Grace
Salvation is Grace
Romans 3:24
being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
NKJV
Jesus came to offer forgiveness and salvation to a lost world, a world most fitting of the wrath and judgment of God, not His love and graciousness. God the Son came as a free gift from God the Father, a gift displaying the grace of God.
John 3:16-17
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. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world
to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
NKJV
Jesus’ entire life, His words, His works, His being were all designed to demonstrate to us God’s grace. This is a point we must remember, for if we are to be like Jesus we must display grace. We will address this issue a little later in this study.
If the life of Jesus is a picture of God’s grace, this grace reaches its highest point at Calvary’s Cross. God’s grace cannot be defined except against the backdrop of the Cross. This explains the prominence of the Cross in the New Testament preaching. The Resurrection shows the power of God at work, but this power is set against the light of grace focused on that gruesome piece of execution. The Cross shines because it epitomizes God’s grace.
The Cross also helps us to understand the amount of grace present in the life of a believer. Grace is not just a gift to mankind for general life that is expanded to provide salvation. Grace is the heart of salvation. Common grace is provided to allow an individual to come to salvation. But, as we learned in our study on salvation, the teaching of Scripture is that salvation is a lifelong process, not just a one time event. Salvation is the entire process of God drawing man to Him in order to save him so that he may be glorified. And, every step of this process is accomplished by grace!!!
