CHAPTER TWO

GRACE —WHO NEEDS IT?

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

ROMANS 3:22-24

Sam and Pam, two friends, both arrived in the United States as immigrants from the country of Quadora. Each one wanted to buy a house, and it so happened they each found one for sale by a certain wealthy man. Both houses were priced at $100,000. Sam arrived with 500,000 quadros, the currency of Quadora, and Pam arrived with 1,000,000 quadros.

They knew quadros were not worth one dollar apiece, but they assumed they would be able to exchange the quadros for at least enough to buy a house. However, Quadora had been ravished by hyperinflation, and the quadro had been debased until it was virtually worthless. The bank would not accept their quadros in exchange for any dollars.

To compound the problem, Sam and Pam both discovered that the wealthy man from whom they hoped to buy their houses was not unknown to them. They’d each had business transactions with the man while still in Quadora, and were heavily in debt to him. Sam owed him about a million dollars, and Pam owed him $500,000. Since their quadros were worthless, neither could even begin to pay his or her debt, let alone buy a house from him.

Then a strange thing happened. The wealthy man —hearing Pam and Sam were now in this country and knowing they would have arrived with only their worthless quadros —sought them out. Despite the fact they were heavily in debt to him, he canceled the debts, gave them each the house they desired, completely furnished, with utilities and maintenance paid for life.

That is a picture of how God’s grace operates. The “currency” of our morality and good deeds is worthless in God’s sight. Furthermore, we all are so heavily in debt to Him because of our sin that there is no question of our even partially paying our way with God.

A BIBLICAL VIEW OF GRACE

I once heard a definition of grace as God’s making up the difference between the requirements of His righteous law and what we lack in meeting those requirements. No one is good enough to earn salvation by himself, this definition said, so God’s grace simply makes up what we lack. Some receive more grace than others; but all receive whatever they need to obtain salvation. No one ever need be lost because whatever grace he needs is his for the taking.

This definition of grace sounds very generous of God, doesn’t it, making up whatever we lack? The problem with this definition, though, is that it isn’t true. It represents a grave misunderstanding of the grace of God and a very inadequate view of our plight as sinners before a holy God. We need to be sure we have a biblical view of grace, for grace is at the very heart of the gospel. It is certainly not necessary for someone to understand all the theology of grace to be saved, but if a person does have a false notion of grace, it probably means he or she does not really understand the gospel.

Although this is a book about living by grace, we need to be sure we first understand saving grace, for two reasons. First, all that I say about the grace of God in subsequent chapters assumes you have experienced the saving grace of God —that you have trusted in Jesus Christ alone for eternal salvation. It would be a fatal injustice if I allowed you to believe that all the wonderful provisions of God’s grace we will see in the following chapters are yours apart from salvation through Jesus Christ.

Second, although this is a book about living by grace, grace is always the same, whether God exercises it in saving us or in dealing with us as believers. In whatever way the Bible defines saving grace, that same definition applies in the arena of living the Christian life day by day.

GOD’S OFFER OF GRACE

God says to us,

Come, all you who are thirsty,

come to the waters;

and you who have no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without cost.

ISAIAH 55:1

The gospel is addressed to those who have no money or good works. It invites us to come and “buy” salvation without money and without cost. But note the invitation to come is addressed to those who have no money —not to those who don’t have enough. Grace is not a matter of God’s making up the difference, but of God’s providing all the “cost” of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ.

The apostle Paul spoke to this issue in Romans 3:22 when he said, “There is no difference.” There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, between the religious and the irreligious, between the most decent moral person and the most degenerate. There is no difference between us, because we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

To say the grace of God makes up the difference of what God requires of us is like comparing two people’s attempts to leap across the Grand Canyon. The canyon averages about nine miles in width from rim to rim. Suppose one person could leap out about thirty feet from the edge while another can leap only six feet. What difference does it make? Sure, one person can leap five times as far as the other, but relative to nine miles (47,520 feet!), it makes no difference. Like the quadros in my parable, both leaps are absolutely worthless for crossing the canyon. And when God built a bridge across the “Grand Canyon” of our sin, He didn’t stop thirty feet or even six feet from our side. He built the bridge all the way.

