What is the Grace of God and How Can You Enjoy It?
You may know from the Bible that we are “saved by grace”…and that’s right.
In fact, you’ve probably heard John Newton’s famous hymn, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.” But did you ever consider what this grace really is?
I’m afraid that many of us, were simply told that “grace is God’s unmerited favor.” And that is not entirely wrong for grace is definitely something unmerited. And this grace is surely God’s favor to us.
But is this all? Absolutely not.
“Unmerited favor” is not wrong, but it falls short of the complete revelation of grace found in the Bible.
So what is the grace of God revealed in the Bible?…
The grace of God is the Lord Jesus Himself.
The grace revealed in the Bible is the most wonderful Person—Jesus Christ Himself!
Let’s read John 1:14:
“And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.”
So grace is in Christ. Christ is the embodiment of God’s grace, being full of grace.
Verses 16-17 continue,
“For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.”
“Fullness” refers to content that overflows and is expressed. When a glass of water is filled to overflowing we can say that is its “fullness.”
In this same way, grace is Christ’s overflowing content. His fullness is grace upon grace—wave upon wave of grace. He is a cup overflowing with grace for us to receive and enjoy.
First, the grace of God came in God’s Son, Jesus Christ (v. 17).
The law had to be given because it was something lifeless and inanimate. But grace came because it is a living Person, Christ Himself. When Christ comes, grace comes.
Grace is God coming to us in His Son for our enjoyment.
If you have never done so, simply open your heart to the Lord Jesus and say,
“Lord Jesus, thank you for coming to me as grace so that I might receive Your overflowing fullness. Lord, I open to You. Come into me and fill me with Yourself right now.”
Second, the grace of God labored more abundantly (1 Cor. 15:10).
Don’t think that God intended you to live the Christian life by your own strength. Christ as your grace becomes our inner supply to live this life and to labor with the Lord.
This was the testimony of the apostle Paul that confirmed the reality of Christ’s resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15:10 he said,
“But by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace unto me did not turn out to be in vain, but, on the contrary, I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God which is with me.”
“Grace labored.” That is something only a living person can do. Paul said that he labored, but then he said it was, “not I but the grace of God which is with me.”
Paul could say this because Christ as grace was energizing him inwardly.
A note on this verse in the Recovery Version says,
“Not I but the grace of God equals no longer I…but…Christ in Gal. 2:20. The grace that motivated the apostle and operated in him was not some matter or some thing but a living person, the resurrected Christ, the embodiment of God the Father who became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, who dwelt in the apostle as his everything.”
So grace is actually the “resurrected Christ who became the life-giving Spirit” dwelling in us to be our moment by moment supply to live the Christian life.
Where can we find this grace?
Grace is with our spirit.
In Philippians 4:23, Paul said,
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”
Grace is with our spirit because Christ is with our spirit. From the moment we believed in the Lord Jesus and were born again His Spirit entered into our spirit to be our grace. 2 Timothy 4:22 confirms this,
“The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.”
Since the Lord is now with our spirit, the grace of God it there. Our spirit is the “filling station” and the divine “fuel” we need to live the Christian life is the grace of God.
This grace is nothing less than the resurrected Christ, the embodiment of God, who became a life-giving spirit, dwelling in our spirit to be our constant supply.
How then do we receive this grace?
Receive the grace of God by means of prayer and God’s word.
First, pray to come forward to the throne of grace
Real prayer is our coming forward to the throne of grace. It is our contacting the Christ who is now in our spirit to enjoy Him as grace. Hebrews 4:16 says,
“Let us therefore come forward with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help.”
We can come boldly to the Lord in our spirit by the blood of Jesus (Heb. 10:19). We don’t need to wait for anything. Call on the Lord. Apply the blood of Jesus and come forward boldly….regardless of how you feel.
Here is post to help you pray short prayers that usher you to the throne of grace starting first thing each morning.
Second, pray-read the Bible to feed on the Word of His grace.
Acts 20:32 says,
And now I commit you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who have been sanctified.
The best Bible reading is our coming to the Lord in the “word of His grace” to nourish ourselves that we may grow and be built up with the spirit and life contained in His word (John 6:63).
Here is post with some practical tips on how to pray-read God’s word to be spiritually nourished.
If you’ve been helped to know the Lord Jesus as the grace with your spirit and to receive grace by prayer and the word of God, I hope you’ll confirm with short comment.
References:
The verses quoted in this post were taken from New Testament Recovery Version, copyright by Living Stream Ministry. You can get a free copy from Bibles for America in the US. You can also read it online at online.recoveryversion.org.
Here are a couple hymns that support the point of this post:
Grace in its highest definition is God in the Son to be enjoyed by us and view lyrics
About Tom Smith
Hi. My name is Tom Smith. I'm the writer behind Holding to Truth in Love, and I love the Lord Jesus and His life-giving Word. Please feel free to send me an e-mail through the contact page if you have any questions. I hope you'd take a moment to subscribe to the Holding to Truth blog. Then you'll be sure not to miss a post. Thanks!
Amen!
