LESSON TWO

GRACE —IT REALLY IS AMAZING

(Chapters 3 and 4)

CENTRAL IDEA

In His infinite grace, God does not treat us as we deserve, but rather offers us forgiveness through faith in Christ. Christ removes our guilt and puts in its place His righteousness. The blessings we receive come to us through faith in Jesus Christ, not because of anything we have done.

Warm-up

Imagine for a moment that next time you pray you will have to come into God’s presence based on your own merit. What things would you be able to say you have accomplished? Do they outweigh the times you have failed God? Now, give each person a chance to answer this question: “How does trying to come into God’s presence on your own merits make you feel?”

Grace —It Really Is Amazing

A study of the grace of God is a study in contrast, a contrast between the desperate plight of mankind and the abundant and gracious remedy God has provided for us through Christ Jesus.

Because of God’s grace we are declared righteous before Him. We are all guilty before God —condemned, vile, and helpless. We had no claim on God; the disposition of our case was wholly up to Him. He could with total justice have pronounced us all guilty —for that is what we were —and consigned us all to eternal damnation. He owed us nothing; we owed Him everything.

In Ephesians 2:1-9 we see the contrast drawn so sharply between our ruin and God’s remedy. We were dead in our transgressions, but God intervened. We were in bondage to sin, but God intervened. We were objects of wrath, but God intervened. God, who is rich in mercy, intervened. Because of His great love for us, God intervened and made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our transgressions and sins. All this is summed up in one succinct statement, “It is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:8). Our condition was hopeless, but God intervened in grace.

God’s grace, then, does not supplement our good works. Instead, God’s grace overcomes our bad works, which are our sins. God did this by placing our sins on Christ and by letting fall on Him the wrath we so richly deserved. Because Jesus completely paid the awful penalty of our sins, God could extend His grace to us through complete and total forgiveness of our sins.

If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, then all the expressions of God’s forgiveness given to us throughout Scripture are true for you. He has removed your sins as far as the east is from the west (see Psalm 103:12). He has put them behind His back and hurled them into the depths of the sea (see Isaiah 38:17; Micah 7:19). He has blotted them out of His record book and promised never to bring them up again (see Isaiah 43:25). You are free from accusation —not because of anything whatsoever in you, but because of His grace alone through Jesus Christ (see Colossians 1:21-22).

Are you willing to believe this wonderful truth and live by it? You may reply, “I do believe it. I do believe my sins are forgiven and I will go to heaven when I die.” But are you willing to live by it today, in this life? Will you accept that God not only saves you by His grace through Christ but also deals with you day by day by His grace?

Why then do we not experience more of this endless supply of God’s grace? Why do we so often seem to live in spiritual poverty instead of experiencing life to the full as Jesus promised (see John 10:10)? There are several reasons that may or may not apply to a particular believer, but for the purposes of our study on grace, I’d like to look at two that probably apply to most of us.

First is our frequent misperception of God as the divine equivalent of Ebenezer Scrooge; the God who demands the last ounce of work out of His people and then pays them poorly. That may sound like an overstatement of our perception of God, but I believe it is a fairly accurate representation of how many Christians think.

Perhaps the larger reason why we do not experience more of God’s grace is our misconception that, having been saved by grace, we must now, at least to some degree, “pay our own way” and earn God’s blessings in our daily lives. An accepted maxim among people today, “There is no such thing as a free lunch” (which may be true in our society), is carried by us into our relationship with God.

You and I actually experience the grace of God in our lives far more than we realize. But all too often we do not enjoy His grace because we are trying to live by merit, not by grace. In looking for our own goodness by which we hope to earn the blessing of God, we fail to see the superabundance of the goodness and grace of God in our lives. (Taken from chapters 3 and 4 of Transforming Grace.)

Exploring Grace

  1. Read Romans 3:19-26. There are two aspects to our justification. First, God removes our guilt from us and places it upon Jesus. Second, He credits Jesus’ righteousness to us. What practical difference does it make to your life that God has removed your sin and given you Jesus’ righteousness? How should this fact affect the way you feel? The way you live?
  2. It’s easy to believe this doctrine of justification intellectually, but many people find it hard to let this truth strongly affect their lives. Why do you suppose that’s the case?
  3. Read Ephesians 2:1-9. Fill in this chart to help show the contrast Paul makes between what we deserve and what God has done for us.

