For several decades, at the Vale Ligonier Study Center, we sent a Thanksgiving card with this simple statement: “The essence of theology is grace; the essence of Christian ethics is gratitude?In all discussions about our role in relation to God’s role in sanctification?our growth in holiness would remain on track if we remember this dynamic of grace-gratitude. The more we understand how much God has loved us and the more we are gained by His mercy, the more inclined we will be to love and serve Him.
However, we cannot properly understand the dynamic grace-gratitude if the meaning of grace is unclear. What is grace? The catechisms that many of us have learned from children give us the answer: “Grace is God’s undeserved favor. “The first thing we understand about grace is what it is not, it is not something we deserve. In fact, if that is all we already understand about grace, I am sure that God will rejoice that we know that His grace is not deserved. So here is our explanatory definition of grace: it is not deserved.
- Paul’s epistle to the Romans highlights what we mean when we say that grace is not deserved.
- At 1.
- 18? 3:20.
- The apostle explains that on the last day.
- For the first time in our life.
- We will be judged in perfect perfection.
- Total and absolute justice.
- Thus.
- Every mouth will be closed when we stand before the tribunal of God’s judgment.
- This should cause fear in the hearts of the fallen.
- Because condemnation is the only possible condemnation for sinful men and women: “For all.
- Have they sinned and lack the glory of God?” (3.
- 23).
But those who trust in Jesus Christ have hope, because if we are in him by faith, we have been “justified free of charge by his grace. “Note that justification is not done by obligation, but free from grace, because of redemption. bought only by Jesús. No there is room to boast, because we are not justified by our works, but only by grace, only by faith. Paul continues to cite Abraham as the eminent example of someone who was justified only by faith and therefore free If the foundation of Abraham’s salvation, his justification, was something Abraham did (good works, meritorious services he has performed, obligations he has fulfilled) if he were based on works, Paulo says, he would have something to boast about. . But Abraham had no such merit. All he had was faith, and that faith in himself was a gift: “Abraham believed in God, and was he imputed to him for righteousness?(4. 3; see Ephesians 2. 8-10).
Romans 4. 4-8 is a key passage here
However, for the one who works, wages are not considered a favor, but a debt; but to those who do not work, but believe in the one who justifies the wicked, his faith is attributed to him as justice. how David declares blessed the man to whom God attributes righteousness, whatever the works: Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered; Blessed is the man to whom the Lord never attributes sin.
It is grace. Pablo couldn’t put it any other way. For those who work, it is a debt; If you deserve something, it means that someone has to pay you, if I hire you as an employee and I promise to pay you a hundred reais if you work eight hours, I have to pay you for eight hours of work. doing you favors and I’m not giving you grace. You earned your salary. You have fulfilled the contract and I am morally obliged to give you your salary.
Compared to the Lord, we are debtors who cannot pay. Is that why the Bible speaks of redemption in economic language?We were bought for a price (1 Corinthians 6:20). Only someone, “Christ,” can pay our debt. It is grace, it is not our good works that guarantee our redemption, but only the works of Christ, it is his credit, not ours. We deserve nothing, he gives us his merit by grace and we receive it only by faith, the essence of grace is his free and voluntary gift, if it were an obligation, it would no longer be grace.
Grace should never cease to amaze us; God has a standard of absolute, pure, and holy righteousness; that is why we cling with all our might to the merits of Jesus Christ; Only He has the merit that satisfies the demands of God’s righteousness, and He gives us that merit for free. We don’t deserve it. There is nothing in us that awakens the Lord’s favor that leads to our justification; it’s pure grace.
And the more we understand what God has done for us as sinners, the more willing we are to do what He asks. The great teachers of the Church say that the first point of true sanctification is a growing awareness of our own sin. at the same time comes a growing awareness of God’s grace and, with it, once again, the growing love and will to obey Him.
When do we really understand grace?When do we see that God only owed us anger, but He provided the merit of Christ to cover our demerit?then everything changes. The Christian motivation of ethics is not simply to obey an abstract law or a list of rules; rather, our response is motivated by gratitude. Jesus understood this when He said, “If you love me, will you keep my commandments?”If I can have the freedom to paraphrase: “You will keep my commandments not because you want to be righteous, but because you love me. “A true understanding of grace, of God’s undeserved goodness?always leads to a life of gratitude and obedience.