Even the comparison of trying to leap across the Grand Canyon fails to adequately represent our desperate condition. To use that illustration we have to assume people are trying to leap across the canyon; that is, most people are actually trying to earn their way to heaven and, despite earnest effort, are falling short of bridging the awful chasm of sin separating them from God.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Almost no one tries to earn his way to heaven (Martin Luther, prior to his conversion, being a notable exception). Rather, almost everyone assumes that what he or she is already doing is sufficient to merit heaven. Almost no one is making a sincere effort to increase the length of his “leap” across the canyon. Instead, in our minds, we have narrowed the width of the canyon to what we can comfortably cross without any additional effort beyond what we are already doing. The person whose moral lifestyle might be equivalent to thirty feet sees the distance as narrowed to a comfortable twenty-nine feet; and the person who can leap only six feet has narrowed his canyon to five. Everyone expects that God will accept what he is already doing as sufficient “currency” to “buy” a house in heaven.

Like the first audience who heard Jesus’ famous parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, most people are confident of their own righteousness (Luke 18:9-14). They may, at a moment of serious reflection, concede they are not perfect by any means, but they consider themselves to be basically good.

One great problem today is that most of us really don’t believe we’re all that bad. In fact, we assume we’re good. In 1981, a book addressing the difficult subject of pain and heartache was published and rapidly became a bestseller. Its title: When Bad Things Happen to Good People. The book is based, as the title reveals, on the assumption that most people are “good.” The definition by author Harold Kushner of good people is “ordinary people, nice friendly neighbors, neither extraordinarily good nor extraordinarily bad.”[2]

By contrast, the apostle Paul said we are all bad. Consider again Romans 3:10-12, noting the words I have emphasized:

There is no one righteous, not even one;

there is no one who understands,

no one who seeks God.

All have turned away,

they have together become worthless;

there is no one who does good,

not even one.

These words were written to support Paul’s answer to the question, “Are we [Jews] any better [than the Gentile pagans]?” To which he answered, “Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews [the religious people of the day] and Gentiles [the ‘sinners’ of the day] alike are all under sin” (Romans 3:9).

The difference between Harold Kushner’s appraisal of most people as basically “good” and the apostle Paul’s of all people as basically “bad” arises from a totally different orientation. To Rabbi Kushner, you are good if you’re a nice, friendly neighbor. To the apostle Paul (and the other Scripture writers), all people are bad because of our alienation from God and our rebellion against Him.

GOING OUR OWN WAY

One of the most damning indictments of mankind is found in Isaiah 53:6: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” Each of us has turned to his own way. That is the very essence of sin, the very core of it —going our own way. Your way may be to give money to charity, while another person’s way may be to rob a bank. But neither act is done with reference to God; both of you have gone your own way. And in a world governed by a sovereign Creator, that is rebellion, that is sin.

Consider a particular territory in a country rebelling against the central government of the nation. The citizens of that territory may be generally decent people, basically upright and caring in their dealings with one another. But all their goodness among themselves is totally irrelevant to the central government. To those authorities there is only one issue: the state of rebellion. Until that issue is resolved, nothing else matters.

This illustration is in danger of losing its force if we think in terms of present-day realities. Some central governments are so obviously corrupt and unjust, we may applaud a rebellious territory. We might, in some cases, consider their rebellion a just course of action.

But God’s government is perfect and just. His moral law is “holy, righteous and good” (Romans 7:12). No one ever has a valid reason to rebel against the government of God. We rebel for only one reason: We were born rebellious. We were born with a perverse inclination to go our own way, to set up our own internal government rather than submit to God.

It is not that some of us become sinful because of an unfortunate childhood environment, while others are blessed with a highly moral upbringing. Rather we are all born sinners with a corrupt nature, a natural inclination to go our own way. As David wrote, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). Here is an amazing statement from David that he was sinful while still in his mother’s womb, even during the period of pregnancy when as yet he had performed no actions, either good or bad.

