Grace Works

There is a quiet confusion that lives inside many sincere Christians, and most of us never name it out loud. We believe we were saved by grace. But somewhere along the way we started to believe we stay saved, and grow, by our own hard work. As Paul was leaving the Ephesian elders, he handed them a farewell blessing that speaks straight into that confusion.

So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

Acts 20:32

Notice what he says grace does. The word of His grace, not the word of His commands, is what builds you up, the same word used for constructing a great building. Grace makes you a spiritual giant. And it hands you an inheritance, everything Another has worked for, now willed to you. And this is for the sanctified, the saints, born-again people. Grace is not just the door you walked through to get saved. Grace is the house you now live in.

The Confusion We Rarely Admit

Watch how differently we tend to talk to a sinner and to a saint. To the sinner we say: God loves you exactly as you are; it does not matter what you have done, He will forgive you; while you were still a sinner, He died for you. But to the saint we often say: now that you are saved, you had better not slip; you must obey, keep repenting, clean yourself up, or God, who is a consuming fire, will turn on you.

Do you see what we have done? We have quietly made God kinder to the sinner than to His own children. As if grace works beautifully to bring you in, and then switches off, leaving you to pay the price of growth by yourself. Paul confronted the Galatians about this very thing.

Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

Galatians 3:3

Paul's point is bracing. The same grace that works by faith to save you is the same grace that works by faith to heal you, to sanctify you, to deliver you, to produce miracles, to make you more like Jesus. Grace is not a starting line you leave behind. Grace works, by faith, for the sinner and for the saint alike.

What Grace Actually Is

So what is this grace? Paul opens his letter to the Ephesians with a flood of it: God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. He chose us before the foundation of the world, adopted us, redeemed us by the blood of Jesus, forgave all our sins, sealed us with the Holy Spirit, and gave us an inheritance. Read those verses and circle every time they say in Christ, in Him, in whom. All of it comes to us in Christ.

And notice when God did all this: before the foundation of the world, long before you could earn a single thing. That is the whole point. Grace is all of God and none of you. Scripture says even our best righteous acts are like filthy rags, not because good behavior is worthless, but because nothing produced on earth can purchase what comes from heaven. You contributed nothing to your salvation, nothing to your redemption, nothing to your sanctification, because you had nothing to contribute. And when you heard the gospel and believed it, God sealed the transaction with His own Spirit. Even the faith to believe was His gift to you.

Why would God do all of this? For one reason: He truly loves you. It cost Him His only Son. God Himself came and lived the life you could not live and died the death you should not die, so that you could receive blessings you do not deserve and escape the punishment you do. That is the word of His grace. And the Bible says this word works.

But Doesn't Grace Need Balance?

Some will push back here: Pastor, don't we need balance? Shouldn't we warn people that God will punish them if they sin? My answer is yes, as long as what we tell them is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And here is the whole truth. Right now, the only person God can justly punish for sin is the sinner who is not in Jesus. If you are outside of Christ, then yes, you stand exposed, and you need to run and hide in Him today.

As Jonathan Edwards once observed, the very One keeping a rebellious sinner alive is the One that sinner is rebelling against. But for anyone who is in Christ, the picture is entirely different.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:1

If God were to punish someone who is in Christ, He would have to apologize to Jesus, because God already poured out His consuming fire on Jesus at the cross. That is not a license to sin; it is the ground of holy living. To be clear, I am not preaching once saved, always saved as if your choices do not matter. I am preaching once in Christ, always saved; not in Christ, not saved. So examine yourself honestly. Is your faith truly resting on Jesus and what He did, and not on your church, your effort, or your track record?

Not a Sin Problem, an Identity Problem

When Paul asks in Romans 6, Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound, his answer is: Certainly not! But notice how he answers. He never says, No, you still have to try hard to keep the law. Instead he says, How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Our old self was crucified with Christ. We are dead to sin and alive to God. Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

This changes the whole question. Christians do not have a sin problem; they have an identity problem. So the right question is never, What will happen to me if I sin? We already know the answer to that: in Christ, you are already forgiven. The right question is, What is happening that I am in Christ and still stuck in this sin? Something is off, and it is not that you need to work harder.

When sin, or sickness, or defeat tries to dominate you, the response of faith is to reject it: This is not who I am. This is not my identity. I am in Christ. I am washed, sanctified, purified, saved, and healed. Sin shall not have dominion over me. That is not denial; that is agreeing with God about who you now are. The moment you can genuinely believe you are no longer an addict, addiction begins to break. The moment you believe you are no longer a bitter, angry person, bitterness begins to lose its grip. It is not by how hard you work; it is by how deeply you believe what grace has already done in you, through faith.

Great Riches at Christ's Expense

One old way of spelling out grace is this: Great Riches At Christ's Expense. Everything God has done for you, He did because of what Christ did. Jesus deserved every good thing and lost it, so that you, who deserved none of it, could have it. He deserved health but bore your sickness, so you could receive His health. He deserved a sound mind but took your anguish, so you could receive His peace. That is why grace works.

Growing in grace, then, is not growing in works so God can use you more. It is growing in the realization of what God has already done for you that you did not deserve, and letting that knowledge shape how you live each day.

• You give more freely, not because you can see the money in the account, but because you have grown to believe God has already supplied all you need.
• You spend more time with God, not by gritting your teeth, but because you have come to know that everything you need is already provided in Christ.
• You pray more boldly for the sick, because you have finally realized how much power and anointing God has placed in you that you never earned.

Do you see it? Whether the struggle is sin, sickness, poverty, or a prayerless life, the deepest issue is almost never a willpower problem. It is an identity problem. You have not yet grown into the knowledge of who you already are in Christ. And Scripture warns that a person who is honored but does not know it lives like an animal that perishes, surrounded by riches he never enjoys.

Grow, Don't Grind

So do not begin in grace and then try to finish by your own works. Grow in grace, not in grinding. Let the message of what God has done travel to every person you know: in Christ, you can be so loved when you deserve to be hated, so healed when you deserve to be sick, so free when you deserve to be bound. God the Father has already done all of this for you. Your part is simply to believe Him, to receive the pardon, and to say, It is mine.

If you have never truly placed your faith in Jesus, do that today, and watch this grace begin to work in you too. And if you already belong to Him, stop striving to earn what you have already been given. Grow deeper into who you are in Christ, because the more you know Him, the more His grace goes to work, through faith, in every corner of your life.