Pure Grace

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God…” ~Ephesians 2:8

Mercy is sometimes defined as “not getting what you deserve” (punishment, for example). Grace, however, is often defined as “getting what you don’t deserve” (forgiveness). But that doesn’t go quite far enough. Grace is not merely receiving something you failed to earn; it is receiving the very opposite of what you have earned. Grace is not salvation without merit — it is salvation in spite of demerit.

When we understand grace this way, its wonder becomes overwhelming. In our sin we are not standing in a neutral zone with God; we are living in enemy territory — and it is our native land. God, in His grace, did not simply move us from zero to full. He rescued us from crushing debt and lavished us with immeasurable riches. Our salvation is not partly earned and partly gifted; it is pure grace from beginning to end.

It may be that our pithy way of framing salvation, “by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone,” has had the unintended consequence of deadening our hearts to the magnitude of it all. Yes, our minds grasp the theology of God’s work of salvation, but our hearts may fail to sing the praises of His glorious grace when grace becomes merely a part of a formula and not the foundation of our joy in Christ. 

Paul is so keen to show us just how marvelous is God’s grace toward us that he repeats himself over and over again in Ephesians 2. He starts by highlighting our demerits (“dead in our sins… following the prince of the power of the air… by nature children of wrath” vv 1-3), and then he speaks of God’s grace in v 5: “by grace you have been saved”! As if that weren’t enough, he repeats himself in v 8 and adds: “it is the gift of God.” Not a gift, but the gift! The greatest gift! The gift of God’s grace. 

Christian, God is kind beyond all measure toward you. We scarcely realize just how amazing is the gift of God’s grace. If we really did, His praises would never depart from our lips. His commandments would be to us the sweetest of all delights. His Word would be to us life and light. His covenant would be our firm foundation and steady anchor in the midst of life’s storms. 

This, then, is the grace in which we stand (Romans 5:2). A grace that did not wait for us to improve — indeed, we cannot — but came to us while we were dead. A grace that did not merely cancel our debt, but clothed us in the righteousness of Christ. A grace that did not depend on the strength or clarity of our faith, but on the faithfulness of our Savior.

What joy to know your salvation does not rest on what you have done, or even on how deeply you feel its reality, but on what God has done for you in Christ. Let the wonder of God’s grace take deep root in your heart — meditate on it day by day — and respond to it with worship. To the praise of His glorious grace.

Rev. Kyle Lockhart, Pastor