Lesson #24
By Grace are ye Saved

Reading: Romans5
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GRACE

In the Bible God's grace means His loving kindness towardsmen. It is totally undeserved by any man or woman and is entirely the freegift of God. It is understood most clearly in God's gift of the Lord Jesusto achieve salvation.

You will need to remember this clearly as you study thislesson.

A matter of life and death

We all know only too well that our life will end sooneror later with the coming of death. God sent His son, the Lord Jesus Christ,into the world to open up a way of life. This way of salvation from deathis the very heart of the Christian Gospel.

Our sins separate us from God, who is the source of alllife. Jesus came to bring man back to God, by showing the way of life. Aman may know his Bible perfectly, from Genesis to Revelation; he may havea thorough understanding of Bible teaching - but that will not save him.Unless he accepts the sacrifice Jesus has made for him in true humility,he can have no hope of life.

A wrong way of thinking

Many people think that the good things they do and thebad things they do are added up to see how they stand before God. They thinkthat, so long as there is more good than bad, they have a right toGod's favour. This is simply not true!

Even many who claim to be Christians and acknowledge thatGod has paid a great price to bring about salvation, feel they have to earnthis blessing by the things they do.

It is very easy for us to think we have to earnGod's gifts. But a gift cannot be earned. Only wages are earned,and Paul tells us:

"The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6: 23)

It is very easy for us to fall into this wrong way of thinking.God has done so much for us, we want to show our thanks by pleasing Him:and so we come to think that the things we do "pay for" God'sblessings.

It is one of the most important teachings of Scripturethat forgiveness of sins and eternal life in Godís Kingdom are giftsof God, and cannot be earned or paid for.

What the Scriptures teach

- we are all sinners condemned to death;

- we cannot save ourselves, and we must have the humility to accept this;

- God has provided a way of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ;

- this way is open to us, if we have faith (or belief) in the Gospel, which is found in God's Word, the Bible.

 

Believing in God

Read these words carefully:

God loves us abundantly, even though we are sinners, andhas made us alive together with Christ. (This salvation is a gift.) He hasgiven us this high place in Jesus, so that in the future He might blessus even more (with life in His kingdom).

This salvation is God's gift. We need to believe Him. Wecannot do anything to earn salvation, so no-one can boast.

Now read Romans 3: 20-28 very carefully. You will see thatthe message is the same. Nothing the Jews could do by keeping the law, andnothing we can do in our lives, can make us appear righteous in God's sight.We are all sinners.

But by His grace, God counts as righteous those who trustin Jesus.

Only God and the Lord Jesus are righteous, but if we believeJesus died for us, and accept the sacrifice he made for us, God will forgiveour sins and count us righteous. Notice again the apostle repeats the vitaltruth that all is of God, and no man can boast about being saved.

"Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5: 1-2)

These verses tell us plainly the position of a true followerof the Lord Jesus. Such a man has peace with God, because he has been broughtinto harmony with God through the sacrifice of Jesus. He has been acceptedby God, and is a future citizen of the Kingdom of God.

He has been brought into this relationship by his beliefin God. Because of these things he has access to Godóhe can approachHim in prayer. Such a disciple has entered into grace.

Does it matter how we behave?

We have seen, then, how a man may come near to God, andbe accepted through His grace. Such a man has become "right with God".

But we have not said anything about how that man shouldlive. Are we free, then, to please ourselves, and go our own way? The apostlePaul thought people might think that way. You have already read chapter5 of his letter to the Romans. Now look at the first verse of chapter 6,which says:

"Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?"

He answers the question in the next verse:

"God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?"

Read on to verse 14, and note especially verses 11 and12:

"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts therof."

If we really believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we shallact as if we believe in him. We will try our very best to do whathe says. Then we shall truly be his followers.

On the other hand, a man who does not try to do God's willand obey Him is not a true disciple. If he really believed, he would obey.He has no real faith, and so no access to the grace of God.

The apostle James tells us: "Faith if it hath notworks, is dead" (James 2: 17). Faith which does not make a manstrive to follow the Christian way of living, and overcome sin in himself,is no faith at all.

Beginning a new life in Christ

How can we show our acceptance of what God has done forus, and our determination to live according to His commandments? We havealready read Romans 6, verses 1 and 2. Look at the next two verses:

Jesus died and rose again for us. We associate ourselveswith his sacrifice, by being buried, not in a tomb as he was but in water.This is Christian baptism. When a man comes out of the water, he has becomea "new man in Christ", and he is ready to live a new life. Hehas become a true disciple of the Lord Jesus. He can then be described asbeing "in Christ".

Discipleship

Baptism is a new start, and all our past sins are forgivenwhen we are baptized. Yet, however hard we try, we still go on doing wrongthings and thinking wrong thoughts.

But remember, a Christian who has been baptized can cometo God through Christ. He can confess his failings, and show he is sorryfor them. And God will forgive him for Christ's sake.

So we must never give up. With the love of the Father tohelp us, we shall reach God's Kingdom in the end, for it is, as Jesus said,"the Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom" (Luke12: 32).

The importance of faith

FAITH is belief or trust in God

The writer to the Hebrews tells us that "withoutfaith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews 11: 6). To havefaith is to trust God completely, putting our life into His hands and relyingon Him in all the ways of our life, as a small child depends on his father,and looks up to him.

If we have this kind of faith, then, as we have alreadyseen, we have access to the grace of God. But we cannot believe in anythingif we do not know about it; and we cannot believe in God's Word unless weunderstand its teaching. That is why, in all the lessons in this course,the teaching of the Bible has been emphasised. Read for yourselves Romans10: 13-17, and notice particularly the last verse:

"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

 

Disciples in Old Testament Times

If belief in the work of Jesus is essential for our salvation,what will happen to Godís servants in Old Testament times? How canthey be saved, if they lived before Christ came?

Those who lived in Old Testament times knew about Christ!They did not know him by the name of Jesus, but they knew him as the promisedson of God - the Messiah and Lamb of God.

They understood from God's word that all men need salvation.They were told that God would provide this in the death of a perfect man,who would be the ëLamb of Godí, and give his life for the salvationof all men.

Abraham was one of the great men of the Old Testament.Galatians 3: 8 tells us that "the gospel was preached to Abraham",and we read of Jesus saying to the Jews:

"Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: he saw it and was glad" (John 8: 56).

So Abraham and many other Old Testament disciples believedin Christ, even as we do, although they did not have the great privilegewe have, of being able to read the Gospel stories which tell us about theLord's life and work.

Because the Old Testament, as well as the New, tells usthe story of the grace of God working for our salvation, we need to studythe whole of the Bible, and not the New Testament only.

Summary

1. No man can save himself - no man can be saved without humility.

2. It is the grace of God that brings salvation: this grace brings to us the good news of the work of Jesus and the Kingdom of God.

3. We have to have faith in order to benefit from God's grace.

4. If we have faith, we will try to live according to God's commandments.

5. True faith will show in the way a man lives; it will prove that his discipleship is real.

Chapters to read: Psalm 32;Romans 4; and read again Galatians 3;

also Titus 3: 4-6 and 2:11-13

Good verses to memorise: Romans5:1-2