A Biblical Overview of Grace

Okay, the title of the sermon today is A Biblical Overview of Grace. We haven't gone through this in a number of years. I thought we'd come back over. It's a doctrinal sermon, so we're going to go through the doctrine of grace today. This is one of those doctrines that really separates us from mainly Protestant. The Catholic Church actually kind of agrees with us on grace more than Protestants. Protestants don't agree with each other on this topic. There's a wide range of beliefs in the Protestant world, whether or not you're a pure Calvinist or a follower of Luther or Arminian. Was it Jacob Arminius or Arminian? I think it was Arminius and his followers are Arminians, who were very similar to us as well. Anyway, this is such an overcomplicated topic, and it really ought not to be. All you got to do is peel back the 2,000 years of human interference in this doctrine. Just look at what the Bible says, and it's a wonderful topic. I remember in the church, a lot of times, we would not even speak about grace because it was so controversial. Like every time we said the word grace, someone misunderstood it to mean the law's done away. So we just stopped saying it. We stopped talking about it, which is also not a good thing, because grace is so prolific a concept in the entirety of the Bible. That's another misconception in our modern world, is that grace was brought by Jesus. The Old Testament was law, and the New Testament is grace. That's a farce. That's an absolute farce. The grace of God is through the entirety of the Bible. Grace is not simply a poetic or vague religious idea. It is central to the biblical story of God dealing with humanity. As stated in the UCG booklet, What Does the Bible Teach About Grace? on page 4, Grace is an essential part of who God is and how he works with us. His grace is central to salvation itself. I want to show you how, just by way of example, how prolific the concept of grace is throughout the entire Bible. It is woven into the very beginning to literally the very end of the Bible. The word grace doesn't stop on the lips of those or off the pens of those who wrote the Bible. We first read the word grace in Genesis. Genesis! Recognize that book? Yeah, the very first book. Genesis chapter 6 and verse 8. Let's turn there and read it. We're introduced with the concept of grace. It's not the first act of grace. It's just the first mention of grace. Genesis 6 and verse 8. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And you know the Bible literally ends with the concept of grace. Literally ends the ending concept of the entirety of the Bible. Revelation chapter 22 is grace.

Revelation 22 verse 21. Revelation 22 and verse 21. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. End of the Bible. It begins the Bible. It ends the Bible. So, if grace is such a prolific concept in the Bible, you think you better understand what the Bible teaches about grace. And so that's what I hope to accomplish today. We're going to explore biblically what grace truly is, what it means to live under grace, how grace transforms you as a believer into something new. That there's personal responsibility that is to be reciprocated when you receive grace. And I'll show that to you from Scripture and from history. Pretty neat stuff. And my hope is that you'll take from this sermon a sense of confidence, a sense of confidence that what the Bible teaches or in what the Bible teaches so that no one can ever fool you about grace. I have heard from lay members mostly in the Church of God and mostly in other congregations, but I've heard it around the country because when you go to the feets you get together with people. I have heard a subtle yet important acceptance of a Protestant view of grace. And it's very, very important that you are aware of the difference between the Protestant view, which there is no such thing as a Protestant view. They have multiple views. They all disagree with each other. But this essential once saved, always saved, which is the Reformed or the Calvinist view, which isn't all Protestants, that almost all of them, however, accept Martin Luther's sola fide. So Martin Luther—I've told you this before, I've given Bible studies on sola fide, but adjusted by way of review. Martin Luther was a Catholic priest. In the 1400s and 1500s in Europe, the Catholic Church was very corrupt. You could buy priests off, cheat people out of their lands, take another man's wife, all sanctioned by the Church if you had money. So you were essentially, according to the Catholic Church, buying salvation and Martin Luther was fed up with it, and he was a priest. So he protested. And he listed all of these things and nailed them to the church door. And you know what? The vast majority of those things he protested to, we in the Church of God agree with. Believe it or not, the vast majority of things that Martin Luther protested were spot-on correct. But he added one little poison pill, probably more than one, but the big one that is quoted constantly in Protestant literature is a concept of sola fide, meaning belief alone, meaning you do not have to have anything other than your faith. There is no human responsibility to reciprocate any loyalty to God whatsoever, because if you reciprocate to God, then you are somehow earning your salvation. And that is the one thing that most Protestants agree with, that I want to help resolve today that is not a biblical teaching. At the end of the sermon today, I hope that you will understand that belief alone is not enough. Martin Luther based that largely on a misunderstanding of the book of Romans that talks about justice and forgiveness.

