The Grace of God

by J. Rob Hutto

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I’m found.

‘Twas blind, but now I see.

            In the early nineties I was exposed to teaching on the grace of God that revolutionized my thinking on what it means to be saved.  I received a revelation that has led to still more revelation of the grace of God.  I don’t presume to understand everything there is to know about grace, but I also don’t presume to be ignorant of grace since God has seen fit to show me some things about Himself that I didn’t know previously.  It isn’t presumptuous to believe I know God in a limited fashion if God Himself has revealed Something of Himself to me.  To express total ignorance would imply that God couldn’t successfully reveal Himself to me. 

            The issue for me is not whether or not I can know Him as He is revealed, but whether or not I will allow Him to reveal Himself as He sees fit.  I cannot by seeking find Him.  “Canst thou by searching find out God?”  (Job 11:7a)  Intellectual knowledge isn’t sufficient to know the wonder of Who and What God is.  The knowledge of the Holy that A.W. Tozer wrote about cannot be obtained from books, sermons, or mental exercise.  Rather, the knowledge of God is revealed by the wondrous Power of God Himself.  John 1:18 says “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”  He must be declared by none other than the Son of God, the second Person of the Godhead.

            First Corinthians 2:7-10 says,

7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

 This passage makes it clear that spiritual knowledge cannot be approached successfully without the Spirit of God willingly revealing it.  Certainly this includes the knowledge of God, Who is a Spirit.  “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”  (John 4:24)  Ephesians 4:20, 21 is exciting as it identifies Jesus not only as the object of our studies, but as the Teacher Himself.  Paul writes,

20  But ye have not so learned Christ;

21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus.

            So it follows that the knowledge of God comes from Himself as he reveals Himself to us, His children.  I used to enjoy sitting with my grandparents and hearing them talk of days that existed long before I was even “thought of.”  I still enjoy hearing my parents and my wife’s parents talk about the “good old days.”  I want to hear about things that happened when I wasn’t there, but in order for this to happen, I need to hear from someone who was there.  That’s the only way for me to get the real story, or at least something somewhere in the proximity of fact. 

            Parents and grandparents often demonstrate a great desire to share something of their past with children and grandchildren.  In doing so, they share something of themselves.  God wants to share Himself with His children.  This is one reason for the plan of salvation.  Salvation brings relationship, which in turn brings a deeper, more intimate knowledge of the One we adore. 

            Salvation is a bridge.  One of the greatest things I have ever experienced is seeing the Grand Canyon.  In 1997, my wife and I went with two of our church members who had seen it the year before.  They had tried to organize a group of tourists to see this attraction, but only my wife and I seriously pursued taking this trip.  So, they took us and acted as our guides.

            The decision to go has never been regretted by me, though my wife may regret it only because I still talk about the trip.  The Grand Canyon is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.  The canyon is a gap in the earth that defies the imagination.  It is fascinating to stand on the south rim and look over to the north rim, and then look down.  The other side seems tantalizingly close, but the chasm between the two ridges makes the opposite side seem like the other side of the world.  We flew over the canyon in a small plane (an experience which caused me a significant degree of weakness and nausea.)  It took an airplane for us to reach the other side, though it seemed a few steps away. 

            A few years ago, Evel Knievel’s son, Robbie Knievel, was slated to try an attempt at jumping the canyon on a motorcycle.  However, the wind being a little strong at that time, he said he would have to wait because he didn’t want to die that day.  The chasm is that large.

            The fall of man caused a chasm between man and God.  The chasm is great.  Man has just enough of the Image of God to make His Presence tantalizingly close.  But the sin that separates us is deep, and the chasm is wide.  But Jesus came and provided a bridge to bring the two sides together.  This is what grace did for us.  It made it possible for us to approach the throne of God. 

