How big is God’s grace? Grace is scattered like stars on a cloudless night. Grace is fathomless as the ocean depths. Grace inexhaustible. Grace is forever fresh. Grace is boundless and free.
This is the wonder of God’s grace: It’s as big as the sky and as close as your next breath. Grace is insubstantial and ethereal—nothing more than an idea—an idea that continues to change the world. Grace is love made practical. Grace empowers. Grace cares not for the argument but for the people arguing. Grace has an agenda beyond the truth. Grace turns its nose up at winning the fight and aims instead to win the person. God’s grace plays the long game.
John’s gospel opens with words of grace: “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another” (John 1:16, NIV). Apparently the good folks who translated the New International Version were challenged by the more literal rendering of this verse: “From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (New Revised Standard Version). The NIV substitutes “one blessing after another” for “grace upon grace.”
But why argue over translation? John was searching for a way to communicate that God’s grace is continuous and multilayered. If we walk with the Lord 50 years, we will still discover again and again the God who beckons us (in C.S. Lewis’ happy phrase) to come “further up and further in.” But take note: If we are determined to think of grace as merely a ticket to heaven, there is no further up and further in, either in this life or the next. Why come to the shores of God’s grace only to dip our toes in the ocean?
The only unsatisfying part of God’s grace is it’s too big to comprehend. “If grace is an ocean,” says singer John Mark McMillan, “we’re all sinking.” But would we want it any other way?
Three Movements of God’s Grace
The more I read the New Testament, the more all-encompassing grace becomes. Instead of presenting grace only as a repeatable sin-cleansing bargain, Scripture presents a grace that continues to reach into our lives day after day in more ways than we expect. The Apostle Paul wrote to a young pastor about three movements of God’s grace:
The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (Titus 2:11–14).
Many believers have never heard these verses declared from the pulpit. Grace appears in the passage with phrases like “self-controlled” or “upright and godly lives.” What kind of grace is this? We thought grace meant getting off scot-free, but apparently grace wants to teach us a new way to live in Christ.
Grace That Brings Salvation
Let’s break this passage down: Most believers are very familiar with the first phrase, “the grace that brings salvation.” That’s the first movement of grace, and it’s glorious.
J.I. Packer instructed us, “In the New Testament grace means God’s love in action toward those who merited the opposite of love. Grace means God moving heaven and earth to save sinners who could not lift a finger to save themselves.” Praise God for salvation! We are very comfortable with this understanding of grace. But there’s more.
Grace That Teaches
These verses in Titus also give us a second movement of grace: Not many churchgoers have ever heard of a grace that “teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passion.” Have you considered the fact that God’s grace can teach us how to say “no” to the worldly passions of life? Grace helps us resist the pressures of this age—we don’t have to do it in our own strength.
Grace That Empowers
Third, we discover that God’s grace goes beyond resistance and opens up new possibilities of life in Christ, “to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.” Most believers are familiar with a saving grace capable of securing heaven after we die but have never considered the possibility that God’s grace can nurture us in this present age. God’s grace is after more than wiping the slate clean week after week. The grace of God wants to teach us a new way to live. If grace is the teacher, then we are the students, and this life is the classroom. Students of Jesus understand that God’s grace not only transports us to heaven when we die, it brings heaven close to us while we live.
