PART ONE: THE GRACE OF GOD

At every point, the grace of God is inseparable from the person and work of Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son who was given to us as a sacrificial lamb to do what we could not and cannot do — namely, take away our sin (John 1:29; 3:16). It is "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 13:14; Romans 16:20; Philippians 4:23). It is primarily and fundamentally not about what we do for God but what God does for us: "God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do, sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:3-4).

When the Scripture speaks of "the law weakened by the flesh," it means the law could not accomplish bringing mankind to righteousness or salvation because of human weakness or sinfulness. As Paul demonstrates in the early chapters of Romans, the law was given not to impart righteousness but the knowledge of sin.  In addition, we could even say (reading the blessings of the gospel retrospectively into the text) that "the law weakened by the flesh but enabled by God's power" is not able to impart righteousness.  That is, even "grace" understood as God's power within the believer would not permit the law to make people perfectly righteous so as to be acceptable to God based on what they do.

This declaration, "God has done," forever defines grace as primarily and fundamentally about the doing and dying of Jesus Christ and not about what we do either before or after we become Christians. Put differently, grace is primarily and fundamentally about what has been done for us — outside and apart from us in a complete and perfect way in Jesus Christ.  In this sense, it is not at all about our doing. The focus, as it is and will be in Heaven, must always remain on Him.

Grace as unearned favor remains unearned favor from beginning to end for both justification and sanctification. The grace that either motivates or empowers a believer for love or holiness (human doing) remains forever grounded in the great reality of what God has done in and through Jesus Christ.  Consequently, if we find ourselves speaking of the grace of God while focused on ourselves in a concern for holiness and without reference to Jesus Christ, then we are speaking of something foreign to the true grace of God. As Paul says, "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2). And, again, he says, "We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ" (Colossians 1:28). Hence, whenever anyone is defining the grace of God, we must always ask ourselves how the definition we are hearing fits in or squares with the person and work of Jesus Christ. Christ must be the integrating or final reference point for every aspect or manifestation of the grace of God presented in the Gospel of Christ.

The grace of God is, therefore, always "in," "through," or "by" Jesus Christ. That is, it is grounded not in what we have done or must do, not in what we have experienced nor received as a gift, such as the power God imparts on the inside for holiness, but on what God has done in another person, apart from us and outside us.  Jesus Christ represents us to God in His death on the cross, His resurrection, and His coronation at God's right hand.

This means that Jesus came into the world not as a private person but a public one. That is, He came to so represent God's people as to save them from their sins. He came to do for them what they could not do for themselves. As the angel says to Mary, "You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). Accordingly, Paul says, "God made Him who knew no sin to be sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Hence, the expression, "in Him," is very important as it indicates how Christ represents His people in His doing and dying. This is why believers are always, from beginning to end, to look away from themselves to Christ who was lifted up on the cross on their behalf to bring them to God. As Jesus said, "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life" (John 3:14). The righteousness that gives them peace with God, makes them acceptable to God, comes not from themselves but from Him who took their place on the cross. This is why their standing with God is secure: it is as secure as Christ is secure upon the throne — as secure as the once-and-for-all offering of Christ for sin, as secure as the full payment of His blood for sin, as secure as the powerful resurrection of Christ for the justification of not only His person but all persons who believe in Him and therefore are represented by Him.

Therefore, when Scripture speaks of "the grace of God...[which] has appeared to all men" and of how this grace "teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions" (Titus 2:11-12), this grace is the same grace spoken of in another place in Scripture, "He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory" (1 Timothy 3:16). It is the same grace as that spoken of in these terms: "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:4-7).

Our righteousness is, therefore, not here on earth, not in ourselves whether by our efforts at law-keeping and even if those efforts are by God's enabling power. Our righteousness is in heaven, in Christ. This is why Scripture says Christians are presently seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6) and why it also says, "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory" (Colossians 3:3-4). This is also why Scripture says we as Christians "wait for the hope of righteousness" (Galatians 5:5). It also says "hope that is seen is not hope" and "if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience" (Romans 8:24-25). What Paul means here is that we are not (and never will be) this side of glory perfectly righteous in ourselves as Christians. This is because our righteousness is entirely through the representation of Christ who is in heaven (outside of us). Christ is our righteousness. When he is revealed, our righteousness will be revealed. We will be made perfectly righteous as He is. This is what "the hope of righteousness" entails.  

Moreover, Paul repeatedly calls this grace of God defined as what God has done for us in and through the representative work of Jesus Christ a faithful or trustworthy saying to be constantly adhered to, upheld, and reiterated among the saints (Titus 3:8). Paul does this because this very saying seems to be for Christians, due to their own sins, weaknesses, and failings, hard to believe. It would seem to be a saying that one cannot count on, that surely has some caveat or condition hidden somewhere which voids what seems too good to be true. For this reason, notice that after saying "the grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 1:14), Paul says, "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life" (1 Timothy 1:15-16). Paul is saying that as "the worst of sinners" he was an example of the nature of this grace of God. The grace of God is not for good people but bad people. It is not for those who have cleaned themselves up or made themselves sufficiently righteous through repentance to receive it. It is precisely for the unclean, the unrighteous, the ungodly that the grace of God in Christ is designed. As Paul says, "to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked [or ungodly], his faith is credited as righteousness" (Romans 4:5).

Therefore, whenever Paul turns to emphasize the importance of purity, holiness, or good works in the Christian life, he appeals to this same grace of God in Christ Jesus. For after saying "This is a trustworthy saying" Paul says, "And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good" (Titus 3:8). What things? The things God has done for us outside of ourselves and in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Things like our being justified by faith even though we are wicked or ungodly (Romans 4:5). Things like our receiving salvation as a gift even though, due to sin, we deserve just the opposite: the wrath of God. It is by stressing God's love for us in Christ that God's people find motivation to love: "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins....We love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:10, 19).

We must note as well that not only is the grace of God always centered or grounded in the representative work of Jesus Christ but it is also always centered or grounded in and from the eternal purpose of God in Christ from before the foundation of the world. As Paul says,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace (Ephesians 1:3-7).

 And as Peter writes,

To those who are elect exiles...according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood (1 Peter 1:1-2).

Accordingly, when Paul speaks of the seven thousand God had kept for Himself in Elijah's time, which was a time of great apostasy, Paul concludes from this,

So, too, at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace (Romans 11:5-6).

Hence, when we think of what the grace of God is we must always see the larger perspective of how this grace does not ultimately depend on human choice or effort — nor on what goes on inside of us in terms of God's enabling power — but on what has gone on and continues to go on outside of us based on God's sovereign, eternal purpose: "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy" (Romans 9:15, 18).