What is Grace? (Part 4)

When a person obeys the gospel and is baptized, he demonstrates faith in Christ’s commands. It is at that point that God saves Him based upon the merit of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross wherein He has all authority (Matthew 28:18). To do anything less is not to fully obey Jesus’ commands proving a lack of faith in Jesus (Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16;16, John 3:5). Upon baptism, he becomes a child of God, and as a child, God favors Him with the benefits of being part of Jesus’ family. As the Father favors His Son, Jesus Christ, so He favors the Christian. This is Paul’s point in Galatians 4:1-6. This favor extends to the life of the Christian in many ways. He now receives all the blessings that are in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). This includes forgiveness of sins, fellowship with God, family membership, acceptance by God, the indwelling Spirit of God, and many other wonderful gifts. One of these is standing in the grace of God (Romans 5:2, 1 Peter 5:12). To stand in the grace of God is to have God’s perpetual favor upon one’s life. This means that God forgives our sins in an ongoing way as we live a life of repentance and confession (Romans 6:1, 1 John 1:7-10). We do not receive grace for abuse (Romans 6:1, Jude 1:4), but we do have grace when we need it (Hebrews 4:16). John puts it like this, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). God does not want us to sin, but if we do, He is there with His grace to help us back on the right path. This does not mean that one may not leave the path altogether and fall from grace, though. We will talk about that in the next article.

God bless you, and I love you.

Kevin Cauley