The following Sunday School lesson was delivered earlier this month as a 2-part series on the grace of God.  

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I have been asked to speak this morning on the topic of the grace of God—a subject that is contained on nearly every page of Holy Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Indeed, this fundamental doctrine can be seen to have been demonstrated in the lives of God’s people since the creation of mankind in the Garden. One could discuss the myriad of ways in which God has demonstrated this undeserved merit so it is hard to narrow in on one specific aspect of grace for discussion. With that said, however, I believe the focus of grace for today’s lesson, in light of our recent studies in soteriology, should concentrate mainly upon grace as it relates to salvation. After all, grace is at the core of the gospel message and grace is what distinguishes Christianity from every other religion. In fact, I would submit to you that grace is the sum and substance of the gospel message. It is, at its core, the essence of the Christian faith.

If I were to ask you, "What is the chief difference between Christianity and every other religion?" You should be able to respond simply, "Grace". Every religion in the world—whether Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, or whatever other religion you can think of—preaches one simple concept: do, do, do. Granted, each of those religions will vary as to the details of what must be accomplished but they all are works-centric systems, whereas Christianity says there is nothing left to be done. There are no works left to be completed that can put a man in a righteous standing before God, because the only work that could satisfy God’s wrath has already been done in and through the life of Jesus Christ. Christianity is a religion of completion—there is nothing left to be done.

Because of this fundamental difference, it is important that we first properly understand the relationship between grace and salvation in order to get our theology right. If we do not understand that salvation is wholly of grace and our need for grace because of our natural condition then we cannot rightly comprehend what it is that God has done for us by grace.

Not only must we rightly comprehend what has been done for us, however, I would submit to you that it is essential we understand the apostolic message lest we adulterate the purity of the gospel. Remember that it was Paul who, after having taught the Galatians, was compelled to write to them and condemn them for "turning to another gospel". That is to say, there were some Judaizers who came into the church and were teaching that circumcision had to be added to the gospel message. How did Paul respond? He proclaimed the anathema—the curse of God upon all those who would dare overthrow the concept of free grace in salvation.

So as you can clearly see, it is vitally important that we understand what exactly the gospel message is and it is decidedly important that we get our theology right, lest we too fall under the anathema of Galatians 1.

Now I would further suggest to you that every religion can be classified by two categories: synergism and monergism. The former is simply a way of saying that man and God both work together to achieve a common goal, more specifically, the goal of salvation. God does His part; man likewise contributes, and together they achieve salvation. Standing at open variance with this idea is what is known as monergism. Monergism comes from the root, "mono—" meaning "one". And that "one" refers to God. That is, God alone awakens the spiritually dead, God alone regenerates, God alone removes the heart of stone and replaces it with a heart of flesh, and God alone preservers those whom He has called and justified and will ultimately glorify.

So it is of the utmost importance that we have a view of grace and justification that is monergistic—a view that is God honoring and does not leave room for one to boast, but more importantly, a view that is wholly biblical. We must carefully go through Scripture in order to ensure we embrace the biblical gospel and not hold to a message created by our own imaginations. It is important that we do not find ourselves on the wrong side of this issue, that is, on the side on which Paul’s readers found themselves. Let us, then, consider the importance of grace and how it relates to justification and why grace is even necessary for mankind...

to be continued...