I am really blessed by the revelation of the word of grace more grace and anointing
Sadly, many believers only understand grace to be “God’s unmerited favor.” However, such a partial understanding of grace misses the subjective point that grace is the most wonderful Person coming to us for our enjoyment (John 1:14-17). So the grace we receive from God is actually God Himself in Christ as the life-giving Spirit dispensing Himself into us to be our life, life supply and everything to us for our enjoyment (2 Cor. 13:14). The apostle Paul’s final words in 2 Tim. 4:22 make it so clear, “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.” The Lord Jesus who is now with our spirit IS the grace with us. So we simply need to come forward to Him Who is now in our spirit by calling on His name, praying, singing, thanking and praising. As we touch Him in our spirit in this way, we enjoy Him as our grace to live a normal Christian life (Heb. 4:16). What a grace!
Praise Him! The living Person of Christ comes to us as grace and dwells in us as grace. I am so thankful we can come forward to the throne of grace installed in our human spirit!
What a revelation to see that the throne of grace is the Lord Jesus who is now dwelling in our spirit! How wonderful it is to realize that we can receive and enjoy this grace as our divine supply simply by coming to the Lord in our spirit by calling on His name, praying to Him in our spirit and pray-reading His living word. Thank you for the confirming comment.
Amen. It requires a revelation to see that the throne of grace is the Lord Jesus, who is in our spirit. And we can come forward to Him at any time.
Samuel,
You are right. It requires revelation to see this.
Romans 3:24-25 say, “…Christ Jesus; Whom God set forth as a propitiation place through faith in His blood…” The conclusion of footnote 2 on verse 25 in the Holy Bible Recovery Version says, “Christ made propitiation for our sins (Heb. 2:17); hence, He has become that which propitiates, the propitiatory sacrifice, between us and God (1 John 2:2; 4:10), and He has also become the place, as typified by the lid of the Ark (Heb. 9:5), where we enjoy propitiation before God and where God gives grace to us.”
The propitiation place (mercy seat, KJV) is the lid of the Ark in the Holy of Holies, which is the throne of grace to us believers. Paul says clearly that God set forth Christ as such a place. He is the place where God can be propitious to us, where we can meet with God in peace and receive mercy and find grace for our timely help (Heb. 4:16).
How wonderful that such a Christ, as the throne of grace, is right within our spirit! Second Timothy 4:22 says plainly, “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.” We simply need to turn to our spirit, calling on His name, “Lord Jesus!” in this way we touch Him as our throne of grace and find grace for timely help.
(For a deeper appreciation for what I have just shared, I encourage you to follow the links to the referenced verses with their related footnotes.)
Thanks for your confirming comment and enjoy the grace with your spirit.
This was great reading! I wonder how many of us actually truly knows what Grace actually means? Thank God for revealing the meaning to you!
Pat, glad you enjoyed the post. What a blessing it is to know that the grace of God is a wonderful living Person who is now dwelling in our spirit for us to receive and enjoy, day by day, and even moment by moment. We thank Him for showing us the way to come to the throne of grace in our spirit by means of prayer and God’s Word. Thank you for your comment.
And people sharing and edifying in the body!
Thank you Tom for declaring to syber world that grace is God Himself. I recently had rotater cuff surgery and experienced the Lord as the all sufficient grace. He was my enjoyment. All grace, even multiplied grace, He is the super abounding grace when we are low He abounds. May the Lord continue to grace us until we become the New Jerusalem. Praise Him for His being grace to us, God enjoyed!
Hi Tom I was looking for the best defination of grace available on the internet and your blog hit the mark. John 1:14 shows that the word which was God John 1:1 is full of grace and reality. So God who became flesh, the Lord Jesus, is grace in bodily form. How wonderful that He is also the Spirit and with our spirit 1Thes. 5:23 to Him we are joined 1Cor.6:17 to enjoy all that He is. Thank you Tom for your blog. May many be blessed with grace and reality!
Joel, glad you enjoyed the post. May all the believers come to realize that grace is not just God’s unmerited favor. It is the Triune God Himself, in Christ (John 1:1-17), as the Spirit coming into us to be our enjoyment and supply (1 Cor. 15:10, 45) so that we may live Him for His expression (Phil. 1:19-21), the Body of Christ.
Hi Tom,
Thank you for your explanation on Grace. God bless you. My only concern is you stated that Christ Himself is grace and I seem not to be clear on this, because the bible does not explicitly make it clear that Jesus is grace but in Him is grace.
Mike, 2 Corinthians 13:14 says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Just as we know from 1 John 4:8 that “God is love,” we also need to realize that grace is Christ coming to us for our enjoyment.
In John 1:16-17 it says “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” This means that grace is personified. The law was inanimate so it was given. But grace is a Person, so grace came. Only a person can come.
In 2 Tim. 4:22 Paul said, “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.” These two are paired. The Lord with our spirit is grace with us. This is confirmed by a similar concluding word in Galatians 6:18 where Paul says “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.” So the “Lord with our spirit” in 2 Tim. 4:22 equals “the grace of Lord Jesus with our spirit” is Gal. 6:18. In our experience, when contact the Lord Jesus in our spirit, we enjoy grace with our spirit.
Another verse that tells us that grace is personified is 1 Cor. 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace unto me did not turn out to be in vain, but, on the contrary, I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God which is with me.” As John 1:17 said grace came, 1 Cor. 15:10 says that grace labored. In this verse Paul said, “not I but the grace. However, in Gal. 2:20 he said, “not I but Christ.” “Not I but Christ” equals “not I but the Christ.”
Simply come to Him by praying and calling on His name and you will realize that the very One on Whom you call is the grace to supply you to live the Christian life. Just check with your practice and you will realize from experience that it is really so.
Hope this helps. Thanks for sharing your comment.