“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind but now I see”.
It would be hard to find a believer anywhere in the world who has not heard these famous words written by John Newton in 1779. We know them well, and many of us have sung them dozens of times. But do we understand and believe them?
If we stick with the standard idea of God’s grace as “undeserved favor,” such favor is sweet and saving. It is not deserved or earned since we are lost wretches by our own sin and path. The song reads like God found us. His grace reached even you and me.
I think we can get uncomfortable with that idea, and it can be misapplied to say God does all the searching, finding, and doing. However, the language here can be a benefit to us. It keeps us from this image of our own ability, wit, and strength to navigate the jungle like Indiana Jones, seeking the treasure on our own, and grasping it by a clever sleight of hand. God is at work. In fact, He’s been at work from before the foundation of the world to reach you by grace in His beloved Son.
What has God done for us, by His grace and goodness, before we were even born?
First, He made us. He made everything and put man upon this earth with an eternal spirit residing in each one of us. He then surrounded us with a world that fit our needs and gave us purpose and joy. It did not take long for man to let Satan and sin tarnish the creative grace of God. But in that moment, God promised a Savior would come to free us from that sin and restore peace between man and God.
This redemptive grace was shown by telescoping the coming of His Son in Old Testament times for 1500 years. Then He sent His only begotten and precious Son to teach of a kingdom of eternal victory, and then die at the hands of sinful men to ratify the redemptive covenant of that kingdom. That kingdom has endured for 2,000 years and, as a related act of God’s grace, is known through the delivered and preserved Word of God we have today.
We must observe that these gracious restoration acts predate our birth and faith. When you come to a point of sin, it is by God’s matchless grace that all of this has been done to draw your attention to Him: You exist in a fitting world. You have a Savior who gave His life to place salvation right before you, and you have Scripture to perfectly relate the Gospel of God to you.
Oh, how far God has gone to save us! This is where the book of Acts and the New Testament epistles pick up with the story of grace. Not just that we exist (Creative Grace) and that Jesus died to make cleansing possible (Redemptive Grace), but that we can hear, believe, and respond to that Gospel and enter a saving relationship with God! We must allow the goodness of God to soften our hearts. We must be in awe of all God has done. And we must respond to the offering of the greatest fulfillment of grace, the right to be called children of God.
I like to call this Familial Grace- the actual receiving of forgiveness of sins when we are born again through baptism into the family of God. All God has done to draw and call you is incomplete until you are added by His grace into His family. We are called to action, but not action of merit- action of awe.
That you and I can be forgiven, added, protected, and utilized in the family of God with Christ… oh, what an amazing thought! And so, we repent and are baptized because of God’s gracious offering and call to stand within the grace of Christ’s majesty, He being our sacrificial Lamb and protective King.
Salvation is God’s design, His investment and gift to us. There is no room for personal boasting or elevating ourselves over others. We only thrive because of all God has done, and is willing to do, for us in Jesus Christ. In my experience, most Christians get this. I rarely encounter someone who thinks they are better than others or that they’ve earned something by the special way they proved their love for God. No one boasts in the perfect score dive they made into the water. But a deviation from this passage does sometimes show up in a different, but related way.
We know none of what is possible, or takes place, or will forever be as a result of our works. But we often live like our salvation is proportionately tethered to them. And because our works are never perfected, and we often struggle with stumbles, our confidence that heaven is assured is all too often shaken. In other words, our weakness doesn’t show up by boasting in our works as often as it does by a lack of security because of weaknesses in our works. “If I keep messing up, how can I ever know that I am saved?”
This is still the same problem as boasting: it connects our confidence in heaven to the level of our performance!
Relax. We aren’t saying works are unimportant. After all, the need to initially repent and be baptized came straight from the mouth of Jesus. And the plan of God to continue in the good works of God shows up right after our text in Ephesians 2:10. But all too often, the proof that we will be in heaven becomes a list of the things you and I did and are doing correctly. It starts to sound like our confidence is in ourselves.
This never works because we all know we are not perfect. Most of us can admit that even our local churches may end up learning they’ve missed some marks. So, we can find ourselves living in a constant form of fear. Not a healthy fear of life without God if we abandon Him, but an unhealthy fear of feeling like that may already be the case since we aren’t good enough.
Here's the good news: The grace of God!
The proof we need to know we are saved is found in Him; in all He has done before the world was founded to show His love for you.
In all He did through Christ in His life here and on the cross, emerging victorious from the grave.
In the Word that has been preserved to find our faith, life purpose, and direction.
In the grace fully realized when we emerge from the water into the family of God.
We are adopted. We are sealed. We are made to be His. At some point, a lack of confidence in salvation for those who believe in Jesus reflects an incomplete belief in Him and His grace.
All this begs an important question: Won’t people take this to mean their works don’t matter? Once baptized, are you saying all you must do is rejoice in His grace, and you will be saved no matter what?
Of course not.
Paul addressed that clearly in Romans 6:1-2. He speaks of those who might continue in sin that grace may abound. “May it never be! How shall we who have died to sin still live in it!” His emphatic response to the question links to an incredibly powerful and transformative idea: God has freed us from sin and united us with His Son.
The greatest and most gracious gift of all eternity, prepared from before the foundations of the earth, has been realized. God has added me as a part of His family, freeing me from sin and making me alive in Christ. How in the world could I ever go back to sin?
This is how it should be for us. We are to be so floored by the creative, redemptive, and familial grace of God that He is the only choice for our lives. He is the One who authored our lives and the script for our blessed journey from sin to salvation to eternity.
Can someone fall away from this grace? Yes. It has happened and will continue to happen for a variety of reasons. But let’s eliminate two reasons that happen all too often.
One- Living without a proper sense of gratitude for all God has done. Every single morning, we should praise the glory of His grace and see the lavishing of that grace in our lives, sustaining and repurposing us throughout the day.
Two- Living to honor Him, but also feeling like we must prove our right to be His. The idea that our works must start earning grace has left churchgoers insecure, discouraged, and too often prone to give up. We live in fear we aren’t good enough, which is wild because we in fact, are NOT good enough.
And He saved us anyway, by faith in Christ. What He demands is trust in Him, and that we do the best we can to love Him and keep His commandments. His own Son is a constant advocate to render us forgiven when we confess our sins, and He does this without limits.
How powerful is the grace of God in your life? How incredible are the sacrifices He has made, the patience He has extended for you, and the unending desire to forgive and bless you? Is it powerful enough to shape your entire life?
Paul wrote these words to Titus:
How good is God’s offer in your heart? He has brought salvation to you and made it so easily accessible by faith in His Son. Most would say, “It’s so good.” But what does it look like to live that gratitude? It looks like denial of the sin from which He has freed you and a life devoted to holiness in His honor.
Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound.