What Grace Teaches Us About God

by Pastor Richard C. Church

It is only by God's grace that we can truly know God. It comes as no surprise, then, that the lost world, both secular and religious, is so confused about who God is. Some suppose that God is merely a benevolent being who will never condemn or judge anyone. Others live in constant fear of God, suspecting that at any moment He will bring calamity on them because of their sin. Yet neither of these is a true representation of who God is. In order to know God, we must reject the worldly philosophies of men (Col 2:8) and of "science falsely so called" (1 Tim 6:20), receive what God has said about Himself in the Bible.

First, the Bible declares to us that God is just. With God, every sin receives its just reward. Our society has become so confused by philosophy, religion, and pseudo-science that most people have no real conception of what justice is. We suppose that the just penalty for murder is life imprisonment, rather than God's just sentence of death (Num 35:30-31). We suppose that the just penalty for theft is a jail sentence, rather than God's just penalty of restitution (Ex 22:1-15). Many of the things that God calls crimes worthy of punishment, such as fornication, adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, incest, etc., we defend as merely a lifestyle choice.

But ultimately, no one will escape the justice of God. For we are told that "the wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23), and "the soul that sinneth it shall die" (Eze 18:4).

But not only does God's grace teach us of His justice, but it also declares to us His mercy. Thought we were deserving of death, God chose to bear that penalty Himself in the person of Jesus Christ.

Rom 3:24-26 (KJV) Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

The severe justice of God inflicted on Jesus Christ at Calvary is a propitiation, or a fully satisfying sacrifice to God. It satisfies God's justice and allows him to remain just while also justifying the sinner that believes in Jesus. How great is the mercy and wisdom of Almighty God (Rom 11:33)!

What does the grace of God teach us about Him? It teaches us that God is no longer holding man's sins against him today, as they were all dealt with nearly 2000 years ago in the person of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary. Though the lost person should certainly live in fear of God, those of us who have received God's grace have no need for fear. God Himself has declared us to be righteous, not on the basis of our works, but on the basis of Christ's work which He completed at Calvary. Stop working and start trusting on Him!