            But why?  Some people go to the Grand Canyon just so they can say they have been.  But they never really see the canyon, if that is possible.  They may actually talk about this sight as if it were blasé, but the Grand Canyon is anything but blasé!  When you go, sit on the edge.  See the canyon!  See the trails and the rock formations!  When you come to God, see Him as the Person He is, not the things He represents.  Sit down with Him and let Him tell you His story.  This is why He saved you.

Grace is Simple

            Grace seems a little overwhelming to many Christians.  In fact, when I first began to get an inkling of what it really meant to be saved, I found myself facing certain dilemmas.  For example, if grace is the opposite of works, where does all of the work mentioned in the Bible come in?  It took some time for me to understand that the conflict wasn’t about grace versus works, but grace versus flesh.  My source must be Christ, not my own ability.

            I have on my shelf a book on grace that is very instructive, but it is so deep that I had to put it down.  I have a Masters Degree.  I like research.  But this book was too much for me.  Why?  Was it presenting error instead of truth?  No.  In fact, it is a book I might at some point use as a reference.  But I find that grace isn’t complicated.  It is simple.  It doesn’t need to be presented as a theory to memorize nearly so much as it needs to be a way of life.

            I am not attempting to present the book mentioned in a bad light.  Notice that I didn’t even mention the title.  But as awesome as grace is, it has been given to simple men and women.  It’s interesting that revival movements have traditionally started among the down and out, not the educated and self-sufficient. 

Grace is confusing to some.  But there are three main points that serve as a starting point for those who would know more about it.

Grace is About a Person

15  Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,

16  Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;

17  That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

18  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

19  And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

20  Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,

21  Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

22  And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

23  Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.  (Ephesians 1:15-23)

            One of the most significant passages to me concerning grace is found above.  It does two things.  First, it lets us know that even saved people often lack the understanding they need to be free in Jesus Christ.  Many Christians truly don’t understand that grace is given so that we can understand the ways of God.  In fact, John 1:16 says “And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” 

            This verse indicates something that actually makes sense to anyone who has been saved for any length of time.  When we are first converted, we have received grace.  But we obviously have very little understanding.  In fact, we have more enlightenment than we have ever had before.  But we are like babies fresh from the womb.  Our knowledge seems profound, but it is in fact very basic.

            The only way for us to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”  (2 Peter 3:18) is for God to give us more grace.  We can’t figure God out.  We can only receive what He reveals.  However, though we have received grace for salvation, we still lack the understanding to receive the deeper things of God.  These things only come as we grow in grace.  God gives us grace, strength, so that we can receive more grace or strength.

            A baby cannot read a book.  But if that child can be taught letters, then spelling, he or she can then be taught to read.  First the basics, then more advanced learning. 

The grace of God opens our hearts, and then pours in an ever-increasing understanding of God.  We receive grace for grace.  We receive the grace of God for salvation, then for growth.  As the level of grace is increased, we have more opportunities to know God and His will.

            In the passage in Ephesians 1 Paul prays for the Ephesians “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.”  The knowledge of Him is all-important.  The business of salvation isn’t about you or me.  It is about Him.  He is the center of all that exists.  We can receive from Him a greater knowledge of Himself.  Second Peter 3:18 indicates that as grace grows in us, the outcome is a greater knowledge of Jesus. 

            Hear me when I say that salvation isn’t about the church.  It isn’t about an organization.  It isn’t about a form of worship.  It isn’t about missions.  All of these things are good, but all too often they become the center of our religion rather than simply opportunities to get to see Jesus more clearly.  They are not even the means of seeing Him.  I can sit under anointed preaching, but there must be a corresponding revelation in my spirit in order for my eyes to be opened to a greater knowledge and understanding of Him. 

            But of course, therein lies a great problem.  God has given us the church, and we have come to hold the church up as being equal with God.  We hold methods of worship as being necessary for proper religion, but we miss Jesus altogether.  These are God-given tools.  These are doors of opportunity through which the grace of God sometimes flows in order to reach His children.  But we have come to see them as somehow possessing Divine Power.

