What is grace? Well as Charles Stanley so eloquently put it, “grace is receiving a gift without regard to the worth or merit of those who receive it, and without their deserving it.” And if you’re a Christian then you should know all about grace, right? I mean the Bible says in Ephesians, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NASB).
It seems like a pretty simple concept, right? But then again, why do so many people who say they’re Christians live their lives like they have to receive salvation or God’s love by some other means? You could be reading this now and be thinking, “Oh, well that’s crazy! I know I’m saved by grace! Of course I know that! God says that in His Word! You just said God says that in His Word!” Sure most Christians understand the concept that God gave us a free gift of eternal life in His Son Jesus Christ simply because He loves us. Sure most Christians know that He made a way for our sins (the things we do that are against Him) to be forgiven by His grace. But at the same time so many Christians seem to live their lives like they only received that grace at the beginning of their salvation. Let me explain what I mean through my own experience.
I’m a man who is the son of a pastor and I’ve grown up knowing about the gospel pretty much my entire life. I know the gospel is all about God saving mankind through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ in the love He has for humanity. And as I grew up learning more about the gospel and what it really means to me I understood that God saved me by forgiving my sins through His grace because He loves me. In fact the Word of God says in Romans 5:8, “but God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” What this means is that even though I was against God before I really walked with Him the way I do today, He still decided to save me because He loved me anyway before I ever knew Him and wanted to follow Him.
To most Christians this is a pretty easy concept to grasp. Even to those who don’t know God personally it’s a pretty simple concept to grasp when explained the right way. So the question becomes, especially for those who know God, why are there so many believers that feel as if after they’ve been saved that it’s so hard to go up to God, or it’s so hard to want to know God more, or it’s so hard to want to follow and serve Him with their lives? It seems many people who are saved will tell you, “Well, you know, I really just don’t feel like I’ve been a good enough person to go up to God and pray to Him,” or “I don’t feel like I’ve been a good enough person to go out and tell people about God and His love for them,” or “I don’t feel like I’ve been a good enough person to go and serve people the way God wants me to.”
To continue with my own experience, before I went to training camp for the Word Race I struggled with the idea of going to God whenever I wanted to because I felt like I had so much baggage in my life that was not consistent with the way He wanted me to live. I would always feel like every time I wanted to go before God in prayer or in His Word to just spend time with Him that I would have to tell Him every single little thing that I did wrong and feel horrible about it. I felt this way because I knew the things I struggled with weren’t what He wanted in my life, and in doing that I would just hold that stuff against myself. As a result I would start to really not like myself even though I knew God saved me and said He made me a new creation in His Son Jesus Christ. I would find it hard at times to even call myself a man of God because I would look at myself in such disgust with the sin I struggled with in my life. There would even be periods of time when I would be in a constant state of self discouragement. The problem was when this happened I also found myself not motivated to share the love of God with people who really needed to know who He is and how much He loves them.
It was actually before training camp that God started to show me something that I really just didn’t fully grasp for some reason. He started to show me that not only am I saved by grace, but I walk by grace and I live by grace. This is because I’m not the person who changes me to become more like Christ, but it’s Christ in me who changes me to become more like Him. This was almost like a dumb moment for me because I knew it was God’s grace that saves us and changes us, but I felt at times like the responsibility to change myself was solely in my hands and I wasn’t doing a good job at it.
When I realized this though my heart started to change towards myself and I started to realize that it’s solely the power of God that changes me. It’s not anything within my own strength or wisdom, but it’s His power that takes my life and conforms it to the image of His Son. The only problem now though was that I still had a lot of bitterness towards myself for the past mistakes I’ve made. One of the major things God showed me at training camp was just how much I did not forgive myself even though He had already forgiven me of all my sins and all my mistakes the moment that Jesus Christ said on the cross “It is finished!” and I believed and received that grace in my life. He revealed to me that I had a lot of things I held against myself and reminded me that He’s the judge and He’s the one with the final say. He reminded me that He said that I am forgiven, and when I was forgiven by Him I became a son of His because that’s what He made me. During my time at training camp in prayer with a very godly man God spoke to me and said something to me I had never heard Him say before. He told me that when He forgave me I was no longer defined by my sins, by my shortcomings, by my failures, or by my mistakes, but that the only thing that defines me is the depths of His grace.
This was life-changing for me because I realized that who I am now is not who I think I am or who I say I am even though sometimes I fall short in areas I want to improve in. I realized that who I am is who God says I am because He is the one who has saved me and has called me His own. When I was found by Jesus Christ and my life was saved by God, He said that I am forgiven, that I am reconciled, and that I am His. He said that when I was saved He made me a new creation, one that is like His Son Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). He said that I am a child of God, that I am a son of God, and that I am an heir of His and an heir with His only begotten Son Jesus Christ (Romans 8:15-17).
This is amazing because I look at myself in a whole new light now! I have finally forgiven myself once and for all just as God had already forgiven me once and for all when His Son said, “It is finished!” and I believed in that sacrifice He made for me on the cross. I now know that I’m defined by nothing else except the depths of God’s grace towards me. I am defined by nothing else except who He says I am in Jesus Christ. I now know that not only was I saved by grace, but I walk by grace and I live by grace. I now know without a shadow of a doubt that God holds nothing against me because He’s totally and completely forgiven me in the work He’s done in the life, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. I now know that who I am today has nothing to do with who I was or what I’ve done, but has everything to do with who He is and what He’s done in His amazing love for me.
With that said I just want to say to all the people who know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior that you are defined by nothing else except the depths of His grace towards you! You are only defined by who He says you are in Jesus Christ. And to those who don’t know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior I want you to know that God is saying, “I am standing here waiting for you to come to Me because when you turn to Me and turn away from the wicked ways of the world and seek to know Me in spirit and in truth I will forgive you and I will make you a child of My own. I will make you a new creation, and someone who’s not defined by their sins, their shortcomings, their failures, or their mistakes, but someone who is defined by the depths of My grace and the amazing love I have for you.”
So to all people I would like to say God wants you to know His arms are wide open for you just waiting for you to come to Him and let Him love you. And that you can do that by just coming to and trusting in Jesus Christ and what He has done for you in the life He lived, in His death when He sacrificed His perfect and sinless life, and in His resurrection when He defeated death to give new life to all who believe in Him. And He will make you new, He will make you a child of God, and He will love you and will walk with you every step of the way in life if you truly seek to know Him. His heart and His character is that He loves people no matter who they are or what they’ve done, and desires all people to be in a relationship with Him, the Living God.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” – John 14:6
And the truth is…
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” – John 3:16-17