And the whole point of the book of Romans was missed by Martin Luther, which was, God is just and you are not, so don't judge your brother.

God is the only one just. He is making you just. Stop judging your brother. So Paul wasn't doing away with the law. Paul was doing away with arrogance and competition in the church in the book of Romans. But Martin Luther was desperately trying to fight something in the Catholic Church, and he jumped from one ditch across the road and went into the other ditch. And so hopefully today what we can do is realize from a personal point of view, we need to stay on God's path and not be on either ditch.

Many of the world's Christian denominations look at grace as a canceling of God's law, which creates a kind of license to sin. Although, let me be protective of our Protestant future brethren, because they are our future brethren.

They wouldn't say grace is a license to sin. Well, most of them wouldn't. Some of them go to the extreme. But most of them, they see grace as a kind of freedom from personal responsibility towards God. Even though they don't phrase it that way, that's where they end up. Because there is nothing that you need to reciprocate back to God when He gives you grace. He gives you grace, which is nothing that you earned. We all agree on that. We actually agree with the Protestants on that. That you didn't earn it. You didn't earn God's forgiveness. You didn't earn any benevolence from God whatsoever.

You don't deserve it. We agree. We totally agree. Where we disagree is that they think God didn't require any reciprocation on our part. And I'm going to show you today, oh yes, He did. And oh yes, He does. And He doesn't budge on it. This is not a negotiation on God's part. God invented the concept of grace. He gets to define it. If you say to a Protestant that grace requires any kind of reciprocal action on your part, most denominations would object.

The Catholics wouldn't object. They would actually agree, but they would say you have to go through them, not through God and Jesus Christ. So that's where we object. Most denominations believe, however, most Protestant denominations believe that God's law is the good and moral foundation of how we are to live. And that's the problem where the misunderstanding and miscommunications happen when we're having a conversation with somebody in a Protestant denomination is we tell them that the law is good and they say, well, duh, of course it's good. They don't disagree on that. What they disagree on is that I'm responsible to keep it.

Okay? They agree the law of God is good. I mean, it's stated in Romans that the law of God is good. They've read it. They agree with that. But their concept of grace removes all personal response or any personal necessity to reciprocate something back to God on our part when He gives us grace. And it's that reciprocation or that giving back on our part where the Bible, the Bible, parts ways with most Christian denominations. So let's look at how the Bible defines grace. We're going to start with a simple definition, which is such an important doctrinal concept to understand.

And the definition of grace, we mostly agree that, in fact, most of the denominations on the planet agree with this. Okay? Grace was started in the Old Testament, so we have to go to the Hebrew first, then we'll move to the New Testament definition in the Greek, because the Langua Franca of the world around where the Bible was written was Hebrew when it was the Old Testament, but the language of the world changed by the time the New Testament was written to Koine Greek.

All right? So we're going to first look at this concept of grace in the Hebrew language, then we're going to look at it in the New Testament in the Greek language, and believe it or not, the concept doesn't change. This concept of grace starts in Genesis, ends in the book of Revelation, and it's the same concept. All right? The word grace in the Old Testament is the Hebrew word chen, or khen. It means favor or acceptance, according to Brown Driver-Brig. It carries the picture of God bending down in kindness to bless someone who's beneath him. God kindly, lovingly, accepting you.

We can see this in Exodus 34, verses 6 and 7. I'm reading from New King James mostly today, since this is doctrinal. Exodus 34, verses 6 and 7. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions, and sin.

There, that sounds like a New Testament scripture, doesn't it? That's the second book in the Bible, the book of Exodus. Grace, this is another quote from the UCG booklet on grace, page 9. Grace, then, is beautifully pictured as God stooping down to help us. An act of pure kindness we didn't earn. Both Protestants and Catholics would agree with that statement. There's no disagreement there. Now let's move into the New Testament. And this is important.

It's the Greek word charis. C-H-A-R-I-S. And in the New Testament, the Greek word charis is translated great, grace and English. And it means good will, loving kindness, favor, or merciful kindness. It's really, really parallel to the word chen in the Hebrew language. And those definitions are from Thayer's Greek dictionary, by the way. In other words, it's undeserved kindness or an undeserved gift. It's something you didn't earn. Luke 2, verse 40.

