The Centrality of Grace: A Meditation on Being Rooted in the Gospel

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:23-24). 

When we say that the gospel of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, is the beating heart of our faith, we’re making the same claim about grace. It’s grace that caused God to send his Son, give his Son, raise his Son, and send the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. Our salvation and our growth begin, continue, and end in grace. It’s all a free gift. 

The stubborn centrality of grace in the Christian life often feels alien to us. This isn’t surprising. Often, grace isn’t our normal, everyday experience. Many of the situations, obligations, environments, and even encounters we have with others lack grace. I think this is why the centrality of grace often leads to anxiety and confusion in the Church. Let’s deal with three examples. 

First, some Christians understand grace as a license or permission. This issue isn’t new. Right after Paul proclaimed the grace of God in his epistle to the Romans, he anticipated a few questions he had likely heard before:

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1)

“What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?” (Romans 6:15) 

To both of these questions, Paul gives a loud “NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT!” But I want you to notice what Paul says next. In response to both questions, Paul reminds believers of the grace given to them in Christ. Paul reminds them of their baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He points them back to the living union they have with Jesus through faith. Paul steps in front of potential grace abusers and says, “Nope, you can’t do that, because you belong to Jesus Christ” (see Romans 6:2-17). Rather than withdraw grace or lessen grace, Paul destroys any idea of grace as license or permission by pressing deeper into grace.

“For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14).

Second, some Christians get nervous about grace. “We can’t talk about grace too much, or people will stop trying. Grace is important, but we need to emphasize obedience.” The idea here is that badgering people with the law will make them into better people. True, micromanaging people with the law can make them temporarily compliant and outwardly obedient. However, this obedience is shallow. It hasn’t reached the heart. And once the law is removed, disobedience will often assert itself in surprising ways. We need changed hearts, and only grace can accomplish this. The grace of the Holy Spirit is the only force that can make willing people out of unwilling people.

Now, it is true that we need to hear the law. The law is God’s will for his creation, and ignoring it will wreak havoc in our lives and our neighbors’. The law is also necessary because it functions like a wrecking ball, demolishing our prideful, hypocritical obedience and our rebellious disobedience. The law functions like a bulldozer that plows through our thick, obstinate hearts so that grace can enter to captivate and heal. The law functions like a loving parent who yells at a young child, “Stop! Don’t run into the street!” This voice has the power to both stop the child from danger and communicate a loving boundary. But a good parent won’t be satisfied with stopping the child from running into the street. A loving parent will then scoop up the scared and tearful child, embrace him, and say, “I love you. You’re safe.” This embrace, this tender voice of reassurance—this is the gospel.

Now, imagine telling a parent, “You know, you shouldn’t hug your kids or speak kindly to them, or they might stop trying. They might abuse your love and be disobedient.” That’s exactly the problem with Christians saying, “We can’t talk about grace too much, or people will stop trying.” Yes, the law shows us boundaries and consequences. And yes, the old Adam and old Eve must hear the law. But it’s only grace that has the power to make us into new people who trust and love God. So, we really can’t proclaim grace too much. And we can’t put limits on grace. As I once heard a pastor observe, “If your church has a sin problem, it has a grace problem.” In other words, our sin issues always come down to a misunderstanding of grace—both what grace is and how deep it is for each of us.

Third, some Christians think that grace and the law are mutually exclusive, or that focusing on grace means the law has nothing more to say to us, or very little to say. “Let’s not focus on the law, let’s just focus on grace.” We likely suffer from this “law versus grace” mindset if we find ourselves avoiding certain passages of Scripture that make us feel bad about our life choices or the life choices of others. However, let’s remember that the same God who wrote the law into creation, onto our hearts, and on stone tablets is the same God who gave his Son for us and freely justifies us by grace through faith.

Here’s the thing: the more deeply rooted we are in grace, the more we’ll be able to hear the law, agree with it, and even love it. As Christians, we are no longer under the law; we are under Christ. We are no longer under the law’s threats, accusations, and condemnation. We can listen to what it’s saying because it’s no longer an enemy to fear or flee, but a gift we cherish and keep for the sake of our neighbor’s well-being. In Christ and under his grace, we know that the law was not given by a fun-hating tyrant. No, the law is simply the will of a loving Father for his creation. The law shows us what it looks like to love God and others. And the fact that we fall short of the law’s high standards every day does not invalidate its truth. 

Perhaps an illustration will help. We could say that in Christ, the law becomes like a man-eating tiger at the zoo. In the wild, that tiger would eat us alive. We should be afraid! Likewise, apart from Christ, the law will eat us alive. After all, “the law brings wrath” (Romans 4:15). But in the zoo, we can observe the tiger behind the glass with wonder and awe. Likewise, to be in Christ is to be safe behind the thick, impenetrable glass of the gospel. We can listen to the law, agree with the law, and love the law, even when it tells us the worst about ourselves, because we are safe in Christ. Or, as Paul says in Romans 3:31:Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

We uphold the law. We won’t hide the law from ourselves or others. We don’t explain the law away, water it down, or soften its sharp edges. We let it stand, we uphold it, and we receive it as God’s good will for his creation. We uphold the law because, by the grace of God, we are no longer under its curse and condemnation. We are now free and empowered by grace not only to fulfill the law but also to go beyond it when love for neighbor calls us to do so. 

So, friends, as we walk this road of maturity together, let’s remember that we can’t receive too much grace or give too much grace. We receive “grace upon grace”—grace without limit!—in the gift of God’s Son, and we share that same grace with one another as we bear one another’s burdens and forgive seventy times seven.