GRACE DEFINED, GRACE EXPLAINED
Religion can be defined as an institutional system of belief resulting in actions aimed at winning the admiration of God. Every religion of the world attempts to please God, through man’s effort. Religion in its raw form expresses itself in works. These works are usually man’s perceived ways of trying to appease God. But, they are all futile, as man on his own cannot please God (Isaiah 64:6). If all of man’s righteous deeds cannot come close to pleasing God, then man is doomed. And because man on his own cannot please God, he therefore needs to depend on God alone to be right with Him.
Religion in its original form is man’s device that demands some form of action based on human effort to win the approbation of the Almighty God. To the extent that religion emphasises human works, to that extent is it radically different from Christianity. Christianity properly understood is not a religion. More appropriately described, Christianity is a relationship with the Almighty God through Jesus Christ, His uniquely born Son. This relationship in its pure form does not in anyway depend upon what man has or can ever do. It is absolutely based on what God has already done and provided. This is what grace is all about.
Therefore we can define grace within the context of our discussion as:
the provision or availability of God’s abundant riches, assets or favours to man (without his input) at the expense of Christ.
It is God that has done everything for man and man is only invited to enjoy all that God has provided. In grace, the contribution of man is absolutely zero. Man is only a recipient of God’s love and mercy, which he never deserves in the first place. This is so important because God is not any man’s debtor and He does not intend to make any man His debtor. The believer’s relationship with God is based purely on this principle.
Today, man is living in the dispensation of Grace. Compared with any other dispensation, this dispensation is the most unique in the history of the human race. Never before has the grace of God been so abundantly bestowed upon mankind. God’s eternal riches, and blessings and favours are so freely and abundantly poured upon mankind in this present era. God therefore invites every member of the human race to enjoy His love and forgiveness freely given only in Christ Jesus. Hear the prophet Isaiah’s words that can aptly be used to describe this momentous era in human history, though these words were proclaimed to Israel:
“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance (Isaiah 55: 1-2).
Though God’s saving Grace connotes His abundant blessings bestowed on mankind through Jesus Christ, grace can only be enjoyed through the faith that God also provides. Because God even provides the faith to perceive and receive all that He has provided for us, it is non-meritorious in nature (Ephesians 2:8-9). And because faith is non-meritorious, God receives all the glory.
If faith is not non-meritorious, then whenever we exercise it and receive anything from God; whatever we receive becomes reward for “doing” something (in this case, it will be a reward for our ability to exercise faith. In which case those who are unable to exercise faith because of their inability to do so, will be excluded from receiving from God). But faith is a non-meritorious system of perception (Ephesians 2:8-9).
It is of vital importance to have a more accurate understanding of rewards as they relate to grace. Generally speaking, rewards are what we receive for doing something. They are the wages for actions taken. If we agree that grace is what God has done and he simply invites us to come and enjoy His love, then we cannot attribute or interpret whatsoever we receive from God as a reward for whatsoever we might have done. Since faith (the only “thing” we are expected to exercise) is non-meritorious in nature, we will be undermining the very nature of God’s grace, if we ever interpret whatsoever we receive from God as a reward for our exercise of faith.
This is not to teach that there are no rewards under grace. The Bible documents for us passages that teach that there are rewards even under grace (Colossians 2:18, 3:24; 1 Peter 5:4; etc.). But we must understand that the nature of the reward under grace is different from the general perception of the rewards people get for things done. Under grace, the rewards that believers receive are based on the execution of God’s grace policy using God’s resources. We must realise that “we only measure up to God’s standards by God’s help alone”. Whenever we do that, God is pleased with us and He blesses us. In order words, the rewards we receive from God are predicated on our obedience to His will The Word of God) under the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Anything done in the energy of the flesh will not be rewarded.
We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. But grace does not cease to operate after salvation. Grace still operates beyond the moment of salvation. We are not saved by grace and thereafter execute our post salvation lives by some other systems or means other than the grace provisions of God. We are saved by grace and thereafter continue to execute our post-salvation life through grace. Grace never ceases to be operational in the life of the Christian. This is so important because God will be pleased with and will reward a life executed only through His enablement alone. It might be appropriate to make an illustration here.
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