Speaking of Jesus, and the child grew and became strong in the spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. The kindness of God was on him. In other words, God paid close attention to him. Okay, so how and why do we even need this concept of grace? Again, there's really not a lot of disagreement in the religious world on this particular part of why we need grace. We pretty much all agree. The problem is sin separates us from God. That's the challenge. That's why we need grace. Let's go back to a very famous scripture, Isaiah 59 and verse 2. Isaiah 59 and verse 2. But your iniquities have separated you from your God. Iniquities are sin, lawlessness. Your lawlessness, your breaking the law, has separated you from God. He says, and your sins have hidden his face from you. The opposite of grace, the opposite of God paying attention to you, is God hiding his face from you. Why do we need grace? Because we've lost a connection with God. Grace re-establishes that relationship connection. Your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear. That means that we don't have God's attention. We don't have his kind favor. Our sins have made a relationship impossible.

And it was our actions that cut us off. Remember that. It was our actions that cut us off. So, let's do some logical thinking here. We don't really need to do logical thinking, because it's laid out plainly in the Bible. But just think about it logically for a second. If it was our actions that cut us off from God, then God gave grace. Wouldn't he want us to stop those actions that were disgusting to him? Yeah, actually he would. And that's exactly what he says.

Our actions cut us off, and it's universal for all of mankind, except Jesus himself. Remember what Paul said in Romans 3, verse 23 and 24. Romans chapter 3, verses 23 and 24. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Being justified, which means made right with God, which means you have to be forgiven. So justified means forgiven. Being forgiven, being justified freely by his grace. It was free! You didn't earn it! What did you earn, death? What did you get? Freedom. By his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. An Old Testament scripture that's very similar to Romans 3, verse 23, is found in the famous Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 53, the so-called forbidden chapter, the chapter that Jewish synagogues do not read, because it's so clearly about Jesus Christ. Isaiah 53, verse 6, says, Isaiah 53, verse 6, all we like sheep have gone astray. Every one of us. There's not—this was Paul's point in Romans—there's not one of you that can throw a stone at somebody else, because you're guilty too. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We've turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him, on Jesus Christ, the iniquity of us all. That's grace. That's why we need grace. Our sins separate us from God, and we don't have a relationship with God, because we did disgusting things.

The reason we all need grace or undeserved favor from God is that we're all lost without it. All of mankind deserves the penalty of sin, which Romans 6, verse 23, says is death.

But God wants us to live. How God wants us to live is where we disagree with most of modern Christianity. But the fact that it's undeserved and unearned pardon, we all agree on. A quote from our booklet on page 20 of the UCG booklet on grace.

Salvation from start to finish is an unearned favor.

I don't think there is a Protestant or a Catholic theologian out there that would disagree with that statement from the United Church of God. The gift is Christ's sacrifice. Grace, specifically from the Bible—remember, we're doing this step by step from the Bible. I could go to the interesting parts, but I want you to get this.

What is grace as defined by Scripture? Romans 5, verse 8. Romans 5, verse 8. But God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were still sinners—now, remember Isaiah 59, that's what separates us from God—while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That is God's biggest grace. That's not the only grace he gave to us. That is his biggest grace. For the most part, both Protestants and Catholics would agree with everything I just said. Although some Protestants believe that the only grace that God gives is Christ's sacrifice. But the Church of God and the Catholic Church believe that anything God does for us is grace. And a lot of Protestants believe that, too. But they put it a little differently than we do. We mostly agree with them with what grace is in the Bible up to this point.

And that's good to keep in mind. Why am I emphasizing what we agree with? Because we don't disagree on everything. So if you're in one of those uncomfortable conversations with a mainstream Christian, you might be able to build a bridge by stating that we all believe that grace is undeserved favor from God, and it's not earned in any way. You might be able to build a bridge.

I've had several conversations, probably as you have, you can't always build a bridge. I mean, if the ears are shut, they're shut. But this is the area where you might actually be able to build a bridge. You know, we don't disagree on everything. We disagree on one little point.

But here's where we part ways with mainstream, especially the Protestants, on how we receive grace. How does a person receive grace? What does the Bible say? Let's hone that question down a little bit.

