Grace

There are so many things that can be earned in life. Think about it…maybe you do chores to earn allowance money. Maybe, at this time of year, you are trying to be on your best behavior to earn your gifts for Christmas. Maybe you recently played your hardest to earn a trophy or championship for your sports team. Or maybe you’ve even earned a free haircut like I did the other day by going to the same place 9 times and earning that 10th cut for free!

We understand the concept of working or putting in effort in order to EARN something. Like cause and effect. If I do this, then I’ll earn that. But guess what? This isn’t how God’s kingdom operates.

In fact, you’ve probably heard of the word ‘grace’ before, right? Grace is defined as God’s powerful kindness poured out on the undeserving. Repeat after me: Grace is….kindness to the undeserving…Did you hear anything about earning God’s grace in that definition? Sometimes adults define grace as God’s unmerited favor. That’s just a fancy way of saying that He blesses us even though we don’t deserve it and we’ve done nothing to earn it.

And listen closely, we CAN’T earn His grace. His grace is a free gift for all BECAUSE of what Jesus did on the cross.

Let’s back up for a second… Okay, we actually see God’s grace in every area of life. In fact, my life and your life and everything exists in creation because of God’s grace – His kindness to the undeserving. Everyone experiences God’s grace on that level, even if they don’t realize it. 

However, God’s grace is much much bigger than that in that it saves us from our sin. Because we are sinful, we cannot earn His love or even a ticket to heaven by doing lots of good things. No, it’s ONLY God’s grace – His kindness to the undeserving – through what Jesus did on the cross that can save us from our sins and allow us to walk with God now and live with Him forever. I’m going to say that again because there’s a lot there…It’s ONLY God’s grace, through what Jesus did on the cross, that can save us from our sins and allow us to walk with God now and live with Him forever.

Ephesians 2:8 says “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

We have done nothing and there is nothing we can do to save us from our sins. We have done nothing and there is nothing we can do to earn God’s love and forgiveness. It’s only by grace that we are saved. Wow! What an awesome God we serve! He offers us grace even though we don’t deserve it.

Here are some questions to talk about. You can pause after each question and discuss or just generally review together when it’s over. Oh, and this is important! There’s no wrong answer to these! The point is to get conversation flowing. So don’t overthink it!

1.     How have you experienced the concept of grace in your life? Maybe it was grace from a parent, teacher, or friend. When have you seen someone treat you with grace even though you didn’t deserve it?

2.     What is God’s grace? Tell me in your own words.

3.     How do some people still try to earn God’s grace?

One last time, let’s practice our verse together. You can repeat after me. “For it is by grace you have been saved,  - through faith – and this is not from yourselves, -  it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8 

*Music: "Forest" by Vlad Gulschenko