            The Spirit moves one Sunday as we sing Amazing Grace.  We like the move of God.  He is fresh and life giving.  But what do we do next Sunday?  We sing the same song.  Is this wrong?  Only if God doesn’t inspire it.  You see, God may use the same song, but many times we are simply trying to recreate a worship experience from the past.  Some feel that the old songs helped them get saved.  They did not!  That is if you really got saved.  Those songs were invitations for the Presence of God to come in, or they were songs of worship, but God is not tied to Amazing Grace.  Neither is He tied to the song Awesome God.  It isn’t about traditional versus contemporary.  It is about whether or not we are trying to recreate the Presence of God in our midst.

            Understand, I am not suggesting that any type of music, worship, or method is wrong.  I am saying that even the best methods can be misused by well-meaning Christians to produce something that can only be produced by the Holy Ghost.  I would like to see song leaders and worship leaders who pray before they choose the songs for a given service.  I would like to see ministers who seek God before studying for a sermon.  I’d like to see members of a congregation seeking God before they come to church because they only want to see God.

We may do what we do to attempt to preserve elements of our past that are precious to us.  Memories are good.  As I have indicated, I like to hear people talk about the past.  This is true especially if God was evident in their past.  But preservation of the past in the present will not bring the God of the past into evidence in our present situation.  God is a God of the past, present, and future.  God is not stuck in the past. 

Grace will help us to grow and gain a greater knowledge of God.  God gives us more grace now so that we can receive even more grace and knowledge of Him in the future. 

Grace is About Mercy

5  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

6  Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

7  That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.  (Titus 3:5-7)

            This passage is perhaps the most common one used when we discuss grace.  It mentions grace specifically.  It also couples grace with mercy.  Grace is, in one sense, unmerited favor.  You could never earn your own salvation.  Remember the Grand Canyon?  The chasm is too wide to be crossed through ordinary means. 

            Try as we might, we can never reach God through ordinary, fleshly, means.  A story in the Old Testament reflects this vividly.  Genesis 10:1-9 tells the story of the tower of Babel.  In this account of early man, the men were of one speech and lived relatively close to one another.  They probably began to prosper, since they were engrossed in making sure they could maintain their identity as a people.  But they stepped over the line.

            These people were interested in self-preservation.  They were interested in self-exaltation.  Therefore, they decided that the best way to do this was to build a tower.  This would not be just any tower.  No, this tower would reach up to heaven.  They would thus be able to preserve themselves in a desirable state.  They would show their dominance.  They would be a great people.

            You know the rest of the story.  God was displeased, so He caused their speech to be so confounded that they could no longer communicate.  I am fascinated by the fact that man, even today, seeks to improve the lines of communications between people, nations, and cultures.  This isn’t necessarily wrong.  But in those days, a united people, operating in the flesh, tried to approach God (what’s wrong with that?) by taking matters into their own hands (this is what’s wrong with that.) 

            You cannot save yourself.  You cannot do anything and get saved.  We get saved because God calls and we respond.  The response is an action, but you cannot respond to something that hasn’t called or happened.  There must first be a call. 

No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.  (John 6:44)

Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.  (Acts 3:19)  (Italics added.)

Grace is About Living

            There is a trap that many new converts fall into. For that matter, many long-time Christians unwittingly stay in the trap throughout their Christian lives.  The trap is this:  we understand to some degree that only God can save us, but then we try to stay saved by our own power. 

6  As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

7  Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

8  Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

9  For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

10  And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

11  In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

12  Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

13  And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

14  Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

15  And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

16  Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:

17  Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

18  Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

19  And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

20  Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

21  (Touch not; taste not; handle not;

22  Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?