Let's get specific. Are there conditions that God puts on giving his grace? Ooh, there's the rough question. Are there conditions that God puts before he gives grace? Because almost universally, almost, not quite, but almost universally, Protestants would say, no conditions! It's unconditional! The Catholics would actually say it's conditional, and so would we. Protestants, it's unconditional. And if there are conditions, the Bible clearly lay out those conditions? And the answer is yes to both. There are conditions to receiving grace, and the Scriptures are clear. So let's go through three main conditions the Bible lays out for receiving grace. And they are faith, repentance, and baptism. I'm including that in as one. And obedience.

That's the big... that's the big... sets the hair in the back of the neck of a Protestant. Obedience. Faith, they would agree with. Repentance and baptism, they would absolutely object. Most would, not all. Baptists wouldn't, but everybody else would, pretty much.

I gotta be careful saying everybody. It's such...

I've studied it, and the views in the Protestant world are so varied that you can pretty much find people believing just about everything. So, faith, repentance, and baptism, and obedience. Let's prove all three of those are a condition to receive grace. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8. We're going to start with faith. This is very clear, very direct statement. Ephesians 2 verse 8.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and not of yourselves it is a gift of God. Faith is a response that God expects when he gives grace. That's the deal. The Protestants would say, faith is automatic when God gives his grace. He puts the faith in us, which we don't disagree with. But where we disagree is that we have to reciprocate that faith back to God. That there's any action involved in that faith. And there is. From the Eustogy booklet page 24. We're not purchasing salvation by our surrender. Surrender is an action. Surrender is a responsibility on your part. Okay, so let's get the context of the statement. We're not purchasing salvation by our surrender. Rather, this is the appropriate response to God's astonishing gift. He gives us something that blows us away. We deserve to not exist, but he's giving us the internal life instead. And our response to him is, we're putting on his jersey. We're wearing his uniform now. We're on his team. Loyalty. We'll get to that. Faith, belief, trust, and loyalty. If you settle on one word that describes the first century concept of faith, which we're going to touch on in just a little bit, it would be loyalty. Loyalty on our part is required by God when he gives us grace. But there's another exception. Another expectation that God puts on his recipients of grace. It is a condition to receive grace, and that is that you have to repent and be baptized. It's not an option. We, the creation, do not get to tell God the Creator, oh, we're not going to do that sacrament, that ceremony, that you invented. Just because it symbolizes the absolute total commitment of our lives to you. We don't like that symbolism, so we're just going to go up to the stage, do an altar call, and we're going to say, we believe in Jesus, and we're going to walk away, and that'll be good enough. No personal responsibility on our part, and you do all the rest. You do it in us. No action required on our part. The apostles said something completely different. Acts 2, verse 38, Jesus had just recently been crucified. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, gives a scathing sermon, telling them that it was your sins. Don't blame the Roman Empire. Don't blame the Roman soldiers who killed him. Your sins killed him. Acts chapter 2, verse 38, Peter draws this conclusion, and notice you don't receive the gift until. Remember, gift is grace. In this case, the gift is the Holy Spirit. The biggest grace you could receive. Notice the condition. Then Peter said to them, repent and let any of you who feel up to it, let those of you, unless you're not in agreement with it, know. He said, let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin, grace.

You repent and be baptized so you can receive grace.

Who has to repent and be baptized? Everyone! It's a condition. It's a plainly stated condition. And then what is the great gift of grace?

And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit is grace. Grace is a gift. This is God's most precious gift, because the Holy Spirit gives eternal life. Turn with me to Romans 8, verse 11. Romans 8, verse 11.

Because the Holy Spirit gives us life. That's why it's the greatest gift. Romans 8, verse 11. But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead, that's the Father, will also give you life, or give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit.

New King James says, who dwells in you? Original King James says, which dwells in you? Which is correct. So both faith and repentance and baptism are conditions to receive God's grace. The gift of the Holy Spirit. There's a third condition. God puts a lot of conditions on receiving grace. There's a third condition. A biblical requirement for God's grace. This one, number three, comes from Jesus' own words. And that is obedience.

Who argues with Jesus? Who has a thing to say to contradict Jesus the Christ?

