them to earn their acceptance and love by performance, usually feel they are never good enough, no matter how hard they try or how good they are. This is sad to see. Or think of parents favouring one child over the others—it leaves bitter resentment in those who think they are being unfairly treated and never good enough. Such attitudes make children to strive to earn acceptance, often to extreme measures. It’s unhealthy. A healthy identity and self-esteem in children come from the security of acceptance and love. They must know that they are not the mistakes that they made; these are simply part of life in order to learn. Children thrive when they are accepted first. The same is true for adults. We are not the mistakes we’ve made—always remember that! Don’t allow your mistakes to shape your identity; allow God to do so, based on His love, grace and acceptance for you. Acceptance is powerful.
It’s not that encouraging your child to do better is wrong, it’s necessary and recommendable. But it must be based on acceptance. For a child to feel the parent loves them only when they are good at school, or sports, or music, or what whatever, shapes their identity based on performance. It can always leave room for self-doubt when that performance isn’t at its best level. It can be crushing. A sense of achievement is important for all of us. We must all do something meaningful in life and get a measure of satisfaction from it. But it is important that out identity is not solely or primarily based on achievement and success, for the danger of collapsing as a person in times of failure and hardship is real. Our identity must be ‘in the Beloved,’ the strong love of God who loves us for who we are, who loves us despite our sin, and who will encourage us along the way as a good parent their children. Acceptance is powerful.
With God as Father, we His children, are accepted first, at the beginning of our relationship with Him. We don’t have to earn His love and grace; it is a gift and comes from His nature which is love. ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:16). My father used to tell me, ‘God loves us the way we are, but He doesn’t leave us this way.’ That brought great comfort to me, because I felt so inadequate before God. Being accepted apart from my performance was good news to me. I didn’t have to worry about God rejecting me when I failed—and I failed a lot! Christ died for the sinners while still in sin, which was the demonstration of His love (Romans 5:6–8). He gave us mercy because of His great love with which He loves us despite our sin (Ephesians 2:1–10). Knowing His acceptance despite my sin made me confident that I can change within the security of God’s love and acceptance. Any sense of insufficiency and inferiority vanishes. Our identity is built on God’s acceptance of us, not our achievement or performance. We are saved by grace; we are loved by His love; we are accepted by His mercy. Acceptance is powerful.
No Condemnation in Christ
Yet still, a holy God cannot accept sin. Our sinful nature is fallen and deserving of condemnation. But ‘in Christ,’ Paul wrote, there is ‘no condemnation’ (Romans 8:1). There is a position of right standing before God ‘in Christ’ that removed condemnation because it fell on Christ. The divine exchange at the cross let the innocent One carry the condemnation for the guilty one. Remember how Pontius Pilate let Barabbas, the criminal, go free and condemned Christ the innocent One? Symbolically speaking, you and I are ‘Barabbas’—Christ took our place. Or look at yourself in this way: there were two criminals deserving of death crucified next to Jesus. This could be you and me. We deserved death because of sin. But still they had a choice: one of them cursed Jesus in anger, the other one was humble and acknowledged his guilt, and then heard the beautiful, comforting and liberating words by Christ the Saviour, ‘Today you will be with Me in Paradise’ (Luke 23:39–43). He got saved just before he died—that’s grace! There is no condemnation in Christ because of Christ—He took it upon Himself. Christ was rejected so that you could be accepted!
‘He is despised and rejected by men … He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him. And by His stripes we are healed… and the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all’ (Isaiah 53)
Christ redeemed us from the curse of sin (Galatians 3:13–14) which is death (Romans 6:23). His death gave us life, peace and healing. He was condemned so we can go free. The freedom that Christ won for us by His suffering is to be handled responsibly by a life pleasing to God and serving others in love (Galatians 5:13–14). The life free from condemnation in Christ (Romans 8:1) is a life lived for God by the empowerment of the Spirit of God: the newness of life (vv 2–4). Grace is not a licence to sin, but an empowerment to please God and live according to His will. Paul’s words ‘you are not under law but under grace’ (Romans 6:14) and ‘you are not under the Law’ (Galatians 5:18) have often been wrongly used to justify sin and shake off all obedience to any law. The context of both verses shows how wrong this is. In Galatians, Paul emphasises the power of the Spirit to live a life pleasing to God that will show the fruit of the Spirit, overcoming the flesh and sin, and living in love according to the commandments of the Law, which is the true expression of freedom (5:13–23). In Romans, the emphasis is overcoming the flesh and sin by living ‘under grace’ as empowered by the resurrection power of God that comes after dying to sin (6:7–14). Paul had already argued that sinning is wrong and that life must be lived in the ‘newness of life’ (6:1–4). Note that it is the lawless ones that would be rejected at Judgment Day (Matthew 7:21–23). Lawlessness make love grow cold (Matthew 24:12). God’s moral law is valid and must be kept; grace and God’s Spirit empower us to do so. Obedience comes from loving God (John 14:15). Obedience is the expression of our love to God (1 John 2:1–6; 5:2–3).
Yet still, even with the best of intentions, sometimes we do still fail. And it is in these moments that we must know the truth of Scripture: we are accepted in the Beloved and God is still on our side to help us, teach us and renew us to live a life as overcomers (Romans 8:31–32, 37), for greater is He in us than anything in the world that might be against us (1 John 4:4). Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ, the Beloved (Romans 8:38–39). We just need to remain honest before God and seek a life pleasing to Him (Proverbs 28:13). He is faithful and true (1 John 1:8–9). As we live in humility before God and towards others, we will live by His grace and God will protect, strengthen and establish us (1 Peter 5:5–11). All will be well.
Trust God—He is for you. His acceptance is yours in the Beloved. You are not the mistakes that you have made. Mistakes have consequences, but God’s grace has power. Let God shape your identity based on His love, grace and acceptance.
Acceptance is powerful.
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