A Christian writer, in a magazine article, asked the question, “How could I go on believing in a God who picked on innocent children?” Setting aside her problem about the relationship of a righteous God to suffering in our lives, note her reference to innocent children. I single out this writer’s question, not to criticize but to illustrate, because I believe she expressed the view of the vast majority of people, both believers and unbelievers: that children are born innocent and are corrupted by their environment.

But this is not the view of Scripture. According to Psalm 51:5, there are no innocent children. Rather, all of us were sinful at birth, even from the time of conception. Because of Adam’s rebellion, we are all born with a sinful, perverse nature, an inclination to go our own way. Whether it is the way of the decent individual or the way of the obvious transgressor, it makes no difference. We were all born in a state of rebellion against God.

The Bible says we have all sinned, and almost everyone would agree with that statement. The problem is our shallow view of sin. The man on the street would simply shrug his shoulders at that charge and say, “Sure, no one’s perfect.” Even we Christians talk about failures and defeats, but the Bible uses other terms. It speaks of wickedness and rebellion (Leviticus 16:21).[3] The Bible speaks of King David as despising God (2 Samuel 12:9-10). It charges another man of God with defying the Word of the Lord, when all he did was eat and drink in a place forbidden to him by God (1 Kings 13:21). It is evident by these descriptive synonyms for sin —rebellion, despising, defying —that God takes a far more serious view of sin than the man on the street or even most Christians.

Sin, in the final analysis, is rebellion against the sovereign Creator, Ruler, and Judge of the universe. It resists the rightful prerogative of a sovereign Ruler to command obedience from His subjects. It says to an absolutely holy and righteous God that His moral laws, which are a reflection of His own nature, are not worthy of our wholehearted obedience.

Sin is not only a series of actions, it is also an attitude that ignores the law of God. But it is even more than a rebellious attitude. Sin is a state of heart, a condition of our inmost being. It is a state of corruption, of vileness, yes, even of filthiness in God’s sight.

This view of sin as corruption, vileness, and filth is symbolically portrayed in Zechariah 3:1-4:

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”

Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.”

Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.”

Note who is described here. It is not a portrayal of the prodigal son, but of Joshua the high priest —the person holding the highest religious office in all Israel. Yet he is shown dressed in filthy clothes, a pictorial representation of both his sins and the sins of the people he represented as high priest. The filthiness of his garments depicts not the guilt of his sin but its pollution. Like Joshua, all of us are, in a spiritual sense, dressed in filthy clothes. We are not just guilty before God; we are also corrupted in our natures, polluted and vile before Him. We need forgiveness and cleansing.

For this reason the Bible never speaks of God’s grace as simply making up our deficiencies —as if salvation consists in so much good works (even a variable amount) plus so much of God’s grace. Rather the Bible speaks of a “God who justifies the wicked” (Romans 4:5), who is found by those who do not seek Him, who reveals Himself to those who do not ask for Him (see Romans 10:20).

The tax collector in Jesus’ parable did not ask God to simply make up his deficiencies. Rather, he beat his breast —a sign of his deep anguish —and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13). He declared total spiritual bankruptcy, and on that basis, he experienced the grace of God. Jesus said the man went home justified —declared righteous by God (see Luke 18:9-14).

Like the tax collector, we do not just need God’s grace to make up for our deficiencies; we need His grace to provide a remedy for our guilt, a cleansing for our pollution. We need His grace to provide a satisfaction of His justice, to cancel a debt we cannot pay.

It may seem that I am belaboring the point of our guilt and vileness before God. But we can never rightly understand God’s grace until we understand our plight as those who need His grace. As Dr. C. Samuel Storms has said,

The first and possibly most fundamental characteristic of divine grace is that it presupposes sin and guilt.

Grace has meaning only when men are seen as fallen, unworthy of salvation, and liable to eternal wrath. . . .

Grace does not contemplate sinners merely as undeserving but as ill-deserving. . . . It is not simply that we do not deserve grace; we do deserve hell![4]

RESPONDING TO GRACE

Earlier in this chapter, I told of a true incident in which an individual gave a very inadequate, perhaps even a fatally wrong definition of grace. I suspect most readers responded negatively to the suggestion that God’s grace merely makes up what we lack in an acceptable righteousness before God. You probably responded as one person did, “No, that’s not right. Even our righteous deeds are as filthy rags in God’s sight.”