Matthew 7, verse 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. So we're talking about grace because you don't enter the kingdom of heaven on merit. You enter the kingdom of heaven on grace. But if you just go say, Jesus is my Lord, he says you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father in heaven. How do you enter the kingdom of heaven? Does God put a condition on grace? Your obedience is required in return. From Jesus' own mouth, the person that does the will of the Father will enter the kingdom. That could not be more clear. And that's enough. We can move on to the next requirement. Jesus, our Savior, the King of Kings, says you have to obey God to be in the kingdom. Enough said. It's a requirement. But do you know the apostles after Jesus affirmed this point over and over again? Just so there could be no misunderstanding of what he meant. No argument. No wiggling around it. Let's just go to James 2, verse 26. We could go to 1 John. We could go to a lot of places. James 2, verse 26. Just to back up what Jesus said so there can be no argument. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. What does that mean? Your faith, which is your loyalty to God, the first requirement to receive God's grace, as we talked about just a moment ago, is dead, not considered by God to be anything if you do not obey. As a response to God's grace, God requires obedience. And if that wasn't enough, we'll just read one more. We could read a bunch more, but let's just go to Hebrews 5 and verse 9.

Listen to how plain this is. Listen to how easy it is to understand. Hebrews 5 and verse 9. Having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation. Now, eternal salvation comes only through grace, right? Who receives eternal salvation? Notice the condition that's put on eternal salvation. Grace. Hebrews 5 verse 9. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey. All who obey. Jesus said it, James said it, Paul said it.

John and Peter also said it, by the way. We're just not going to take the time to read it. So, that means that grace and law are not opposed to each other. And here is the big misunderstanding that was created by Martin Luther trying to solve a real problem in the 16th century Europe of a corrupt Catholic church, where He made grace and the law opposed to each other. And this is where we have so many disagreements with people in the Protestant world, because they believe Martin Luther over the Bible. God's law is a beautiful thing, believe it or not, given as a gift from God to man. Giving us a moral standard of how to live a happiness-successful life, in short, God's gift of law is grace. The entire message of the Old Testament, which Jesus and the apostles called the law, that was the nickname they gave the Old Testament, it was revered by the apostles. As a gift, Romans 7, verse 12, therefore the law, meaning the Old Testament, is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. There is no contradiction between grace and the law. This verse is part of Paul's teaching where he affirms that the law itself was not the problem, it's sin that corrupts. Paul clearly states that the law is holy, meaning set apart by God, it's just, meaning it's morally right or fair, and it is good, meaning it's beneficial from a good source, God. In other words, it's grace. By saying the law is good, Paul is saying the law is actually an act of grace from God. It's a gift. James goes even further, and he calls the law perfect, not flawed in any way. Paul never said it was flawed either. He said we were flawed and couldn't keep it. Nothing wrong with the law, in Paul's words. James chapter 1, verse 25. James 1, verse 25. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not for a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

So the law is not a contradiction to grace, it is part of God's grace. And therefore, grace doesn't cancel obedience. Paul directly addresses this notion in Romans chapter 6. Grace doesn't cancel obedience. I read this to everybody when I'm counseling for baptism, Romans 6, verse 1 and 2. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, which is breaking God's law, that grace may abound? Paul is directly addressing this question. Does grace cancel the law? And Paul asks the question, what do we say? Do we continue to sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live in it any longer? When we receive grace, we don't live in sin any longer. Breaking God's law. Remember 1 John 3, verse 4. You can jot it down, we're not going to read it. Just sin is the transgression of the law. And verse 15. The Apostle John gets very specific later in the chapter, where he points out the law is specifically God's law. So you can look at that in verse 15. We won't take the time to do that either. Back to Romans chapter 6, where we started this point, that grace doesn't cancel the law. Drop down to verse 14. Romans 6, verse 14. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace. Now that sounds like a contradiction of what he just said, if you read it from a Protestant prejudice. If you come into that with Protestant thinking, already presuming the idea.

Because a Protestant will often use this to say the requirement of the law is done away. And verse 14 doesn't say that at all. Paul means the penalty of the law was paid, not that the law was done away. Listen to the very next words Paul says. What then? Shall we sin? Shall we break the law? Because we're not under the law but under grace? Again, certainly not. Shall we break God's law because we have grace? Certainly not. God does not cancel obedience by giving forgiveness. The law of God is a beautiful gift, and grace and the law are not opposed to one another. They actually fit together.

