God's Amazing Grace
Part of The Gospel Is Good News
September 13, 2023

GOD’S AMAZING GRACE

Text: Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 3:24

Eph 2:8-9
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Rom 3:24
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

1. The Meaning Of Grace

1) General:

2) Theological:

  • The act of God in
    Reveal Answer
    giving His salvation and all the blessings accompanying that salvation to undeserving sinners at the moment of their simple faith in Christ, apart from any
    Reveal Answer
    of righteousness or
    Reveal Answer
    on their part, based entirely upon the sacrificial death of Christ.

2. The Cost Of Grace

  • While the blessings of grace are free to us, the purchase made by grace at Calvary was the costliest event of all time and eternity.

  • When our sense of justice demands sin ought to be punished and therefore recoils at the thought of grace given to the most heinous of sinners, we are missing the point that SIN HAS BEEN PUNISHED!

    1) Grace cost God His only begotten

    Reveal Answer
    . (John 3:16)

    2) Grace cost Jesus His own

    Reveal Answer
    . 1 Peter 1:18-19)

3. The Incompatibility Of Grace

  • The recipient of God’s grace is absolutely devoid of any merit and in no way deserves God’s grace, can earn God’s grace, or work to receive God’s grace.

  • Grace and works are mutually exclusive. (Rom. 11:6)

  • It cannot be overstated that any

    Reveal Answer
    of grace and works completely destroys grace.

  • You cannot mix earned and unearned. You cannot mix the

    Reveal Answer
    Reveal Answer
    paid for by Christ’s blood with earned wages paid for by your good works. (Rom. 4:4)

  • Working for our salvation means we must earn our ultimate salvation by our good works and by our righteousness. This completely and entirely

    Reveal Answer
    out grace.

  • Salvation is a choice between

    Reveal Answer
    your works (which have earned you “the wages of sin” which is eternal death in Hell – Rom. 6:23; Rev. 20:14-15) or trusting Christ’s blood which has paid the full price of your sin and purchased you a home in Heaven.

  • Grace demands that all trust in your own works or righteousness be completely forsaken. Grace demands that you place your faith in Christ who freely gives you the righteousness of God apart from any works.

4. The Frustration Of Grace

  • The Word of God is clear that if righteousness comes by obeying the law of commandments, then Christ

    Reveal Answer
    in vain! (Gal. 2:21)

  • The Greek word athleo is translated “frustrate.” It means to set aside, to neutralize, violate, cast off, despise, disannul, frustrate, bring to naught, or reject. Thus if righteousness comes by good works of obedience to the law, then the grace of God is disannulled, cast off, set aside, brought to naught, rejected, despised, and neutralized!

  • If we are saved or made righteous by good works of obedience to the law or commands of God, then Christ died for NOTHING. The cross was the greatest gesture of futility and failure of all time. God sent His only Begotten Son to the suffering, torture and death of the cross as some sort of cruel cosmic joke. The Father mocked Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane that if there were any
    Reveal Answer
    way for men to be saved, let this cup pass from Me. No! Ten thousand times No! Christ died as the One and Only Way of Salvation for man!

5. The Types Of Grace

1)
Reveal Answer
Grace

  • This is sometimes referred to as common or general grace.

  • This is the “grace of God that bringeth salvation [which] hath appeared to all men.” (Titus 2:11)

  • Because of our sinful nature, if we were left to ourselves, no man would seek God. No one can come to God except He be drawn by God. We can only believe by His grace. (Rom. 3:11; John 6:44; Acts 18:27)

  • Enabling grace is not irresistible grace. God’s grace enables the will of man to choose Jesus as Savior. It does not overpower man’s will.

2) Efficacious or
Reveal Answer
Grace

  • This is the unmerited favor of God which is freely granted to believers. This is the grace that saves. (Eph. 2:8-9, Rom. 3:24)

3) Empowering Grace

  • This is the
    Reveal Answer
    and
    Reveal Answer
    to do God’s will, which God grants to all believers so that they may live for Christ and endure hardship for Christ. (1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 9:8; Eph. 3:7; Rom. 12:3)

6. The Perverting Of Grace (Rom. 6:1)

  • There were some in Paul’s day who accused him of teaching that salvation by grace meant that you get a license to sin against God and the law. Paul certainly did not teach this. He taught that grace was not a reason to sin but a reason to serve.

  • For the child of God, grace does not free us

    Reveal Answer
    sin; grace frees us
    Reveal Answer
    sin. Grace is not a license to sin; grace is liberation from sin. Grace does not excuse our sin; grace eradicates our sin. Grace does not foster sin; grace forgives sin.