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Thank you for joining us today as we answer the question “what is the meaning of grace in the Bible,” and also explore the outrageous grace that God gave to us through His Son, Jesus. Today I hope your eyes are opened to the purpose of grace in the Bible and in your life.
And you may be wondering, why would God invite us into this outrageous grace of His? Well, I'll tell you the answer. See, there's no one in this world any less of a sinner compared to the next person. And that should give you encouragement that the grace that is displayed in the Bible is just as much available to you now as it was then when the Book was written. And I love that about God.
He is the God of all grace, that's what Peter calls Him. Did you know that the last thing you'll find in the last book of the Bible, in the Revelation 22, the last verse in that last chapter. It closes like this in verse 21. In other words, this is the last thing Holy Spirit is releasing to the church at that time. "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."
Ain't that amazing? That's the last thing the Lord wants you to remember, that you need the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to be with you. You need grace. For by grace are you saved, it's not of works. You can boast about works, but not about the outrageous grace Father God gives us. God gets the glory, because it's God's doing. Grace is God's awesome, incredible, wonderful, terrific, fantastic idea.
So what is the meaning of grace in the Bible? Well, here’s the truth. You don't want a graceless gospel, because if you got a graceless salvation, you don't have any salvation, for by grace are you saved. But thank God, He's the God of all grace, outrageous grace, and I'm going to be sharing some things about this grace with you this morning.
I want to talk to you first about the person of grace. Jesus. You want to see grace in the Bible, then look at Him. He was full of it, it's what the Bible says.
As a matter of fact, in studying for the series we just finished in the Christmas season, I ran across this scripture again in Luke 2 that I want to share with you. It says, "So when they had performed the things according to the law of Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own city, Nazareth and the child," that is Jesus, "grew." "He became strong in Spirit, filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon Him."
Another thing I wanted to say here, we often associate grace just in its relationship to a sinner. I find myself thinking that way sometimes, because we think of amazing grace that saved a wretch like me. Well, it is for the sinner, but if we think grace is just for sinful people, we're missing the core revelation of grace explained in the Bible. The grace we see in the Bible can only be accessed through Jesus Christ.
Have you ever been in a place where you’re asking yourself, how can I get what I need right now? It's like I'm weak and I need strength. I'm discouraged, I need encouragement. I'm in the battle and I'm worn out and I don't see any relief coming. What do I need to do? Well, the throne of grace is your answer always.
Now I want to talk about the power of grace. This is to do with what grace is. How do you define biblical grace? We think about it, we know, well, that must be good. Just, what is it? What is grace? It carries the idea of God... Your life with favor, there's that idea attached to grace.
In my poverty, I received His riches and He took care of it, paid in full. So I like that too. But it's literally raw, very bold. It's a powerful commodity that God gives us. He releases into our life in order to accomplish His purpose and it operates when triggered by faith.
There’s also the revelation of grace that’s important. Don't come up with your religious list. Don't be self righteous. Don't think it's by clinging to tradition. It's clinging to Christ and Christ alone. Don't think grace comes to you because you do enough good works, then God's going to release grace to you. No, you know where God releases grace? To humble repentant people. This is the last thing I want to share with you and we're done.
The gateway of grace is humility. Look at these scriptures, Peter and James use the same verse. "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." They're writing to believers here. None of us can claim credit for transformation that pleases God. That only happens by His transforming grace.
We're not transformed by the eloquence of speech. We're transformed by embracing truth, and then being empowered by the grace to live it out. Grace and truth. And that's what Jesus was full of, and if our lives are hidden with Christ in God, that's what we ought to be full of.
Thank you for spending time with me, Pastor Eddie Lawrence at the Grace House in Florence Alabama this morning. I hope you were blessed by this message of outrageous grace and how you can walk it out in your own life through Christ Jesus.
God's Grace for the human race!!
Bible References:
Romans 5:20-21
Romans 6:12-14
2 Cor 12:9-10
Acts 15:6-11
James 4:6
1 Peter 5:5
