Grace is More Forgiving Than Your Guilt (Study)

What do you think about when you hear the word “grace?”

For some they think of a prayer before eating a meal . . . “Will you ‘say grace?’”

Others think of a ladies name

Others think of a characteristic of a person . . . she is a lady of “charm and grace”

Although the word is used in many different ways in the English language, we are interested in how God’s Word portrays the word grace.

Here is a good definition of grace:

The unmerited favor of God, made known through Jesus Christ, and expressed supremely in the redemption and full forgiveness of sinners through faith in Jesus Christ. (Manser, M. H. (2009). Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies. London: Martin Manser.)

Don’t get grace and mercy confused. Grace is when God gives us what we do not deserve and mercy is when God withholds from us what we do deserve.

Let’s think about that definition a little bit together:

Manser, M. H. (2009). Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies. London: Martin Manser.

The unmerited (unearned, undeserved) favor of God

God is gracious in many ways to every person

Even unsaved people experience a measure of His grace everyday they breath God’s air and live in God’s world

However, “saving grace” is the favor of God that is extended to those who trust in Christ and His redemption (the payment made to purchase their forgiveness). This salvation is not earned or deserved, but is given to those who believe

Note

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

We are not saved by what WE do, we are saved by TRUSTING in what God provided through Christ. It is not earned, therefore it is of GRACE!

Matthew 20:1–16 ESV

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”

Matthew 20:

I always thought this was an interesting parable. Looking at it from our perspective we would assume that the men who worked longer would receive more. However, everyone received the same thing. The truth is the denarius they all received was generous and it wasn't something any of them necessarily deserved. When I think about Heaven I think about the fact that the thief on the cross, who never had the opportunity to live for Jesus even one day, is going to receive the same Heaven that the person who received Jesus as a child and lived for Him 60 years. Heaven is not something we earn, but rather a gift that Jesus has already earned for us. It's not something we deserve, but something we have the privilege to enjoy. We should never think we are more "worthy" to receive the least of God's blessings than someone else is. Any good gift we get from God is more than we deserve.

Let’s look at our text from this morning a little more closely:

Romans 3:21–28 ESV

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

Romans 3:21

Romans 5:6–11 ESV

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Romans 5:6

Romans 5:15-

Romans 5:15–17 ESV

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.