Thoughts on grace

       So what is grace?  Grace is God doing what man cannot do.  Grace makes salvation possible.  “For by grace you have been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8).  Grace is not just received, it is to be experienced more and more each day.  As Christians we are to “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:2) and are to “grow in grace” (2 Peter 3:18a).  Growing in grace is dying to self.  It is an attitude of allowing God to work through you, despite you.  Growing in grace is allowing God to do what you cannot do: display His holiness through your life.  That is why Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20a).  Paul understood that only through God’s grace can others see Christ in him.  The fact that grace is a gift is to remind us that we are “not to think more highly of ourselves then we ought to think” (Romans 12:3). 

       We are saved through grace and are to live through grace.  “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:11-14).