God's Saving Grace (Episode 119)

The grace of God manifests itself in countless ways. Anytime He shows us His goodness when we deserve otherwise, that constitutes grace. This episode focuses on the grace of God that pertains to our salvation. This grace is sometimes referred to as God’s saving grace. The doctrine of salvation is the most important Christian doctrine in the entire Bible. We can disagree on, even be wrong about some aspects of Christian theology and still be OK. But we can’t afford to be wrong on how to be saved because that has eternal consequences. In his letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul writes, “By grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:5, NASB). Grace refers to things that are unmerited, meaning things we don’t earn or deserve. Accordingly, God’s saving grace refers to salvation that is unmerited. Paul said what he said because God saved us “even when we were dead in our transgressions” (verse 5a). In other words, we did not earn salvation. And there is a good reason for that. It’s because we can’t, no matter how hard we try. None of us deserves salvation. The only way we can receive salvation is that God gives it to us when we place our faith in Christ. But those who lived under the Old Testament (OT) dispensation were under the Law and not under grace. So, were they more righteous than we are so that they earned their salvation by successfully keeping the Law? Or did God lower the bar and grade the OT believers on a curve so they could make it into heaven? To answer that question, consider Abraham’s eternal fate. “For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness’” (Romans 4:3, NASB). The point is that no one has ever earned or deserved to be saved. Even the OT believers were recipients of God’s saving grace. Sad but true, so many people in the world today need to be saved. The good news is that everyone can afford to be saved because Christ has paid the cost for all.