What does it mean to be ‘under grace’?
When we speak about being ‘under
grace’ we refer to the New Covenant.
To understand the necessity for the New Covenant, we must first understand
God’s intent in the Old covenant. Let
me explain this as simply as possible. God
did not give the law to prevent man from sinning, but to make man aware of sin
and of God’s perfect righteousness and utter holiness. These standards revealed man’s unrighteousness
(sinfulness). Additionally, the
stringent requirements towards keeping them showed how utterly impossible it is
for anyone to try to attain because the law cannot be kept perfectly. To keep
the law meant keeping it in its entirety, without failing in even the tiniest
aspect. That is impossible for any sinner to achieve. Yet, that’s exactly what
God’s intention was when gave the law! He designed to show through the law,
that we are incapable of keeping it perfectly and could never be righteous in
his sight by our own effort. That does not sound very encouraging! However, God
did that to display his mercy and love towards us. He wanted to give us what we
do not deserve and cannot achieve on our own – that very righteousness which he
expects of us! He showed us through our
inability to keep the law that we are utterly at his mercy. This mercy he
displayed by sending his Son, who took
God’s wrath against sin upon himself in our place, so that all who believe in
him may not perish, but rather be reconciled to God forever in perfect
righteousness. The Bible describes this momentous act in these words: “but when
the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to
redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons”
(Gal.4:4). This act by which God freely
gives to us what we do not deserve and cannot earn, we call God’s grace. God credited (imputed) Christ’s
righteousness to us whilst we were yet sinners, simply based on our faith in
Christ’s atonement in our place. This
imputed righteousness is all we need to appear before God without any
condemnation. In other words we have a legal status of ‘righteous’ conferred on
us in place of the status of ‘condemned’. We call this legal status being
‘justified’ (not guilty). God confers this status on the believer immediately,
based on faith in Christ alone, and not on any meritorious actions in the
keeping of the law. It is a final verdict and irreversible. It is the
established starting point in the process of achieving in actual life that
righteousness with which he has already been credited. This process of
achieving in actuality by the Holy Spirit’s enabling, that righteousness which
is ours positionally is called ‘sanctification’. All the while that the
believer is being ‘sanctified’ he
remains eternally safe and secure from God’s wrath against sin. What I have
just set out explains in a nutshell the whole operation of grace in Salvation.
To come to Christ (which implies “to be saved’) we must come on these terms and
no other. When we do, we are described as being under the ‘Covenant of Grace’
(or the covenant of Promise) as opposed to the ‘Covenant of the Law’. Alternatively, to put it plainly, we are ‘under grace’.
© Preach The
Word-with Pastor Joseph Rodrigues - www.kerysso.org