Week 1: Grace What Is It? Who Needs It?

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1 Week 1: Grace What Is It? Who Needs It? Course Goal: To better understand the vast riches of God s grace available to us through Christ so we can fully embrace His grace and emulate it for the joy of God, ourselves, and others. Overview: Week 1: Grace What Is It? Who Needs It? Week 2: Grace What Makes It So Amazing? Week 3: Grace Does God Really Have The Right To Give It To Anyone? Week 4: Grace Does It Mean I Don t Have To Obey? Week 5: Grace How Is It Sufficient For My Weakness? Week 6: Grace How Do I Embrace It And Emulate It? Key Resources (Besides the Bible!): Transforming Grace, by Jerry Bridges (NavPress, 2008) Grace: More Than We Deserve. Greater Than We Imagine, by Max Lucado (Thomas Nelson, 2014) What s So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey (Zondervan, 2002) How would you define grace? Grace expresses two complementary thoughts: God s unmerited favor to us through Christ, and God s divine assistance to us through the Holy Spirit. (Jerry Bridges) Grace is not simply leniency when we have sinned. Grace is the enabling gift of God not to sin. Grace is power, not just pardon. (John Piper) Grace is God s free and spontaneous action taken to meet human need, especially in providing salvation and enabling the believer. (The Revell Bible Dictionary) [Grace is] God s free gift of the opposite of what we deserve. We deserve wrath and get love, we deserve punishment and get forgiveness all because of Jesus sacrifice on our behalf. (P. Yancey) Grace is God s goodness toward those who deserve only punishment. (Wayne Grudem) 1

2 What s wrong with this definition of grace? Grace is God s making up the difference between the requirements of His law and what we lack in meeting those requirements What do each of the following verses illustrate about the grace of God? Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. (Isaiah 55:1) And [God] said, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. (Exodus 33:19) The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin (Exodus 34:6-7) [4] But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, [5] even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved [6] and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, [7] so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. [8] For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, [9] not a result of works, so that no one may boast. [10] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:4-10) 2

3 What do the following verses tell us about our spiritual condition apart from Christ? [6] All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way (Isaiah 53:6) [10] None is righteous, no, not one; [11] no one understands; no one seeks for God. [12] All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. (Romans 3:10-12) The first and possibly most fundamental characteristic of divine grace is that it presupposes sin and guilt. Grace has meaning only when men are seen as fallen, unworthy of salvation, and liable to eternal wrath Grace does not contemplate sinners merely as undeserving, but as ill-deserving It is not simply that we do not deserve grace; we do deserve hell. (C. Samuel Storms) In Philippians 3:1-14, Paul contrasts the attitude of a legalist with the attitude of someone who understands God s grace. Legalist One Trusting in Grace Basis of relationship with God Feelings toward God Motivation for obedience and good behavior Treatment of others who have fallen short Basis of strength to endure trials and to serve the Lord 3

4 What do the following verses teach about trying to mix grace and works as the basis for a relationship with God? But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. (Romans 11:6) Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? (Galatians 3:3) [2] Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. [3] I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. [4] You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. [5] For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. [6] For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. (Galatians 5:2-6) Whether we re talking about saving grace or the grace to live out the Christian life, why is it often so hard to rely on God s grace rather than our own efforts? The doctrine of grace lies at the very heart not merely of all Christian theology but also of all Christian experience. If we have an incorrect or inadequate understanding of the biblical teaching on grace, our whole grasp of the meaning and purpose of Christianity will be deficient in consequence. (Philip Hughes, But for the Grace of God) Do you agree grace lies at the very heart of all Christian experience? Why or why not? To the extent that you are clinging to any vestiges of self-righteousness or are putting any confidence in your own spiritual attainments, to that degree you are not living, by the grace of God We cannot stand, as it were, with one foot on grace and the other on our works of merit If you are trusting to any degree in your own morality or religious attainments, or if you believe God will somehow recognize any of your good works as merit toward salvation, you need to seriously consider if you are truly a Christian. (Jerry Bridges) 4

5 From Grace: Right Here, Right Now by Paul Tripp Grace is the most transformational word in the Bible. The entire content of the Bible is a narrative of God's grace, a story of undeserved redemption. By the transformational power of his grace, God unilaterally reaches his hands into the muck of this fallen world, through the presence of his Son, and radically transforms his children from what we are (sinners) into what we are becoming by his power (Christ-like). The famous Newton hymn uses the best word possible, maybe the only word big enough, for that grace amazing. So grace is a story and grace is a gift. It is God's character and it is your only hope. Grace is a transforming tool and a state of relationship. Grace is a beautiful theology and a wonderful invitation. Grace is a life-long experience and a life-changing calling. Grace will turn your life upside down while giving you a rest you have never known. Grace will require you to face your unworthiness without ever making you feel unloved. Grace will make you finally acknowledge you cannot earn God's favor, and it will remove your fear of not measuring up to his standards. Grace will humble you with the fact that you are much less than you thought you were, even as it assures you that you can be far more than you had ever imagined. You can be sure grace will put you in your place without ever putting you down. Grace will enable you to face shocking truths about yourself that you have hesitated to consider, while freeing you from being self-consciously introspective. Grace will confront you with profound weaknesses, and at the same time bless you with new-found strength. Grace will tell you again and again what you aren't, while welcoming you again and again to what you can now be. Grace will make you as uncomfortable as you have ever been, while offering you a more lasting comfort than you have never before known. Grace enters your life in a moment and will occupy you for eternity. You simply cannot live a productive life in this broken-down world unless you have a practical grasp of the grace you have been given. Are you living out of this amazing grace? Does it shape the way you respond to your personal struggles, your relationships, and your work? Does your trust in this grace form how you live with your husband or wife? Does it propel the way you parent your children? Does it give you comfort when friends have disappointed you? Does it give you rest when life is unpredictable and hard? Does it make you bold and give you courage in places where you would have once been timid? Does it make the idols that tempt you less attractive and less powerful? Do you wake up and say, "I don't know what I will face today, but this I do know: I have been given amazing grace to face it right here, right now." May God help you to understand and rest in the grace you have been given! 5