Grace is a big word, a God word, a word that is foreign to our natural thinking and living. It’s a word our natural minds just can’t comprehend.
Yet, we offer up all kinds of ideas about grace, ideas that aren’t true. Here are six of the most common.
- Grace is necessary only for salvation. Many believers think that they needed God’s grace for salvation, but now that they are saved, living the Christian life is up to them. They lean into rules and regulations to guide their lives. This does nothing but lead them into legalistic bondage.
- Grace is merely a covering for sins. Is forgiveness all that we need from God? Many answer “yes” to this question, and they look to grace as the covering for their sins. This idea misses our real need. The Bible says that we are dead in sin and in need of life. Grace is God’s act to make us alive together with Christ and to make us right in God’s sight.
- Grace is a thing. Grace is not a thing. Grace is bound up in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He is the One full of grace and truth. Think about grace as a thing, or a theological concept, and you miss Him.
- Grace gives us a license to sin. If you think of grace like this, you miss out on the most practical aspect of God’s grace in daily living. The grace of Jesus teaches us to say “no” to sin.
- Grace and Law are equal. They are not. Believe that they are and you will blend them together. When you do you miss the purpose of each. Law compares to grace as the moon compares to the sun.
- Grace is insufficient to meet life’s problems. We all have problems. Grace is big enough to get us through each and every one.
God wants you to experience the fullness of His grace, to live the life He gave you to the full. Don’t let any false notions about grace rob you of the riches you have in Jesus Christ.
What other ideas about grace have you heard, and where did you hear them?
