The True Grace of God

By Mark T Wells

The reason I have entitled this article as the True grace of God, is because I believe the majority of professing Christians in the world today have misunderstood what the grace of God truly means for our lives.

So many people who believe in Christ Jesus are continuing to walk in their old worldly ways and sins, because they believe that the grace of God "covers" their sinful ways enabling them to continue therein. Are they right? Does the grace of God enable us to continue in sin? Absolutely not! The apostle Paul warned the Church at Corinth about this very issue. Look a what he said:

2 Corinthians 6:1.....'We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.'

So many professing Christians do not understand what this verse means. Look at what Paul is saying. He is PLEADING with the Corinthian church not to take the grace of God in vain. What does that mean? It means they were doing exactly the same thing that the professing church in the world today does, in that they were continuing in sin, thinking that they were ok because the grace of God would just cover over their continued worldly lifestyle. So in reality, they were not under the grace of God at all, which is why Paul was pleading with them not to receive it in VAIN.

The majority of Christians in the world today know and accept the term justification. But when it comes to sanctification, most of them do not understand it or just ignore it. When we come to Christ and accept him as our Lord and Saviour and repent of our sins, then through His blood we are made righteous before God and are justified THROUGH Christ. Unfortunately, most Christians just stop right there. "Oh, I'm under grace, I'm justified by my faith, that's fine, I'm good!"

And they completely ignore the process of sanctification. Sanctification is an ON-GOING process of becoming holy and turning away from your sins and worldly lifestyle. It's a process of separating yourself from the world. We are IN the world, but we should not be OF the world. Now the main issue with sanctification, which most people miss, is that WE have a part to play in the process. Now we don't do the works of sanctification ourselves, and we don't do the works TO BE saved, we do them because WE ARE saved through Christ.

Please don't think that I'm saying that our works are part of the salvation process. There is nothing we can do to add to the saving work of Christ Jesus, because what He did was perfect and complete. BUT, once we come to Christ in faith and accept what He has done for us, then we should have a desire to serve and follow Him and give our ALL for Him.

Another way to describe sanctification is to be holy, or to set oneself apart for holy use. Now take a look at a very important statement from the apostle Paul:

Hebrews 12:14.....'Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.'

We are to make EVERY EFFORT to be holy. Why? Because without holiness WE WILL NEVER SEE THE LORD. Now many people will ignore this because they want to continue being a part of this world. They enjoy their lives too much to step out of the world and be holy. But mark this well, if you do not pursue holiness in your life, then you will never see Jesus, and you will not inherit eternal life or enter His Heavenly Kingdom. This is such an important truth to grasp hold of. The grace of God is not some cheap thing for us to use as an excuse to continue living a worldly life.

Romans 6:15.....''What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? GOD FORBID.'

We MUST put away sin from our lives and live holy for the one who saved us from sin.

Now many people will continue to say "Oh I'm under grace, don't give me the Law, the law is gone, I'm under grace". Well, think about this for a moment. For someone to be guilty under the Old Testament law, they had to physically kill someone, or physically sleep with another mans wife, or steal. But now under grace, Jesus taught us that even if we THINK about those things, then we are guilty of sin. So which is the HIGHER standard? GRACE! Being under grace demands more from us! Do you see that? And yet the majority of professing Christians will say that they are free to continue living a worldly life under grace.

Thankfully we have the Word of God through James. James came along and completed the picture for us with regards to the grace of God.

James 2:14,19,20.....'What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

James 2:18.....'Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.'

What does James say? He says, "Do you have the grace of God? SHOW ME! Show me your works to prove your faith and being under the grace of God. Show me the sanctification process in your life. Are you walking away from your sins and the world? Don't tell me you are under the grace of God and have no works to show for it, because I will show you the grace of God in my life BY MY WORKS!"

2 Corinthians 7:1.....'Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.'

As I said, nothing we can do can save us or add to our salvation, because Christ's saving work was perfect and complete. But as James confirms, if you say you have the grace of God in your life, but you don't do good works or follow in Jesus footsteps, then that shows your faith to be false and useless. Just remember what Christ did for you. Having the knowledge of what Christ did for us, we should all desire to live FULLY for Him. We must separate ourselves from the things of this world and live for Christ.