The Centrality of Grace
How important is the grace of God for you? Is grace simply one component of your beliefs? Is grace a subset part of propositional theological concepts, or is God’s grace the fabric that has brought you into a right relationship with the living God?
The Grace of God is Central
For the Apostle Paul’s faith, the grace of God in Christ was central. Paul depended on Christ’s grace. Apart from God’s grace in Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul was nothing. Our faith must also depend on God’s grace in Christ. Dependence on God’s grace in Christ will cause us to live in a trajectory that is heaven-bound. Daily living in the grace of God through Christ transforms all that we do from temporary efforts, into praises offered before the throne of the Almighty. The grace of God in the Lord Jesus is paramount to all that Christians do say, and think.
If you were to take away God’s grace in Christ given to Paul, he would have had no faith. His religion no longer exists. His ethics for living practice disappear. His reasons for suffering hardship, and delighting in joy, are all gone. For Paul, life apart from God’s grace in Christ was nothing. We cannot possibly overstate how absolutely essential God’s grace in Christ Jesus was for Paul’s faith. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ was paramount for Paul’s faith.
Throughout 12 of the New Testament’s letters written by Paul, grace (Greek: χάρις) is mentioned more than 100 times. Of those more than 100 times, the vast majority of the time that grace is mentioned is in relation to the disposition and action of God in the Lord Jesus Christ (I may in the future make a grace-textual list like we’ve featured here in the past with classifying all the mentions of a particular word.)
Introductory greetings from Paul often extend a blessing to letter recipients through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:3)
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:3)
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:2)
To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you (1 Thessalonians 1:1)
In Paul’s parting words the grace of God in Christ Jesus often is the parting blessing to his audience:
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Corinthians 13:14)
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen (Galatians 6:18)
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit (Philemon 1:25)
In the heart of Paul’s letters, the grace of God in Christ Jesus is often the main hinge upon which the letter swings. In Romans, it is the grace of God revealed in Christ that was the culmination of all God’s covenant promises to the Patriarchs. In Galatians, it is the grace of God that Paul worries the Galatians are abandoning. In 1 and 2 Timothy grace is the central guiding motivation for the gospel minister. In 1 and 2 Thessalonians the grace of God is the very thing unifying and moving the Christian community forward. If God’s grace in Christ Jesus was to be clipped out of the Apostle Paul’s letters, a completely different document in structure, tone, substance, and purpose would remain.
Is the grace of God in Christ paramount for our faith? When we read the Old Testament do we see the need for God’s grace in Christ? When we read the New Testament do we see the beauty of God’s grace on display in the person and work of Jesus? In our daily aspirations, habits, and thoughts, do we cling to and long to grow closer to God by the grace of Christ?
For the born-again Christian, God’s grace in Christ Jesus is central. God’s grace is not a side aspect or a secondary component of our relationship to God. The grace of God to us in Jesus is the marrow in the bones of faith. Apart from God’s grace to us in the work and person of Jesus Christ, we would be like the dried dead bones in Ezekiel’s valley of dust (Ezekiel 37). Because of God’s grace to us in Christ, we who were once dead are now alive forevermore (Ephesians 2:1-10).
Is God’s grace in Christ a supplement to our faith, or is it the root, foundation, and cause of our faith? This is the most practical and paramount thing. All that we do in praise to God (in our work, rest, leisure, ups and downs) is a result of the grace given to us in Christ's life, death, resurrection, ascension, and promised triumphant return. Our hope for this present life and for eternity is assuredly planted in the gift of God that is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. For those who are in Christ Jesus as Paul was, the chorus of our lives is “praise God for His wonderful, marvelous grace in Christ Jesus to me”.
Posts You May Enjoy
