The Foundation and Good News of the Grace Message
The foundation of the grace message is the truth of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:1, 14-18). The good news of the grace message is that the Lord Jesus loved us so much that He chose to give His life on the cross of Calvary so that we could enjoy Him, His heaven and new earth forever, and have a meaningful personal relationship with Him now as well.
While the grace message is found in the Old Testament, the grace message may be understood and grasped especially from the New Testament. The writings of the Bible were uniquely inspired by God and the New Testament was written by the apostles and prophets of Jesus Christ to churches and individuals in the first century A.D.
The Application of the Grace Message in a Christian’s Life
The grace message of Christ Jesus for the Christian grace-way of life is built on the truth of the gospel, which is that deliverance from sin and death and everlasting life is received only when an individual personally believes that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:30-31). Life with God forever is received as a gift from the Lord Jesus through faith in Him and by faith in Him alone. Good works do not earn the gift or retain it. Sinful thoughts or actions do not remove a believer from his relationship with or position in Christ. “Having been justified by faith we have peace with God,” and nothing and no one “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 5:1; 8:38). Therefore the believer is free to serve the Lord Jesus out of a heart of love and thankfulness for the truly free gifts that God has given because of His love and grace. He or she need not live in fear of losing her salvation or fear from thinking that maybe she did not receive life at all because of her struggle with bad behavior. The truth of the grace message should be set in sharp contrast to teachings that bring about slavery by focussing upon keeping a certain set of rules or traditions in order to retain an eternal relationship with God (Galatians 3:2-6; 5:1).
The application of the grace message of Christ Jesus is a life lived in response to His love and grace. Those who have believed in Jesus should please and honor Him out of gratitude for what He has done for them and in appreciation for what He continues to do and will do for them (Colossians 2:6-7). Believers in Christ Jesus are called to keep on growing “in the grace and knowledge” of their Savior (2 Peter 3:18).
The following passages (from the NKJV) present the biblical basis for the teachings of the grace message.Acts 20:32. And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word [logos, which may be translated “message”] of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified [set apart as holy].
John 1:14-18;
John 3:13. "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.
14. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15. "that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
3:16. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
20:30-31. And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
Titus
2:11. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,
12. teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,
13. looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
14. who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
15. Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.
Ephesians
1: 13. In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
14. who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
2: 8. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9. not of works, lest anyone should boast.
10. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Read Ephesians 4:1 - 5:19.
2 Corinthians
3:5. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,
6. who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
7. But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away,
8. how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?
9. For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
3:17. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
5:14. For the love of Christ constrains us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;
15. and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
16. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.
17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
18. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
19. that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.
21. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
6:1. We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
Colossians
2:6. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
7. rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
8. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
9. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
10. and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
2:11. In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
12. buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
13. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
14. having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
15. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
16. Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,
17. which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
18. Let no one defraud you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19. and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase which is from God.
20. Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations
21. "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,''
22. which all concern things which perish with the using according to the commandments and doctrines of men?
Galatians
2:16 . . . a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.
2:20. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
3:2. This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
3. Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
4. Have you suffered so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain?
5. Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
6. just as Abraham "believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.''
3: 26. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
4:6. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!''
7. Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
8. But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods.
9. But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?
10. You observe days and months and seasons and years.
11. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.
5:1. Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
2. Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.
3. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.
4. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
5. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
6. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.
5:13. For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
14. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.''
15. But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!
16. I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
1 Peter
13. Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
14. as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance;
15. but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
16. because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy.''
17. And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your sojourning here in fear;
18. knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers,
19. but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
20. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you
21. who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
22-25. Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever.'' Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
2 Peter
17. You therefore, beloved, since you know these things beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked;
18. but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.
1 John
4:1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
3. and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
4. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
5. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.
6. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
10. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.
13. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
14. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.
15. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
16. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
17. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
18. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
19. We love Him because He first loved us.
Many other passages should be carefully studied, such as Romans 1:16 – 8:39.
The true grace message of God instructs and builds up the believer, liberating him to serve the Lord in the freedom of faith and love (Galatians 5:1-6). This message of grace should be set in contrast to the false teachings that tragically cause enslavement, fear, doubt and uncertainty in the life of the believer in Christ Jesus.
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