Grace gives us the strength to have the responsibility to keep God's law. The law carries the death penalty with it, and that's what was paid. And that's what Paul is talking about. We are now free to obey. It's that simple. It's that clear, not free to sin. The phrase, not under the law but under grace, is not describing the believer's attitude towards obedience, but rather the believer's status before God. Let me say that again.

The phrase, not under the law but under grace, is not describing your attitude towards obedience.

It's describing your status before God. In other words, you are no longer a condemned criminal. Under the law's penalty, you are now a pardoned child under grace.

But being under grace is a wonderful thing. It means you're no longer condemned. You're no longer living a pointless life. You have an eternal future. So don't jump into the other ditch, where being grace doesn't mean you're out from any under obligation to obey God's law. I want to look at something I find to be super interesting. We don't need this point. We could stop the sermon here, and you've got the basic doctrines of grace. That there are prerequisites, that obedience to the law is one of them. In fact, the law is God's grace. It's part of God's grace. He gave it as a wonderful gift. But what did the term grace mean before Martin Luther messed it all up? What did it mean in the first century when the apostle Paul and apostle John and the apostle Peter were writing about it? What did it mean when John said, and grace be with you forever, amen, in the book of Revelation? What did that word charis mean to him? This is interesting. Historical background. In the Greco-Roman culture, of the first century when the Bible was written, charis had us very specific, and let me just emphasize widely understood meaning within the system of what they called patronage in their own language. Grace wasn't a religious term. It was more of a financial term. It carried with it the same concept of unmerited gift and kindness, the same exact concept, but it wasn't religious. Today, when you hear grace, oftentimes it's just a religious concept. When they wrote grace, it didn't mean that. Grace wasn't a religious concept. It was financial in the Roman world. When the apostles wrote the word grace, here's what it meant to them. In the Roman Empire, society operated on a patron-client system. So here's what happened. Wealthy people, people with a lot of money, a lot of influence, they were called patrons, and they would offer favors or gifts or support to less fortunate people, their clients, but they would do it for a reason. It was a free gift. It wasn't earned. It wasn't because they owed them anything, but they did get something back in return. This is the concept of grace when Paul and John and Peter wrote the word. This is the word they were including in the Scripture. This is the concept that they were writing, that there was something reciprocated.

Okay? In turn, when the patron gave the gift, the client was expected to show loyalty, service, and gratitude towards the patron. It was expected—this is important—these favors the patrons provided were undeserved gifts. Okay? The patron might choose to help someone because the person—not because the person earned it, but out of kindness or because we're human, to gain honor for themselves. Now, God doesn't give grace for that reason. But reciprocation was expected. Something on the client's part was expected in return. Okay?

This act of favor was called charis, which is translated in the Bible, grace. Right? The client's appropriate response in the first century was a word called pistis. You've heard that word before. If the donor gave charis, the client was expected to give pistis. Where have we heard that word before? Because I've said it so many times, it's the word translated faith. It's the word translated in John 3, verse 16, that you see it football games, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever should pistis him—in other words, be loyal to him—shall have everlasting life.

In the Roman world, when Paul and Peter and John wrote the word grace, pistis was expected to be returned to the patron for their charis. When they gave grace, you gave loyalty. That's what it meant. Grace meant in Paul's day, the words we usually consider are particularly Christian—grace and faith—were actually just common, everyday words in Roman life. And when Paul wrote that we're not under the law, but we're under grace in Romans 6, verse 14, he meant that there was a reciprocal agreement between us and God that was automatically expected in the eyes of the readers.

When you read Romans 6, verse 14, in the first century, and you read we're under grace, you read we are now obligated to God, because that's what it meant prior to Martin Luther. The original meaning of the word grace was you owe something back. You don't deserve it. It was kindness. It's God stooping down to pick you up so that you can be loyal to him and obey. It was automatically expected by the reader in the first century. Under grace meant you were obligated to give loyalty. It was an obligation, according to the minds of the first century Roman world.

