Chapter Three


KNOWING THE GRACE OF GOD IN TRUTH
(Col. 1:6)


Let us begin by looking at several key verses on the grace of God.

  • "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD" (Gen 6:8).
  • "For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17).
  • "But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they" (Acts 15:11).
  • "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 3:24).
  • "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace" (Rom. 6:14).
  • "Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise work is no longer work" (Rom 11:5,6). All of these verses are of the greatest importance, but you will do well to ponder these two verses.
  • "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich" (2 Cor. 8:9).
  • "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, have an abundance for every good work" (2 Cor. 9:8).
  • "And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me" (2 Cor. 12:9).
  • "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepares beforehand that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:8-10). These three verses clearly set forth the relationship between grace and works.
  • "That having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:7).
  • "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen" (2 Pet. 3:18).
These Scriptures are as plain as they can be, but many who take the name of Christ refuse to accept them at face value.

We readily recognize that unconverted people cannot understand grace, but people who are saved should know some of the basic principles about grace.

As I have thought on this matter I have reached the conclusion that some professing Christians do not understand the grace of God because of a faulty conception of what was accomplished by Christ on the Cross.

It is beyond the scope of this booklet to discuss the major transactions of Calvary, but if a person is saved, he should clearly understand that the sin question was settled when Jesus died on the Cross. Romans 3:21-28 makes this abundantly clear. The simple statement of I Corinthians 15:3, "Christ died for our sins," should settle this question once and for all. How many of our sins did Christ die for? All of them! "Jesus paid it all." If we have to pay anything at all, it is not salvation by grace. Grace is unmerited favor. If any merit at all is involved it is not grace. Prayerfully ponder the following references, Romans 5:8; I Peter 2:24; 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:21.

We are not saved by our understanding, but by simple childlike faith. But faith is not a blind leap in the dark. If we have saving faith we will understand, in a measure, what Christ did for us when He died on the Cross. We will hear His cry, "It is finished" (John 19:30), and will learn to rest in the finished work of Christ.

If we are to understand the grace of God we must understand, in a measure, the doctrine of imputed righteousness. Our sins were imputed (credited) to Christ; His righteousness was imputed (credited) to us.



Four Principles Concerning Grace

  1. Grace is contrary to the thinking of the natural man. The natural man invariably thinks he must do something in order to be saved. He thinks that in some way he must obtain merit and find favor in the sight of God.

  2. Grace depends entirely on what Christ has done for us in His death and resurrection.

  3. Law and Grace cannot be mixed (Rom. 11:5,6). If we attempt to mix merit with grace it ceases to be grace.

  4. All major cults claim to believe in salvation by grace.


Four Prerequisites for Understanding Grace
  1. We must be born again by the Spirit of God (John 3:3,5,7; I Cor. 2:14).
  2. We must understand why the law was given before we can understand grace. The law was not given to save anyone (Rom. 3:19). The Lord Jesus is the only person who ever kept the law. The law was given to:

    1. reveal the sinfulness of sin,
    2. to reveal the holiness of God,
    3. and as a school master to bring us to Christ (Gal 3:24).


  3. We must be taught by the Holy Spirit of God (John 16:13-15).
  4. We must believe in the doctrine of total depravity. If we think there is some worth or merit in us that caused God to choose us, we do not understand grace. Wait a minute! We had better define what we mean by total depravity. We certainly do not mean what some Hyper- Calvinists teach, that we must be born again before we have the ability to believe on Christ.


Church of Christ radio preacher, E. V. Howard, goes to the other extreme in his book, What is the Church of Christ? He shows his ignorance of the doctrine of total depravity when he states, "Closely associated with the false theory of unconditional election is the doctrine of hereditary total depravity. That simply means a little child, an infant, is born into this world totally depraved, as sinful as can be from the crown of its head to its feet. Imagine that sweet, innocent baby being the very devil itself, wholly incapable of good and totally depraved in sin!"

This is not what the doctrine of total depravity teaches. It simply teaches that there is nothing in unregenerate men which is acceptable in the sight of a Holy God. The Apostle Paul said, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find" (Rom. 7:18).

Study the first three chapters of the Book of Romans, and judge for yourself if the doctrine of total depravity is taught in the Bible.

Read Isaiah 64:6, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Please notice this verse does not teach our sins, our wickedness and our ungodly ways are as filthy rags in the sight of God, but that our righteousness, the very best that we can do, is as filthy rags in His sight. If we do not understand what the Bible teaches about sin, we certainly will not understand what the Bible teaches about salvation by grace.

I pray the Spirit of God will enlighten your mind to enable you to see the wonderful truth of salvation by grace God wants you to rest in, His marvelous grace. He wants you to rest in the finished work of Christ.

Make this a matter of earnest prayer and let the Spirit of God reveal to you the marvelous sufficiency of the death of Christ, and the power of the living Christ.