Grace
Summary
Grace is not simply God’s favour — in the New Testament it is the whole saving purpose of God expressed through Christ Jesus. This chapter traces the grace of God from the Psalms’ “favour of life,” through Paul’s conversion and the letter to the Ephesians, to the practical responsibilities that grace places upon those who receive it: to grow in grace, and to serve one another with the gifts grace distributes.
Paul describes the whole gospel in terms of grace: "I do not count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." (Acts 20:24)[1] Grace is not an element of the gospel — it is the gospel. God's undeserved saving love expressed in Christ is the message.
God, who "saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began" (2 Timothy 1:9)[2] — planned this before a single person merited it. The Psalmist had already glimpsed this: "In your favour is life." (Psalm 30:5)[3]
Paul's letter to the Ephesians is the most sustained New Testament treatment of grace. Believers were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, predestined to adoption, redeemed through his blood — "to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he made us accepted in the Beloved." (Ephesians 1:6)[4] None of this originated in human initiative: "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)[5]
Paul's own conversion was his personal exhibit of what grace could do. He had been the chief persecutor of the church, yet "the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus." (1 Timothy 1:14)[6] He could only respond: "By the grace of God I am what I am." (1 Corinthians 15:10)[7]
Grace can be received in vain. Paul warns: "We then, as workers together with him, also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain." (2 Corinthians 6:1)[8] The writer to the Hebrews adds: "looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God." (Hebrews 12:15)[9] Grace is an active inheritance that must be received, walked in, and grown in: "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 3:18)[10]