    Our spiritual condition before we have faith in Christ

    What God has done for us in Christ
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
  4. What do the following verses show us about God’s forgiveness?
    • Psalm 103:12
    • Isaiah 38:17
    • Isaiah 43:25
    • Micah 7:19
  5. Sometimes we know that God has forgiven us but we have trouble forgiving ourselves. Why do you think this is true?

    Barriers to Experiencing God’s Forgiveness

    • A mistaken feeling that we must somehow suffer or pay for our own sins, at least to some degree. We often act like we think God’s forgiveness only kicks in after we have reached some mysterious level of suffering for our own sins.
    • A desire to hold on to our guilt so that we don’t have to change our behavior. If I consider myself a terrible and guilty person, then of course I will continue to sin. But if I know I am forgiven, then I am truly free to go forward and improve, however slowly, in my behavior (see Hebrews 9:14).
    • Failure to cultivate our relationship with God. If we are not growing in our knowledge of who God is, through time in His Word and in conversation with Him, then we will also be out of touch with the forgiveness He is so ready to offer (see Philippians 3:7-10).
  6. Are there any areas of your life where you are not experiencing God’s forgiveness? What factors in the list above may be part of why you are not experiencing God’s forgiveness?
  7. Believers fail to experience God’s grace on a daily basis for many reasons. Two of these are:
    • A misconception of God as a hard taskmaster who meets our needs begrudgingly.
    • The belief that while we were saved by grace we must now “pay our own way” and earn God’s blessings in our daily lives.
    • It is possible to know that the above beliefs are lies and still to operate as though they were true. Share a time when you were tempted to operate according to one of these misconceptions.
  8. Decide to do one of the following things or else come up with your own plan to help you experience God’s forgiveness more fully.
    1. a. Memorize one of the verses about God’s forgiveness in question 4.
    2. b. Write a letter to the Lord confessing once and for all the things that you still feel He has not forgiven. Then burn the letter and thank Him that “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
    3. c. Ask a close friend to get together with you for a time of prayer. Turn your past sins over to the Lord, once and for all. When doubts come in, dispel them with the memory of that specific time when your sins were confessed and forgiven.
    4. d. Write down the lie you are tempted to believe about God (see question 7). Tell God you know it’s a lie and ask Him to do whatever He needs to do to teach your heart the truth about this.

Closing Prayer

Thank the Lord that He “does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:10).

Going Deeper (Extra questions for further study)

  1. What does it mean when we say that Christ made atonement for our sins? Look at the following verses and see how they help you understand atonement.
    • John 3:36
    • Romans 3:25
    • Hebrews 2:17
    • 1 John 2:2; 4:10
  2. Fill in the following chart based on Titus 3:3-7.

    Characteristics of man and what he has done

    Characteristics of God and what He has done
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
  3. Is it possible to go beyond the point where God can forgive? Explain how a person might feel he has sinned one too many times to receive God’s forgiveness, and why those feelings are wrong.
  4. Read Colossians 1:21-22. Does the phrase “free from accusation” describe the way you think about yourself? Why, or why not?
  5. What do the following verses say about how God wants to treat us?
    • Jeremiah 29:10-11
    • Jeremiah 32:38-41

PONDERING GRACE (FOR PERSONAL REFLECTION)

Guilty, vile and helpless we;

Spotless Lamb of God was he;

Full atonement! Can it be?

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Philip P. Bliss

The generosity and the magnanimity of God are so great that he accepts nothing from us without rewarding it beyond all computation. . . . The vast disproportion existing between our work and God’s reward of it already displays his boundless grace, to say nothing of the gift of salvation which is made before we have even begun to do any work.

R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel

Perhaps the most difficult task for us to perform is to rely on God’s grace and God’s grace alone for our salvation. It is difficult for our pride to rest on grace. Grace is for other people —for beggars. We don’t want to live by a heavenly welfare system. We want to earn our own way and atone for our own sins. We like to think that we will go to heaven because we deserve to be there.

R. C. Sproul