I did not mention that incident merely to set up a “straw man” to be easily refuted. I used that incident because I believe it is the way most Christians live the Christian life. We act as if God’s grace only makes up for what our good works lack. We believe God’s blessings are at least partially earned by our obedience and our spiritual disciplines. We know we are saved by grace, but we think we must live by our spiritual “sweat.”

So who needs grace? All of us, the saint as well as the sinner. The most conscientious, dutiful, hardworking Christian needs God’s grace as much as the most dissolute, hard-living sinner. All of us need the same grace. The sinner does not need more grace than the saint, nor does the immature and undisciplined believer need more than the godly, zealous missionary. We all need the same amount of grace because the “currency” of our good works is debased and worthless before God.

Neither our merits nor our demerits determine how much grace we need, because grace does not supplement merits or make up for demerits. Grace does not take into account merits or demerits at all. Rather, grace considers all men and women as totally undeserving and unable to do anything to earn the blessing of God. Again, as C. Samuel Storms has so aptly written,

Grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to bestow it in the presence of human merit. . . . Grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to withdraw it in the presence of human demerit. . . . [Grace] is treating a person without the slightest reference to desert whatsoever, but solely according to the infinite goodness and sovereign purpose of God.[5]

Note that Dr. Storms’s description of God’s grace cuts both ways: It can neither be earned by your merit nor forfeited by your demerit. If you sometimes feel you deserve an answer to prayer or a particular blessing from God because of your hard work or sacrifice, you are living by works, not by grace. But it is just as true that if you sometimes despair of experiencing God’s blessing because of your demerits —the “oughts” you should have done but didn’t or the “don’ts” you shouldn’t have done but did —you are also casting aside the grace of God.

Frankly, the second of Dr. Storms’s statements is most helpful to me. I seldom think of merit on my part, but I’m often painfully aware of my demerits. Therefore, I need to be reminded frequently that my demerits do not compel God to withdraw His grace from me, but rather He treats me without regard to deserts whatsoever. I’d much rather stake my hope of His blessing on His infinite goodness than on my good works.

John Newton, the debauched and dissolute slave trader, after his conversion wrote the wonderful old hymn “Amazing Grace.” He never tired of contemplating with awed amazement the wonder of a grace that would reach even to him. But the person who grew up in a godly Christian family, who trusted Christ at an early age, and who never indulged in any so-called “gross” sins should be just as amazed at the grace of God as was John Newton.

Here is a spiritual principle regarding the grace of God: To the extent you are clinging to any vestiges of self-righteousness or are putting any confidence in your own spiritual attainments, to that degree you are not living by the grace of God in your life. This principle applies both in salvation and in living the Christian life. Let me repeat something I said in chapter 1. Grace and good works (that is, works done to earn favor with God) are mutually exclusive. We cannot stand, as it were, with one foot on grace and the other on our own works of merit.

If you are trusting to any degree in your own morality or religious attainments, or if you believe God will somehow recognize any of your good works as merit toward your salvation, you need to seriously consider if you are truly a Christian. I realize I risk offending some with that statement, but we must be absolutely clear about the truth of the gospel of salvation.

Over two hundred years ago Abraham Booth (1734–1806), a Baptist pastor in England, wrote,

The most shining deeds and valuable qualities that can be found among men, though highly useful and truly excellent, when set in their proper places, and referred to suitable ends, are, as to the grand article of justification treated as nonentities. . . .

For divine grace disdains to be assisted in the performance of that work which peculiarly belongs to itself, by the poor, imperfect performances of men. Attempts to complete what grace begins, betray our pride and offend the Lord; but cannot promote our spiritual interest. Let the reader, therefore, carefully remember, that grace is either absolutely free, or it is not at all: and, that he who professes to look for salvation by grace, either believes in his heart to be saved entirely by it, or he acts inconsistently in affairs of the greatest importance.[6]

The thoughts of Abraham Booth are just as valid and needful today as they were two hundred years ago. Those who are truly saved are those who have come to Jesus with the attitude expressed in the words of an old hymn, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.”[7]