Living in the Balance of Grace and Faith

We are continuing our journey through the good news about God's grace. Last time we established a beautiful truth: God's grace has already been given. God has already blessed. God has already visited his people, freely, without waiting for them and in spite of what they have done. Now the Bible encourages us to grow in grace, that is, to grow in receiving the things we do not deserve. So the question is simple: how do we do that?

For by grace are ye saved through faith.

Ephesians 2:8

That one verse holds the answer, and it holds it in perfect balance. To understand it, it helps to look at two ways Christians often get this wrong.

Two extremes that miss the balance

There is one group of believers who say God does everything, and no matter what you do, God's will is going to come to pass. God is sovereign, they say, so God allows or even causes sickness. When someone dies, God made them die. When you lose your job, God took your job. When you become sick, God made you sick. And whether you are healed or not is entirely up to him. In this view, you are simply a spectator.

Then there is the opposite group, on the faith side of things, who say everything depends on your faith and your faith actions. You can believe it and get it, and if you do not get it, it is because you are not believing hard enough. You must do this and do that for God to move. You must give a big gift to move God. You must pray for ten hours or you will never walk in the anointing.

Both extremes lead people into strange places. Some have taken the faith idea so far that they tried to force things that were never theirs to claim, and it ended in confusion and harm. And the sovereignty idea, taken to its end, leaves people passive and defeated, blaming God for everything the enemy is doing. Neither one is the gospel. Ephesians 2 answers it for us: we are saved by grace, through faith. Both words matter.

Grace is God's part, faith is ours

Grace is what God has done that is completely unmerited. Grace is the healing we need that God has already provided in Christ. Grace is the provision God has made for us because of Jesus. Grace is God's part, all that he has done for us in his Son. It is the inheritance of the saints, and you do not work for an inheritance.

Faith is our part. Faith is the action, based on God's word, that we take to appropriate, to lay hold of, what God has already done. Put simply: God's grace plus your faith produces the result in your life. God is not about to move; God has already moved. Now the question is whether we will receive it.

This is not only true for salvation from sin. It is true for salvation as a whole. Just as God reconciled the whole world to himself and yet not everyone is saved, so it is with every good thing God provides. It has to be appropriated. It has to be received by faith.

How it works in real life

Take giving as an example: tithing, giving to the needy, giving to God's work. Many of us have been taught that it is our giving that unlocks the blessings of God, that the reason we are not blessed is that we are not giving enough. Give more and you will get more from God. But look closely and you will see there is no grace in that message, only works.

The truth is that God has already blessed us with all we need in Christ. But to receive it, you have to believe it. You have to live and act as though God has blessed you and all your provision comes from him and not from your own effort. And do you know what that looks like in practice? Generosity. You are generous because you genuinely believe God has been generous to you.

It is not with your mouth that you say I believe; it is with your actions. If you never give, if you are not generous toward the church or toward the needs of others, then no matter how loudly you say it, you do not yet truly believe that God has blessed you with all things that pertain to life and godliness. You may sing it and say it, but faith is missing, and the part that is missing is exactly the part that receives.

The will of God and the choices of people

So there is a sense in which the will of God certainly comes to pass. In the general, cosmic sense, God will outlast everyone and have the last say. But in the specifics of individual lives, it is possible to reject God's will and not receive it. The Bible is honest about this.

Think of Israel at the edge of the promised land. God's will was to bring them in, and in a general sense that happened. But for a whole generation, it did not, and Hebrews tells us why: the word they heard was not mixed with faith. God's grace had provided the land; their unbelief left them outside of it. Grace provides; faith appropriates.

Or think of the religious leaders in the days of John the Baptist. God had promised for centuries to send a messenger ahead of the Messiah. That was pure grace; no one prayed it into being or earned it. Yet when John appeared with every sign, the Bible says they rejected God's purpose for their own lives. God's purpose still came to pass, but not in the lives of those who would not receive by faith what grace had freely given.

Even the dogs

One of my favorite pictures of this is the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15. According to the theologians of her day, salvation was not yet available to the Gentiles. But this woman essentially said, to the theologians and to what the world says, here is what I have read that God's grace has provided, and I will believe it and act on it until I see it in my life.

She came to Jesus and called him Lord, Son of David, a title for the Messiah. At first he answered her not a word. The devil loves those silences. That is exactly when the accusing thoughts come: maybe it is not God's will; maybe God wants you to stay in this pain; maybe you sinned and that is why the answer has not come. Perhaps you have heard voices like that yourself.

Even when Jesus tested her with the hard words about not taking the children's bread and giving it to the dogs, she did not let go. In effect she said, true, Lord, I agree I deserve nothing; yet even the dogs eat the crumbs from the master's table. And there is grace even for me. That is faith laying hold of grace, and Jesus marveled at it and granted her request.

What is expected of us

So here is where it leaves us. First, we must know what God has provided by grace, and whenever we are not experiencing it in our lives, we should rise up in faith and contend for it, because it is the enemy, not God, trying to cheat us of our inheritance. This is why we study the Bible and fellowship with God: to grow in the knowledge of Christ and of all that grace has already provided.

Second, once we know it, we must appropriate it by faith. Ask yourself what actions of faith you can take to receive what God has provided. And resist the devil. Doubt many things if you must, but never believe the lie that God is the one making you sick, causing your loss, or breaking your home. Take your stand on grace, reach out in faith, and lay hold of everything God has freely given you in Christ.