Grace Is More Than God’s Unmerited Favour
Rev. Aniekan "Mbomboyo" Okokon ·
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. — Romans 5:2
"Grace is God's unmerited favour." Every believer has heard it, and it is true. But it describes only the doorway. Walk through, and grace turns out to be larger than a definition.
Grace is favour
Start there, because it is where Scripture starts. Grace is God's kindness toward people who have earned the opposite. It is the reason you are saved, and there is no other. Nothing below adds to this; everything below flows from it.
Grace is a place you stand
Paul says we have obtained access into this grace in which we stand. Grace is not only something God feels toward you; it is the ground under your feet, the atmosphere you breathe as a believer. You do not visit it when you need forgiveness. You live in it.
Grace is a power
"By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me." Grace in Paul is not passive. It labours. It is the energy of God at work in a believer, doing what the believer could not.
Grace is a teacher
"The grace of God has appeared… training us to renounce ungodliness." Grace does not leave you where it found you. It takes you in hand and raises you like a child, teaching you to live in a way the law could only demand.
Grace is a Person
Finally, grace has a face. "The grace of God has appeared" - in Jesus. He is what grace looks like when it walks into a room, eats with sinners and goes to a cross. To receive grace is to receive Him.
Why the fuller picture matters
- Favour alone can be received and forgotten. Grace as a standing is lived in daily.
- Favour alone can be misused as permission. Grace as a teacher will not allow it.
- Favour alone can feel like a transaction. Grace as a Person is a relationship.
Grace is unmerited favour, and much more. It is the whole of God's kindness, come near in Christ, holding you up, working in you, teaching you, and never running out.