It really is a worthwhile question to ponder, reflect on and answer, “What are you going to do with your new found freedom?” Knowing our deep need for the ugliness of the cross and God’s great love towards us should compel us to worship God and serve others, which was Paul’s reasoning behind his plea in his letter to the Romans:
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:1-2, The Message)
Through our obedience we no longer say, “Please approve of me” but “I love You” to the One who calls us in spite of ourselves, His beloved. Then when we abuse, misuse, waste, and trash His grace, as well as rebel, disobey and just flat out blow it, He responds with “I understand you’re human, but I am the I AM. Remember you love Me because I am absolutely crazy about you.” That is the message of God’s love, called grace and where our journey begins as we learn “how to walk in that grace” through the questions and answers of this book.
It was not our intention to provide theological discourse, but practical, Biblical answers. Imagine yourself having a chat with a friend over a cup of coffee or tea at a table about what it means to”Live in Grace.” We may even repeat ourselves, Heaven forbid, in some of our answers. Each question was treated as a completely separate question, apart from the rest, so that if someone is asking a particular question, they have a complete answer available. Our hope is that this serves as a valuable resource, providing to the point answers to some tough questions.
The answers may even seem incomplete; perhaps we have done that for a reason. Remember these are table top answers and often one in a table top conversation only has enough time to give a quick answer.
There may be questions that should have been included, so some would feel. Volumes have been written on most of these questions. We recognize we just barely skim the surface because “we are foolish half-hearted creatures, much more content to play with mud pies” (paraphrased from The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis).
Our answers may be attacked by greater minds than ours for not being critical enough, deep enough, thoughtful enough, correct enough or even scriptural enough. Yet, these are the answers we often give when asked these very questions. At the end of the booklet, we include a resource section with a list of books, blogs, podcasts and authors that we recommend. We encourage you to dig deeper into these resources as you move further on your journey.
We pray that this would not serve as the be all and end all, but rather the beginning of discourse, thought, discussion and inspiration to seek out deeper, better, more qualified answers as you walk this journey. For it is God’s desire that you not only help increase your own personal faith but also be prepared to have an answer for every man that asks you about the hope you have in Christ (1 Peter 3:15).
Do not be surprised to find that our answers do not suffice or contradict what you see in Scripture. We are OK with that. Author Brennan Manning once said we are “only pilgrims who may or may not have answers to give and who may or may not be further ahead, for we are only pilgrims, just like you.”
We close this introduction with a refrain from William Newell’s beautiful hymn. And if you find you have further questions, please feel free to contact us at [email protected].
Mercy there was great, and grace was free;
Pardon there was multiplied to me;
There my burdened soul found liberty, at Calvary.
Questions and Answers
What is Grace?
God has many qualities and gifts, but of all His qualities none express His character or does He have a better gift than His grace. All grace originates with God. Grace can be classified into two main categories. These categories are often classified as common grace and special or what we might refer to as transforming, saving grace. Common grace is that which everyone experiences whether they believe in it or not. Common grace is not relevant to us placing faith in it or even believing in God to experience it. It is God at work in the very world around us as we live in our day to day lives. It reveals God’s character in the very beauty, function and existence of every living thing. Yet, it is not only in every living thing. It is in the sunshine, in rainstorms, in the laughter we hear, the health we enjoy, the food we eat, friends and family. It is what meets our needs, answers our prayers, opens the doors of opportunity, employment and closes those same doors (Jeremiah 14:22, Matthew 5:44-45, Acts 14:16-17). It is in His common grace where we see God actively working to control every molecule. A god who did not control every molecule would never be big enough to be worshipped (1 Samuel 2:6, 1 Chronicles 29:11-12, Job 12:23, Job 42:2, Psalms115:3, Isaiah 46:9-10, Ecclesiastes 7:13-14, Isaiah 45:7, Daniel 2:21, Acts 17:24-28). If He did not control every molecule then He could also never offer transforming, saving grace. The Bible is full of God’s common grace but it is also full of God’s transforming, saving grace which is always given freely to all men. This is grace (favor) that saves man from the wrath of God and His need for justice. We never deserve it or are we worthy of it. It is given so that everyone might be in a relationship with Him and know Him (Nehemiah 9:17, Psalms 78:38, Jonah 4:1-2, 1 Pet. 1:10-12). God never changes and every good and perfect gift comes from Him (James 1:17).
Before the first man was ever created, God set a plan in existence (Acts 2:23, Ephesians 1:4). A plan to show first His character and glory, and second His love towards His creation, US. This is the purpose of the Bible, tell who God is, how we relate to God, what the blueprint is and about the One who would bring the blueprint to completion. It is a story telling not ours (it involves us), but God’s. That is why it is an error when it is said that there is a different God in the Old Testament than there is in the New Testament, or that grace does not exist in the Old Testament part of the Bible. It is through this story that we see man choosing to alienate himself and as a result end up being an enemy of God (Colossians 1:21). We see this in the story of Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:4-3:24) choosing not to listen to God, but instead choosing to become best friends with God’s enemy and serve themselves (Ephesians 2:2-3). Yet, it is also the story of how God desired to show His glory, mercy and love but most of all His grace (favor) to those He created to be His excellent ones (Psalms 16:3). It is the story of how He chased them, redeemed them and as a result restored His relationship with them, through His grace (Colossians 1:23).
It is in this story we find God’s greatest gift, the gift of His transforming, saving grace first being given to man, through Jesus Christ. It is here where we find the words of Paul in Romans 5:6-11 come alive,
Christ died for us at a time when we were helpless and sinful. No one is really willing to die for an honest person, though someone might be willing to die for a truly good person. But God showed how much he loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinful. But there is more! Now that God has accepted us because Christ sacrificed his life’s blood, we will also be kept safe from God’s anger. Even when we were God’s enemies, he made peace with us, because his Son died for us. Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by his Son’s life. And in addition to everything else, we are happy because God sent our Lord Jesus Christ to make peace with us.” Paul would simply express this to Titus as “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people (Titus 2:11).
God does not just stop with His transforming, saving grace in bringing us back to a relationship with Him. No, He continues with His transforming grace in what some call His “securing grace.” This is the grace that keeps us in this relationship of which He started (Philippians 1:6). We do not just come to Him through grace, but we are kept and move forward in His grace (Galatians 3:2-3). This is why we can know without a shadow of a doubt that through His securing grace we have eternal