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The lesson library / Lesson 22

Grace

Explain undeserved favor, God’s initiative in salvation, and grace that produces grateful obedience.

The application of salvation

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Ephesians 2:1-22 · Romans 5:12-21 · Titus 2:1-15 · 2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Grace is easy to praise while quietly trying to turn it into a wage. A person may admit that God helps and still assume the decisive difference is that he deserved the help more than someone else. Scripture removes that claim. Grace reaches the undeserving, and its effect is not to make God’s commands meaningless. It creates a new reason and ability to obey.

Read Ephesians 2:1-22

1 You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins,
2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience.
3 We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
6 and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus;
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, that no one would boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.
11 Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision” (in the flesh, made by hands),
12 that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ.
14 For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of separation,
15 having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace,
16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility through it.
17 He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near.
18 For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.
19 So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God,
20 being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone;
21 in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord;
22 in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.

The turning point is God’s mercy. Paul does not describe people who had almost completed their own rescue and needed a small contribution. The helplessness makes the kindness of God unmistakable. Then the passage moves toward good works and reconciliation. A person rescued by grace is not given permission to remain proud of himself and hostile to everyone else. If grace really means undeserved mercy, it should make self-importance harder to maintain.

Read Romans 5:12-21

12 Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death passed to all men because all sinned.
13 For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come.
15 But the free gift isn’t like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.
16 The gift is not as through one who sinned; for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift followed many trespasses to justification.
17 For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.
18 So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life.
19 For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous.
20 The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly,
21 that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Paul contrasts two representatives and the consequences of their actions. The abundance of grace does not mean that sin has become beneficial or that every person is automatically reconciled. The next chapter rejects the suggestion that believers should continue sinning to display more grace. Forgiveness is not an argument for accumulating offenses. That would be an unusual way to thank a benefactor, and an even stranger way to honor a Savior who died because sin is serious.

Gratitude also changes the way obedience is discussed. A person earning wages asks what amount of work will satisfy the agreement. A person who has received undeserved rescue has a different reason to ask what the rescuer desires. The distinction does not make the conduct less serious; it changes its foundation. That is why grace can produce strenuous obedience without turning obedience into self-salvation. The believer still needs correction and help. Grace does not mean effortlessness. It means the effort proceeds within a relationship given by mercy, with strength supplied by the same God whose commands guide the effort.

Read Titus 2:1-15

1 But say the things which fit sound doctrine,
2 that older men should be temperate, sensible, sober minded, sound in faith, in love, and in perseverance,
3 and that older women likewise be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good,
4 that they may train the young wives to love their husbands, to love their children,
5 to be sober minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that God’s word may not be blasphemed.
6 Likewise, exhort the younger men to be sober minded.
7 In all things show yourself an example of good works. In your teaching, show integrity, seriousness, incorruptibility,
8 and soundness of speech that can’t be condemned, that he who opposes you may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say about us.
9 Exhort servants to be in subjection to their own masters and to be well-pleasing in all things, not contradicting,
10 not stealing, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior, in all things.
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
12 instructing us to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we would live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age;
13 looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
14 who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works.
15 Say these things and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one despise you.

The same grace that brings salvation teaches a different way of life. Paul names ungodliness and worldly desires as things to refuse. Grace therefore cannot be defined as God becoming unconcerned about conduct. The training is personal and practical, and it takes place while believers wait for Christ. Waiting is not inactivity. It is a life directed toward the Lord who gave Himself to redeem a people eager for good works.

Read 2 Corinthians 12:1-10

1 It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast, but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
2 I know a man in Christ who was caught up into the third heaven fourteen years ago—whether in the body, I don’t know, or whether out of the body, I don’t know; God knows.
3 I know such a man (whether in the body, or outside of the body, I don’t know; God knows),
4 how he was caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
5 On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except in my weaknesses.
6 For if I would desire to boast, I will not be foolish; for I will speak the truth. But I refrain, so that no man may think more of me than that which he sees in me or hears from me.
7 By reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted excessively, a thorn in the flesh was given to me: a messenger of Satan to torment me, that I should not be exalted excessively.
8 Concerning this thing, I begged the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
9 He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, and in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong.

Paul asks for relief and receives an answer centered on sufficient grace. The passage does not tell readers exactly what the thorn was, so certainty about its medical or personal identity would outrun the evidence. The significant point is that continued weakness does not prove divine rejection. Christ’s power is displayed through dependence. That should make Christians cautious about blaming every ongoing difficulty on insufficient faith. Paul’s experience makes that explanation far too simple.

Thank God for a mercy you could not earn. Then consider the obedience that gratitude requires today. Grace is not made stronger by leaving a person unchanged, and it is not made weaker by requiring that the changed life depend continually on God. The gift remains a gift from beginning to end.

Consider your perspective

Grace removes the ground for boasting while giving obedience a grateful motive. Receiving salvation as a gift does not make conduct unimportant; it changes obedience from a wage claim into a response to mercy.

Put it into practice

Notice one place where you compare your worth with another person's performance. Replace the comparison with thanksgiving, then choose an act of obedience that grace calls forth today.

Reflect and respond

  • Where are you treating grace as a reward?
  • What habit contradicts grace’s training?
  • How can dependence continue when relief is delayed?

Passages and further study

Scripture quotations are from the public-domain World English Bible (WEB). Historical confessions are study aids, subordinate to Scripture. This independent lesson is not an official denominational statement.