It’s Always by Grace
Pastor Dave Monreal, Lead Pastor
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Ephesians 2:8-9
The heart of biblical theology is the reality that salvation is by grace alone through the instrument of faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone. In the gospel, a person must recognize that he is a sinner and stands in righteous judgment by a holy God. God is the perfect Judge who must punish sin. For God to be righteous, he must not just overlook or ignore sin, so he took it upon himself to pay the penalty on our behalf. Jesus was the Second Person of the Trinity, veiled his glory and took upon himself a human nature. He lived a perfect life and was put to death on the cross. The righteous judgment that we deserved was poured out by the Father on him while he was on the cross and he experienced the full penalty for our sin that it would have taken us an eternity to pay ourselves. This is offered to all and anyone who repents of his sin and places his genuine faith in the person and work of Christ alone, receives forgiveness, is declared righteous, and is adopted into God’s family.
We understand that it is this good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection on our behalf that is the means of our salvation. We also understand that the gospel not only saves us from our sins but is also the reason we go to heaven when we die and spend eternity with God in the New Heavens and Earth. But what we struggle to understand is that it is this same message of grace that is the very means by which we grow as believers!
Time and again I hear of Christians thinking that they need to reform themselves through programs and strategies to somehow manage the flesh. We adopt unbiblical means to try to change our behavior or address our besetting sins. There is a danger in this because some of these unbiblical strategies have a measure of success. When I was 19, I was invited to a New Year’s Eve party thrown by the young adults who attended Alcoholics Anonymous. As a young Christian I thought this was great because I could celebrate New Year’s Eve and not have to worry about anyone bringing drugs or alcohol to the party. I found out quickly that there is a vast difference between someone who follows a program to quit a behavior and someone who has been transformed by the Spirit of Christ following salvation.
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ…” (Titus 2:11-13 emphasis added) Notice what Paul says, it is grace that teaches us to live a holy life! Sanctification is by grace! This is hard for us to wrap our minds around because often we think we salvation is by grace and our glorification is by grace, but our sanctification is up to us.
This is to miss the heart of sanctification (the process by which you progressively become more like Jesus). Yes, there are things that we are told to do as believers. There are imperatives in addition to indicatives. However, everything we do is to be done by GRACE. It is the life of Christ living in me which empowers and enables me to put sin to death and to live for God. It is by GRACE that we are to humble ourselves under his mighty hand so he will exalt us. There is an utter and absolute dependence upon the power of the Holy Spirit that we are to cry out for every day. The Christian life is not “try harder” or “fake it till you make it.” The Christian life is one of active dependence upon the life of Christ knowing that you are accepted because of the death and resurrection of Christ.