I find that interesting. Everyone in that society understood that entering a grace relationship created a lasting bond with obligations on both sides. It wasn't confusing when Paul wrote it. That's why Paul didn't go into any more elaborate explanation after Romans 6, verse 14. He just made the statement. You're not under law. You're under grace. Everybody would have understood. I'm not going to get crucified by the Romans or by God, but I'm now obligated to God. That's originally what it meant. Our modern Christian world seems completely oblivious to the fact that they themselves manufactured a non-biblical concept of grace that Paul would never even thought of or never would have even written.

But that was not the Protestant view of grace. It's way off from the original first century meaning. Notice that the concept of, now that we know how they viewed grace in the first century, let's take a look at a scripture that actually makes a lot more sense now that we know that when Paul and John and Peter wrote grace, they meant you're obligated to God. Grace meant you're obligated. Oh, it meant free and it meant kindness, but it came with an obligation. Let's read Romans 12 in verse 1. This now makes a lot more sense.

This makes sense because the reader would have thought it automatic.

It was automatically required. Listen, Romans 12 verse 1. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. Listen to this last statement, which is your reasonable service.

He said, this is what is expected of you. What is expected of you is that you are obligated to God. How much of you, your whole body, you are now a sacrifice to God. When you receive grace, your reasonable service, your automatic expectation is 100% loyalty to God.

According to Paul, you had to reciprocate your entire life being loyal to God in order to receive grace. Again, notice Ephesians chapter 4 verse 1. This makes a lot more sense when you understand the first century concept of grace. Ephesians 4 verse 1. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you, walk worthy of the calling of which you were called. You have a certain walk that you have to do when you receive grace. Isn't that interesting? We are to grow in grace. We don't have time to go through that. That's really another entire sermon in and of itself. Let's just, let's do a little summary and then we'll conclude. Grace is a concept that is woven throughout the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It's not a New Testament concept. It's not a Protestant concept. And it doesn't somehow do away with God's law. It has been there from the beginning, from the book of Genesis, all the way to the book of Revelation. The word grace generally means favor or acceptance. In our case, it means we're accepted by God. The problem is that we've all sinned. And it's why we need grace. It's the reason for understanding this topic. We're separated from God by our sins and God stooped down with love and kindness and He saved us through the death of His Son. And He has a plan to save all of mankind. But there are conditions to receiving grace, things we must reciprocate on our part. Faith, repentance, and baptism, and a life of obedience after that. Grace and the law are not opposed to one another. In fact, God's gift of His perfect holy law was an act of grace. The Old Testament is grace to you. It's the moral code of how to live. It may be kindergarten, as Paul called it, or nanny. It may be kindergarten, but it is perfect. It is absolutely perfect. The apostles wrote of grace as though loyalty was supposed to be reciprocated on our part. That was their concept. And that loyalty actually benefits our lives because obeying God works. So they weren't even putting a heavy burden on us. They were saying, yeah, be loyal to God because this is the only way to go. It's the way you want to go.

Obeying God benefits us. And benefits from God is, guess what? Grace. So obeying God is grace. Final thought. Grace is not passive. It's not something you receive and then do nothing with, as many in mainstream Christianity would have you believe. It initiates transformation in your life. It initiates change. It is not a license to sin, but it is God giving you the power to obey. We all need it. We all need grace. We need to live in it. Otherwise, our future mistakes will overthrow us.

You need grace every day because although we have the high ideal of keeping God's law, there's not one of us who doesn't break it on a regular basis. And we constantly need that grace. Remember, read 1 John if you doubt that. 1 John is so encouraging. Especially verse 9, one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible. God, so faithful to forgive. You just turn to Him, I did it again. I said I wouldn't, but I did. It's like we heard in the sermonette. I said I wouldn't do it, but I did it. God says, welcome back every time. We need to be in grace. We are not shy of the topic of grace. We simply have a subtle but major disagreement with much of the Protestant world on what's required on our part for grace. That boundless forgiveness that God gives until we grow to the stature and the fullness of Christ. So we all need to grow in grace. 2 Peter 3 verse 18. Grow 2 Peter 3, 18. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen. What does it mean to grow in grace? Well, grace is God paying attention to you and giving favor to you. Growing in grace is like saying growing in a closer relationship to God. And in order to do that, in order to grow in grace, you need to become more like God. So growing in grace is becoming like God. Loving other people, forgiving them, letting go of past hurts. Thank God that He rescued us all, and He is now helping us to grow. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.