23  Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.  (Colossians 2:6-23)

            I have included most of the second chapter of Colossians because I want to refer to several sections of the passage.  The first, perhaps most declarative statement is in verse six.  Paul writes that you should walk the same way you received Christ in the first place.  How did you receive Christ as your personal savior?  By asking for help.  No, by crying for help!  I imagine that if you really got saved, there was a sense of urgency.  You knew you needed something, and you needed it badly.  Now, here was God moving in you in a way that you didn’t understand, and the only way you knew to accept Him was to say “Help me!”  And so He did.

            But after we get saved, we are good at trying to help God out.  Being good isn’t going to keep you saved anymore than it saved you in the first place.  Just as you needed help as a sinner, you need help as a Christian.  Remember, “…all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags….”  (Isaiah 64:6b).  There is no amount of good works that you can do to keep yourself saved.  That will come as a shock to some of you.  You truly believe that you have remained saved because you have gone to church every Sunday.  You’ve invited people to church, read your Bible, prayed, even witnessed.  You’ve given in the offering, sometimes sacrificially.  You believe you are still among the faithful because you have been faithful.  But this isn’t true.  You didn’t receive Christ by doing any of these things.  You can’t earn your salvation now any more than you did to begin with. 

            Let me give you a verse that astounded me.  It is a verse that tells what happens to the new convert.  The verse is Philippians 2:13, and it says,

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

This describes the Power of God that works in our lives once we are saved.  It means that God first of all works in your inner man so that you desire what He desires.  In fact, it seems He replaces our weak man with the new man, Jesus Christ.  This doesn’t mean that we no longer control the decision making process in our lives.  It means we have opened the door for Christ to breathe His desire through us.

            This verse goes on to say that God works in us to do His pleasure.  He not only desires through us, but He works through us.  We don’t become equal with God.  We become conduits, channels through which the Power of God can be seen.  Good works show themselves in and through us.  That which seemed hard, impossible, even distasteful, becomes possible, easy, even desirable.  Yes, the Christian way seems hard to the outsider, but in Christ, it is easy.  This is because we are working from a new Power Source.  We aren’t what we used to be.  We are children of God, and this changes the way we see, feel, believe, and act. 

            I realize those who have a vision of grace may find fault with the particular way I phrase certain things.  Sometimes I may say “I can” when what I really mean is “He can through me.”  But let’s not get caught up in semantics when we are probably saying many of the same things.

            Good works, righteousness, doing good, or whatever you want to call it, is not excluded from grace.  It is enabled!

            So what is the difference between the person who does good works, but not by grace, and the person who does good works through grace?  The difference is that the first person thinks he or she will make it to heaven because of his or her faithfulness.  The works they produce will have no lasting effect because the flesh produces them.  In the end, their works will fail. 

13  Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

14  If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

15  If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.  (1 Corinthians 3:13-15)

            On the other hand, the person who lives by grace realizes that their works aren’t sufficient to get them to heaven.  Their works aren’t sufficient to complete the work of the church.  They realize they are only vessels in the Hand of God.  They are not so worried about what people think about them because they aren’t doing their own work anyway.  They recognize that any God in and through them comes from God, and they yield themselves to Him.  They don’t seek attention.  They don’t exalt themselves.  They exalt God.  They are ready and anxious to say, “I am weak, but He is strong!”  This attitude is readily seen in their lives.  They demonstrate the servant hood that Jesus tried to teach His disciples.  They demonstrate the servant hood exhibited as Jesus washed His disciples feet.  Yet, they realize that servant hood is more than “voluntary humility,” but it includes a corresponding humility in the heart.  They are willing to be hidden away or to be made a laughingstock to the world.  It all comes down to what God wants to do in and through them.

Grace is mercy, it is Power for living, and it is all about Jesus Christ.  We must have grace, but I pray that we will understand it as well.  This is not something for us to quarrel about.  It is the Power of God to live through us.  God never intended for you to live on your own.  He wants to do the living through you as you yield yourself willingly to Him.  Let’s seek God for more grace that we can be accepted by Him, know Him, and live for Him by letting Him live through us.

10/03

8/03