Gospel Basics: The Grace of God

[Part 2 of a series of posts on Gospel Basics]

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people . . . (Titus 2:11)

If a person begins announcing the Gospel by starting with grace, the good news will not be shown to be as truly good as it is (which happens very often, in my estimation). The grace of God comes into beautiful relief when we have first seen who we were. Then when the grace of God comes, it rises like the sun over the deep valley of despair.

The grace of God has appeared. 'Grace' means undeserved kindness. The grace of God is His entirely undeserved kindness toward His foolish, rebellious, enslaved creatures who live in hatred of one another. Paul makes perfectly clear to Titus that:

. . . he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy . . . (Titus 3:5)

When God acts in grace, He acts according to His nature and character, and not according to ours. His grace appears through the announcement of the good news that God was reconciling humanity to Himself through Jesus, not counting people's rebellion against them. It shatters our pride at every turn because in our folly we despised Him, in our rebellion we rejected Him, and in our enslavement, we lacked even the power to repent (to turn back to Him).

This grace brings salvation to all people. God's grace does not merely make the futility of life more bearable, it powerfully brings salvation. That is to say, it saves. It saves us from the penalty, power, and eventually the presence, of sin. It delivers us from the penalty of sin, which is the infinite, just wrath of God against us. This grace conquers the power of sin to rule our lives, so that for the first time we are free to love, obey and please God. With this grace is the promise that we will finally be delivered even from the presence of sin. Instead of being separated from God, we will be separated from all that is hostile to God; and we will be with God! The salvation that grace brings is fundamentally from enmity with God to friendship with God.

This grace is for all people, and yet the Scriptures are clear that there is only one condition under which a person can receive it:

God opposes the proud,
but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6)

The grace of God brings salvation to all people through humility. The only people who can receive this salvation are those who have been proud, but none are saved who remain proud. There is no room for the arrogant, for they oppose God, and God opposes them. Grace is good news, but it is good news only to those who are shattered by it, who admit their rebellion, enslavement and folly. Indeed the gospel of grace accomplishes its own conditions - it makes the proud humble, who would never otherwise humble themselves. And so it is gloriously true that salvation is for all people, and is ALL of grace.

[The best exposition I have heard of this reality is C.H. Spurgeon's little book, All of Grace.]