In this Episode, we are starting on a theme that is foundational to our spiritual growth.
We are going to try to understand our relationship with God better by understanding His
Grace and learning how to build on our spiritual life without struggling. I have titled this
theme-Grace and Faith. And we will start with the topic-Saved By Grace today.
Grace is that attribute that marks a sharp difference between Christianity and all other
religions of the world. The grace of God is the foundation of our Christian lives. It is the
plank upon which our relationship with God rests. Our relationship with God cannot
mature to fullness without an adequate grasp of His grace. In fact the reason why so
many Christians do not seem to be making progress in their Christian lives is because
they do not understand the working of the Grace of God. Yet, a proper understanding of
the grace of God has the effect of transforming and revolutionizing the believer’s
relationship with God. My experience is that whenever you try to discuss the doctrine of
Grace, some Christians claim they understand it, but from their utterances and prayer
points, it becomes clear they do not grasp the doctrine of Grace. Some other Christians
do not even want to listen to any discussion on the Grace of God because they have
concluded that teaching the Grace of God encourages people to live in sin. This again
reflects a misunderstanding of the doctrine of Grace. 
 So it is my prayer that whether you belong to the first group or the second, you pay
attention to this discussion which has an awesome chance of transforming your
relationship with God and bringing you to a place of excitement and better appreciation
of the God of Grace.
The Grace of God has been described in several ways and we are going to look at
some of these descriptions to help us grasp this fundamental part of our relationship
with God.
I think the most common definition of the Grace of God is the unmerited favour and
mercy of God towards us, i.e. God granting us favours we do not deserve and
withholding punishment from us when we deserve to be punished.
Grace has also been described as us enjoying the abundance of God’s riches at
Christ’s expense, meaning we enjoy all the blessings and privileges of God freely,
without paying because Christ has paid for it all.  
Someone else described grace as “God’s love in action towards men who merited the
opposite of love.” i.e loving someone you have every reason to hate. It has also been
described as God sending His only Son to hell so that we guilty ones might be
reconciled to God and received into heaven.

If you are paying attention, you would have noted that all these descriptions and
definitions of Grace point towards God and His actions. Grace is totally about God and
what He did. It has nothing to do with what you did or what I did. 
So the difference between Christianity and other religions is that with other religions,
God’s relationship with man is conditional on the performance of man. But with
Christianity, God’s relationship with man is dependent on the performance of Jesus
Christ.
The Bible consistently makes it clear that we do not earn salvation by our actions and
good works but by the benevolence of God.
Ephesians 2:8-9-“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not
from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. 
 The simple fact I want us to grasp today is that our salvation is not based on what we did and
our accomplishments. God did not save you because of the moral life you lived in the past. And
God did not refuse to save you because of the bad and awful things you did in the past. God
saved you because Jesus sacrificed His life and took the punishment for your sins and this
includes our past, present and future sins. Some people argue that our future sins are not
forgiven. And you cant blame them because it sounds too good to be true. But Jesus took the
punishment for your sins before you were even born. So if He does not forgive future sins then
you could not have been saved. Colossians 2:13 states-When you were dead in your sins and
in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins.
Verse 14 further says He nailed our sins to the Cross. Hebrew 9:28 states-Christ was sacrificed
once to take away the sins of many people. Christ took all our sins once at His crucifixion and
He is not nailed to the Cross every time we commit sin. All you had to do when you were saved
was to respond to Jesus’ one and perfect sacrifice on the Cross by faith. This is what you have
to keep doing everytime you miss it. I know this is one issue we find difficult to accept. But I urge
you to ask the Holy Spirit for better understanding.
It’s important that you stop putting yourself forward, projecting self and thinking it’s all about
you, what you did and what you did not do. It’s not about you. It is pride and ego and a sense of
self importance to feel you can do enough to deserve salvation or to keep it.
Some people would give you a list of conditions you need to meet before you can be
saved. But all those conditions people give are impossible to keep until Jesus comes to
live in you. And the Holy Spirit cannot in dwell you and start helping you subdue your
flesh until you are saved. So anyone that is preaching that you have to change and
become perfect before you can be saved is putting the cart before the horse. We come
to God as we are in our imperfections and He accepts us by His Grace and the Holy
Spirit begins the work of sanctifying us to transform us into who He says we are.
Has it ever occurred to you that if we have to meet all those conditions that people list,
then Jesus did not need to die for us. It means we could gain salvation by our actions.
Galatians 2:21-“I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained
through the law, Christ died for nothing!" 

The grace of God is absolutely free! We do not have to earn it—indeed we cannot earn
it. This truth is not an easy one to swallow because we have come to doubt that
anything can really be free and our sense of pride and ego makes us want to take credit
for salvation and the blessings of God.
Consider the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican in Luke 18:9-14. The Pharisee
beat his chest as he reminded God of all his good works in comparison to the Publican.
The Publican on the other hand asked God to be merciful to him, a sinner. Jesus said to
His listeners "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before
God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will
be exalted."
Some people like the Publican, put their trust in what they can do for the Lord rather
than what the Lord has done for them. They want people to acknowledge their good
works. But trusting one’s righteous acts may actually block one from a relationship with
God because it makes one feel deserving like the Pharisee. While those who may not
have been as good, but who humble themselves and cry out to God may find it easier to
receive from God.
Why would God save us when we have done absolutely nothing to deserve it. Why
would Christ take the punishment for all our sins freely. 
It is because of His love for us. The basis of God’s Grace is His love. Ephesians 2:4-5-
 “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with
Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been
saved.”
Unless we understand that love is the nature of God and that God’s love does not
depend on us and our actions we can’t appreciate His Grace. When we keep focusing
on the fact that we are undeserving of God’s love and looking at our inadequacies, or on
the other hand feeling we are living so righteously that we deserve His love, we cannot
accept the Grace of God and revel in it. In order to key into the Grace of God, we have
to understand that love is God’s nature. That God cannot exist without love. When we
believe that God loves us when we are good and withholds His love when we are bad,
we are bringing God down to our human level and claiming that He reacts to
circumstances the way we do. When we insist on weighing God’s love against our
actions, we distort His personality. And we completely contradict His declaration in
Romans 8:38 that nothing can separate us from His love.
To receive His free gift of salvation, God expects only one thing from us. He expects us
to believe that Jesus Christ has taken the punishment for our sins through His Grace
which is based 100% on his love for us and to place our faith in Jesus Christ’s finished
works and to confess our beliefs with our mouth.
Romans 3:23-24-23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” 

Romans 10:10 states-For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified; and it is
with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
We are saved by the Grace of God; not by our acts of self righteousness.