All of Grace

Our life is all of grace, whether we recognize it or not. Many pride themselves on doing good, but according to God’s Word in the Bible, the only reason anyone can do any good is because of what is theologically called common grace. (Romans 3:10-18) Even a non-Christian can do some good, but they do not give glory to God for that ability. However, no one can do any good apart from God’s grace. Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

In hell, it will be a stark reality that we can do no good apart from God. There, man will be left entirely to himself and his own devices. This is what makes hell, hell. People will end up there because God lets them go their own way when they harden their hearts. And it brings destruction.

Spurgeon said that our salvation is “all of grace.” He wrote a book with this title. He was a Calvinist but not a hyper-Calvinist, as Iain H. Murray states in his book, Spurgeon vs Hyper-Calvinism. He was more of what is called today a modified Calvinist. Hyper-Calvinism or 5-point Calvinism was a reaction to the Remonstrances. It was an overreaction against the truth of man having free will. This basically started with Augustine and was an overreaction against Pelagianism.

Hyper-Calvinism did not correctly represent Calvin’s teaching. From Calvin’s writings, it would indicate that he certainly did not believe in limited atonement. Any time we react to a system with another system on the opposite spectrum, there is a strong tendency toward distortion, and we end up reading into scripture through our system. Often, there is an overreaction. There is also a tendency to put God in a box and make our system an idol. Of course, we still have many edifying things to learn from Augustine and our other Christian brothers whom we may disagree on some matters. Some issues are bigger than others. “In essentials unity, in non-essentials diversity and in all things God’s love.”

Our salvation is truly all of grace. Grace means undeserved favour. If you think that by your own goodness you will earn the privilege of being in heaven when you die, then you have not yet understood the gospel. As the scriptures state, “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” (Ephesians 2:8-9). By grace are we saved. Saved from what? Saved from sin. (Matthew 1:21) If you don’t want to be saved from sin, then you most likely will not become a Christian.

Sin brought darkness into the world, and it brings darkness into our lives now and separation from God. When Adam and Eve sinned, the result was a corrupted nature that must be redeemed, and sin brought with it disease, wickedness, evil and spiritual death. Before coming to Christ, we are all dead men walking in our sin.

Jesus took our place on a cross as the substitute for the penalty of sin and also gives those in Christ power over sin, including interior sin and restores a love relationship to God by his grace. You must choose for yourself to receive this free gift, but God gives you the ability to choose and the power to have a nature transformed and to live a new life. Jesus says you must be “born again.” This is a supernatural work of God that brings us from spiritual death to life and transforms us within. Once you were in the Kingdom of darkness, and in Jesus, he gives the power for you to enter into his kingdom, the kingdom of light and power—God’s power. “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). We enter the Kingdom, and then we grow in learning to be his disciple and live out the gospel—the gospel of grace and truth.

Salvation is all of grace. He draws you by his grace and gives you the ability to respond in his grace. We can take no credit for our salvation. Why don’t more people receive this beautiful gift in Jesus Christ? Is it that we are better people because we received Christ and were born again? This is a huge mystery, but it isn’t because we are any better than others. (see Deuteronomy 9:4) We are saved entirely by grace. It is all because of God’s grace. God has given us free will, and he has chosen not to override it in salvation and even in our Christian walk. Still, he is the author of our salvation and our sanctification initially and our sanctification although it does require our cooperation.In sanctification, we must cooperate with him, and as the Puritans stated, using the means of grace such as prayer, study of God’s word, spiritual disciplines, ministry and love.

The Christian life is all about grace. We learn to walk in God’s supernatural grace by being in union with God. This is how life was intended to be before Adam and Eve sinned. This is truly the natural man, the man who lives in grace. This is how we were created to be in God’s image. A man and woman can live in God’s power, love, mercy, and kindness. They learn to be Christlike, and that is by living in God’s grace. It is also equivalent to living in the Spirit. (see Romans 8) It is also about having grace in all circumstances and with all people, especially the household of faith, although it is progressive, and we move toward fullness. (Ephesians 3:19) Who can love their enemies without God’s grace? Christians and churches should be dispensers of God’s grace and truth. However, grace and truth should never be separated. In all this, love is to be subordinated to knowledge. (1 Corinthians 8:1)

Learning to be independent and responsible in our world is a good thing, but we also need to learn to be dependent on God to live the life of grace. We have to lay our ego, pride and envy down at the cross and pick it up the cross and follow the way of grace. Life lived in the resources of the Almighty and the loving God. We deny our kingdom and set as our priority God’s Kingdom. We learn to be our true selves in Christ. The fully restored person in the image of God. “He restores my soul” (Psalm 23:2).

The Christian life was never intended to be lived in our own strength but in God’s. This goes against our old patterns, and we must unlearn the old patterns, which can be a real struggle. First, we must let God make us aware of them, and then learn a new way in Christ. These patterns the Bible calls the flesh. There must be a forsaking of the old and, with discipline, taking on the new, for it is so easy to go back to the old, especially when things get difficult. “That you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-23). If we are not walking in God’s grace, then we are walking in the flesh, dysfunction, or independent from and with God.

An example of a pattern that is dysfunctional, but that has a payoff is being a workaholic. We may become successful financially, but hurt close relationships. A lot of old patterns that are dysfunctional have payoffs, but they hurt us and others. If our goal is to become Christlike and truly to become a good person, we will lay these patterns aside.

To walk in grace, we must learn to cooperate with God in living out our inheritance as a new man in Christ. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

We must learn to walk humbly with God, for that is to live in reality. Salvation is all of grace and living the Christian life is all of grace. Will you accept the grace of God in Jesus Christ for your redemption from sin and the penalty, slavery and the dysfunction of it? Ask Him to forgive you and pray to receive him as Saviour and Lord, and then learn to walk in grace. If you are already a Christian, will you fully surrender to Him as Lord that you might find your true self in Him and walk in His fullness and strength? Our life is limited if lived in the Old Self, but released into fullness in the New Self. (Ephesians 3:19)

Today is the day of Salvation. No one knows if they will have another day.

“Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch; like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!

The Lord hath promised good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun.”

Amen, Amen.

Resources:

All of Grace, C.H. Spurgeon

The Potter's Promise: A Defence of Traditional Soteriology, Leighton Flowers

Whosoever Will: A Biblical Theological Critique of Five Point Calvinism, David L. Allen, Steve W. Lemke