God S Gracious Salvation

Becoming a Woman of Grace

CHAPTER FOUR

GOD’S GRACIOUS SALVATION

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV

It was because of His grace that God the Father sent His only son to die in our place. To say it another way, Christ’s death was the result of God’s grace; grace is not the result of Christ’s death. . . . Because Christ completely satisfied the justice of God, we can now experience the grace of God. Jerry Bridges

The law could not provide salvation or justification (that is, to be declared righteous). So at the proper time, grace and truth entered history in the person of Christ. The moment that Christ died on the cross, the veil in the temple was torn in two, signifying free access to God for all humanity. Since Christ was the perfect sacrifice, now by grace we receive salvation through faith. The law can no longer enslave and condemn us because God’s kindness and love through Christ justifies us. Believing this great message assures us of a new life here on earth and an eternal life with our Lord in heaven. This is God’s gracious gospel. John Newton called grace “amazing,” and truly it is.

Salvation at the Cross

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We have seen that God longs to be gracious to us. Since the beginning, God has reached out to us. Read these gracious invitations and identify the free gift offered.

Isaiah 55:1-3, 6-7

John 3:16

Revelation 22:17

The substitutionary death of Christ on the cross established the new covenant. Study these scriptures and describe how reconciliation and justification have been accomplished.

Romans 5:6-11

Ephesians 1:3-10

Hebrews 9:11-22

In order for anyone to stand securely and be at peace before a holy and just God, that person must be righteous. Hence, our need for justification. Remember the definition of justification? It is the sovereign act of God whereby He declares righteous the believing sinner while still in his sinning state. It doesn’t mean that the believing sinner stops sinning. It doesn’t even mean that the believing sinner is made righteous in the sense of suddenly becoming perpetually perfect. The sinner is declared righteous. . . . By grace, through faith alone, God declares the sinner righteous (justification). And from that moment on the justified sinner begins a process of growth toward maturity (sanctification). Charles R. Swindoll

Salvation Through Faith

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The grace of God is absolute, undeserved favor. In the following scriptures, study the provision God has made to reconcile us to Him.

Romans 3:21-31

Romans 4:13-25

God’s grace is fully revealed in the Cross. When we enter into His new covenant, how does God change our standing before Him?

We often speak of salvation in terms of “God’s part and our part.” However, this approach might suggest that we do, in fact, contribute to our salvation. . . . John R.W. Stott speaks to this: “We must never think of salvation as a kind of transaction between God and us in which He contributes grace and we contribute faith. For we were dead and had to be quickened before we could believe. No, Christ’s apostles clearly teach elsewhere that saving faith too is God’s gracious gift.” Lutheran theologian Rod Rosenbladt says that, to the question “Don’t we contribute anything to our salvation?” Scripture answers, “Yes, your sin!” Michael Horton

Faith Not Works

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Paul repeatedly declared the message that our salvation is by grace through faith, not by works. How do the following scriptures convey this declaration?

Romans 4:1-5

Galations 2:15-21

2 Timothy 1:8-10

Here is a spiritual principle regarding the grace of God: to the extent you are clinging to any vestiges of self-righteousness or are putting any confidence in your own spiritual attainments, to that degree you are not living by the grace of God in your life. This principle applies to salvation and in living the Christian life. . . . Grace and good works (that is, works done to earn favor with God) are mutually exclusive. We cannot stand, as it were, with one foot on grace and the other on our own merit. Jerry Bridges

We cannot cling to grace while relying on our own merits. Why do you think Scripture is so emphatic about the truth that God’s saving work has nothing to do with our efforts? Use Ephesians 2:8-9 as a reference.

AUTHOR’S REFLECTION – I was twelve years old when I experienced God’s grace. I publicly stated my belief that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and that He died for the forgiveness of my sins. I didn’t understand grace, but I did respond to God’s great love and kindness to me. I understood the extraordinary cost of God’s love for me. I wanted God to know that I believed in Him and that I loved Him for loving me so much.

Several years passed before I began to comprehend that Christ lived in me. I will never forget the day I realized that I didn’t have to live life on my own. I was stressed and discouraged mainly because I was living life in my own strength – and I was running out of strength. I was trying so hard to be perfect and to hold everything together. Essentially, this is what living under the law is – striving to do in our own strength and power what God asks of us.

As I cried out to the Lord, He very gently spoke to my heart and asked if I would let Him be my Lord. Would I relinquish control and give up thinking that I could live life apart from His life in me? That very day I recognized the truth of Paul’s testimony in Galatians, “For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:19-20, KJV).

For the first time, I knew that the living God, in His grace, had taken possession of His child. I was appropriating not only God’s saving grace, but His indwelling Holy Spirit to enable me to live each day not in my own strength, but in His.

Trust is the lifeblood of faith; there is no saving faith without it. The Puritans were accustomed to explain faith by the word “recumbency.” It meant leaning upon a thing. Lean with all your weight upon Christ. It would be a better illustration if I said: Fall at full length and lie on the rock of ages. Cast yourself upon Jesus. Rest in Him. Commit yourself to Him. That done, you have exercised saving faith. Charles Spurgeon

Amazing Grace

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Charles Swindoll writes, “There is one and only one password for entering heaven: Grace.” Think about this amazing password. Has it become a part of your life? Whether you are asking God for the first time or thanking Him for what He has already done, write a prayer expressing your response to His gracious provision of eternal life.

SUGGESTED SCRIPTURE MEMORY – Ephesians 2:8-9

CHAPTER FOUR VERSES

Isaiah 55:1-3, 6-7

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? And your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Revelation 22:17

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

Romans 5:6-11

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

Ephesians 1:3-10

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

Hebrews 9:11-22

But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.
For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,
Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.
Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.
And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

Romans 3:21-31

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works” Nay: but by the law of faith.
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

Romans 4:13-25

For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb:
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but as strong in faith, giving glory to God;
And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;
But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

Romans 4:1-5

What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?
For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.
For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Galatians 2:15-21

We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

2 Timothy 1:8-10

But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;
Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
For whoremongers, for them that define themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;