Anthem: Grace in Your StorySample

Defining Grace

No gift can compare to the gift God has given all creation—grace.

Grace is unmerited, or undeserved, favor from God. Grace is essential to who God is. It’s the free gift of salvation available to everyone.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

In the words of the Evangelist, Billy Graham, “God’s grace, quite simply, is God’s mercy and goodness towards us.” Grace has nothing to do with us and everything to do with God. He supplies it and we receive it.

In our world we’re taught that we have to earn, work toward, and deserve whatever it is we want. That’s why we slave away at our jobs, study through the night, hide our weaknesses, and prove ourselves to those around us. We feel that we have to earn and be deserving of the goal we’re chasing after.

God’s grace is the opposite. Christianity is the only religion that doesn’t say “do”, but “done.” We could work for the rest of our lives and try to be perfect enough to earn God’s favor, but we would never be good enough.

Jesus came and lived the perfect life in our place and died the death each of us deserves. His sacrifice on the cross invites anyone who puts their trust in His work to be made right with God. We can stop trying to earn God’s acceptance and love, and we can rest in the work Jesus did to secure it for us. That’s grace!

Once we’ve experienced the grace of God, it changes how we live. Grace does not require our efforts in order to receive it, but it does train us to say no to sin and live a Godly life (Titus 2:11-13). Grace also enables us to do good works:

“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:9).

Jesus saves us. His grace changes and frees us like nothing else can.