Grace
The Rev. Lou Tiscione, Pastor, Weatherford Presbyterian Church (PCA)
If you haven’t thought very deeply or recently on the topic of grace, may I offer some seeds for thought? Grace’s pure definition is unmerited favor. Specifically, it is God’s unmerited favor. The history of God’s grace begins in Genesis chapter 1. God did not need to create. He did so simply because He willed to do it. Everything that we see around us is by God’s grace. God’s two main covenants with man demonstrate God’s unmerited favor. First, the Covenant of Works, God condescended to establish the requirements to have a relationship with Him. He gave a simple and clear command to the Man, Adam. Genesis 2:16-17 says, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”
In this Covenant, God declared both a blessing and a curse. There was blessing for obedience and a curse for disobedience. Of course, we all know what happened. The next chapter records it. Adam and the first woman, later named Eve, disobeyed God’s command and when they sinned, we all sinned (Romans 5:12). All creation was then placed under a curse. God said to Adam, “cursed is the ground because of you” (Genesis 3:16b).
Yet, within God’s declaration of curse, He revealed His grace. He issued a curse upon the serpent who was Satan. Genesis 3:15 says, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” This is God’s revelation of the Covenant of Grace. It is commonly referred to as the proto evangel, the first revelation of the gospel of the Person and Work of Jesus Christ, the “seed of the woman.”
From this point on in the Bible, God’s revelation falls under His Covenant of Grace. All His actions reflect His unmerited favor. There are two categories of God’s grace. One is called His common grace, which is His unmerited favor upon all creation. The other is called His saving grace, which is His irresistible saving grace that He pours out on His elect.
To feel the weight of God’s grace, we must see the fundamental principle of life. God requires absolute perfection. Jesus said perfect righteousness is required to enter the kingdom of heaven. The Covenant of Works recorded in Genesis 2:16-17 is still binding on all who are in Adam. We are all born under that weight and as such are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1-3).
God doesn’t grade righteousness on a scale. I remember taking a physics course in college years ago. If the professor didn’t grade our tests on a scale no one would have gotten a passing grade in his course. He took the lowest grade and the highest grade and developed an acceptable score. God doesn’t do that. If you think that God will compare you to others at the end of your life, you won’t have a “passing grade.”
Studying grace requires honesty in its application. The undeniable conclusion is that you are not perfect. No one is. Hence, the absolute need for grace. No one is perfect. No one will go to heaven unless God extends His grace.
God’s saving, irresistible grace is the only means by which men may have a “passing grade.” But God’s saving grace is not simply winking at our failure to be perfect. God’s saving grace is extended because of merit, perfect merit. God’s saving grace is extended only because of the perfect merit of Jesus Christ. What all men fail to do, He did. He obeyed the Covenant of Works perfectly. God extends His favor to His people because of the merit of Jesus. This saving grace is given by God to those whom He chose before the foundation of the world. His choice is not based on anything we will do or have done. His choice is unconditional (Ephesians 1, 2).
You may be thinking that this choice of God to extend saving grace as He wills is unfair, but God is not unfair. Grace is not about fairness. God is perfectly fair. We call His fairness divine justice. He has said that at the end of this world there will be a final judgment. Two books will be opened by God. One book is the record of everyone’s deeds. The other is called the book of life. The judgment of God is that anyone’s name that does not appear in the book of life is thrown into the “lake of fire.” Those two books represent the difference between justice and grace. Those who live thinking that God winks at their sin and will somehow extend grace to them at the end are those who will experience perfect justice. On the other hand, those who live their lives relying upon the perfect life of Jesus and His perfect sacrifice will experience the fullness of God’s saving grace in eternal bliss.
Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). Saving grace is God’s unmerited favor based upon the merit of His only Son, Jesus. There are only two alternatives for mankind. Rely upon your own merit or rely upon the merit of Christ. In either case the standard is perfection. The truth is Jesus is the only One who was perfect.
