Big Idea: The grace of God supplies the power we need to live the Christian life. In Christ we are a new creation, with new desires and a new empowerment toward right-living (living ever dependent upon God and his Word). In the Christian life, we trust and we act, we act and we trust. This is the constant interplay between our doing and God supplying the power we need to do.
2 Crucial Components to the Grace of God:
The ___________________ of God ___________________
1 Corinthians 15:10 (ESV) — 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
Psalm 6:2 (ESV) — 2 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. (grace is equivalent with providing healing)
Psalm 86:16 (ESV) — 16 Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant, and save the son of your maidservant. (grace is equivalent to giving strength)
2 Corinthians 9:8 (ESV) — 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. (grace is equivalent with granting all sufficiency for every good work)
When God grants his grace, He makes up where we are lacking, whether that is righteousness to stand before Him (justification), life to walk with Him (sanctification), or a glorified body to rule with Him forever (glorification). God’s grace is demonstrated in exercising power not in enduring ineptitude.
Colossians 2:12 (ESV) — 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Romans 8:11 (ESV) — 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Galatians 1:11-16, 22-24 (pg 913)
The effectiveness of grace is manifested in a transformed life.
We __________________ by the ________________ of God
1 Corinthians 15:10 (ESV) — 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
Ephesians 2:8–10 (ESV) — 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
It is important that we recognize the tension in Paul’s words here. God works and we work. What Paul does here, to be sure, is to make sure we do not get away with the idea that God’s grace does nothing in the personal expression of the powerful working of God in and through an individual.
Philippians 2:12–13 (ESV) — 12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
James 2:18-22, 26 (pg. 951)
Real Faith in anything produces a trust so secure that it moves toward the object of faith in action.
Question to Consider:
What does the grace of God look like in your life? In what ways is God calling you to move toward others in faith?
