December 11th, 2025
The Christmas season is in full swing, and the grace of God has been on my heart, as it is the heart of Christmas. 2 Timothy 1:9 says that God “saved us and called us to a holy calling not because of our works, but because of His own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.”
Jesus Christ coming to earth as a baby, living as a man, and dying on the cross in our place is the completion of God’s salvation, but the Father’s heart has always been redemption. Many doctrines teach that Jesus brought grace to counteract the anger of the Father, but that’s not true. To misunderstand God’s grace is to misunderstand the heart of God Himself.
The Greek word most often translated “grace” in the New Testament is used roughly 155 times, and means “grace, unearned favor, kindness, goodwill, blessing.” One particular word study says this about grace: “xáris (grace) answers directly to the Hebrew (Old Testament) word chanan (grace, extension-toward). Both refer to God freely extending Himself, reaching (inclining) to people because He is disposed to bless (be near) them. Put simply, grace, in both the Old and New Testament, is God extending Himself to us because He wants to. It’s His undeserved goodness in our lives! This week, I have seen some things about grace I had never seen before, and I want to share them with you through Scripture:
1. Our salvation and inheritance are received by grace alone. There is nothing we could ever accomplish that would make us worthy of what God has freely given. There is no work we could ever do that could earn His goodness or favor. Every work that we accomplish must come from grace.
Romans 4:16 says,
“Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring…”
Romans 5:2 says,
“Through [Jesus] we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
Romans 5:17 says,
“For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 2:4-9 says,
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 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.”
I know that is a lot of Scripture, but I encourage you to read each verse, slowly. Don’t exhaust yourself doing things God never asked you to do or working to receive something He’s already given. He’s waiting for you to come live in the abundance of His goodness, to stand in His grace, through faith alone.
2. We can grow in the grace of God.
Luke 2:52 says,
“Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor (or grace) with God and man.”
Jesus was full of grace and truth (John 1:14), but He still grew in that grace when He walked the earth. It doesn’t mean God’s love or favor toward Jesus ever wavered, but the measure of the Father’s grace operating in and through Jesus grew throughout His life! If Jesus can grow in grace, so can we.
3. Earthly wisdom contradicts the grace of God.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1:12:
“For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God…”
You cannot live according to earthly wisdom and God’s grace at the same time. God’s undeserved grace contradicts the world’s logic, wisdom, and systems. It doesn’t make sense that Jesus would give His life for the unworthy, but He did.
2 Corinthians 8:9 says,
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich.”
Ephesians 1:7 says,
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace…”
Hebrews 2:9 says,
“But we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.”
4. God’s grace can be wasted in our lives. This is a sad and sobering truth, but the Word of God makes it clear.
2 Corinthians 6:1 says,
“Working together with Him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.”
Galatians 2:21 says,
“I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”
We have to choose to lay down our selfish efforts, our ideas, and our control, and surrender to the grace of God. We have to learn to stand, live, and grow in the favor He’s given us! It’s only in that place that we will find victory!
5. God’s grace gives us strength. It’s His goodness operating in our lives, because of His character and love, not because of anything we’ve done to deserve it.
2 Timothy 2:1 says to “be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus…”
6. God’s grace is intended to touch every area of our lives.
2 Corinthians 9:8 says,
“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.”
7. The final thought I want to share is the one that captured my heart most profoundly, this week: God’s grace trains us to be like Jesus.
Titus 2:11-12 says,
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age…”
I have read this verse many times and never seen this truth. The grace of God isn’t just His gift of salvation, but His gift of constant training in righteousness. Read the verse again. Grace teaches us how not to live and how to live—how to “renounce ungodliness,” and how to “live godly lives.” It’s grace that does that! When you are saved, you are washed completely clean by the blood of Jesus, but you are not immediately mature. There is a renewing, training, and growing that must take place in all of our lives, for all of our lives. Grace is often taught as though it contradicts God’s law, but the word train in the Scripture above means “to instruct, to discipline, to correct and to punish.” It is God’s grace—through His law, His Word, Jesus Christ Himself, and every word of Scripture He’s written down for us—that allows us to walk and grow in holiness and righteousness. The same word used for “train” in Titus 2:12 is also translated “discipline” in Hebrews 12:6 which says,
“For the Lord disciplines the one He loves and chastises every son whom He receives.”
God’s grace is not separate from His discipline, because His discipline and His instruction are His love. As we said earlier, God’s grace, in both the Old and New Testament, refers to God extending Himself to us because He wants to. It’s His extended love in choosing to forgive us; adopt us into His family; cleanse us by His own Son’s blood; robe us in His own righteousness; teach us how to live; and allow us to share in what we could never earn. To misunderstand God’s grace is to misunderstand His heart. He’s a good, good Father and He has extended His grace to you today. Will you receive it? Will you walk in favor you don’t deserve because the God of heaven loves you more than you’ll ever know? Will you receive His love and instruction and discipline, when necessary, because He’s made you His own child? Will you learn to stand and be strengthened in His undeserved goodness? How He loves us!
As A. W. Tozer said,
“From God’s being and nature, love flows out unceasingly in an infinite number of ways, and grace is one of the ways in which His love has been manifested to us.”
Jesus Christ coming to earth as a baby, living as a man, and dying on the cross in our place is the completion of God’s salvation, but the Father’s heart has always been redemption. Many doctrines teach that Jesus brought grace to counteract the anger of the Father, but that’s not true. To misunderstand God’s grace is to misunderstand the heart of God Himself.
The Greek word most often translated “grace” in the New Testament is used roughly 155 times, and means “grace, unearned favor, kindness, goodwill, blessing.” One particular word study says this about grace: “xáris (grace) answers directly to the Hebrew (Old Testament) word chanan (grace, extension-toward). Both refer to God freely extending Himself, reaching (inclining) to people because He is disposed to bless (be near) them. Put simply, grace, in both the Old and New Testament, is God extending Himself to us because He wants to. It’s His undeserved goodness in our lives! This week, I have seen some things about grace I had never seen before, and I want to share them with you through Scripture:
1. Our salvation and inheritance are received by grace alone. There is nothing we could ever accomplish that would make us worthy of what God has freely given. There is no work we could ever do that could earn His goodness or favor. Every work that we accomplish must come from grace.
Romans 4:16 says,
“Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring…”
Romans 5:2 says,
“Through [Jesus] we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
Romans 5:17 says,
“For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 2:4-9 says,
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 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.”
I know that is a lot of Scripture, but I encourage you to read each verse, slowly. Don’t exhaust yourself doing things God never asked you to do or working to receive something He’s already given. He’s waiting for you to come live in the abundance of His goodness, to stand in His grace, through faith alone.
2. We can grow in the grace of God.
Luke 2:52 says,
“Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor (or grace) with God and man.”
Jesus was full of grace and truth (John 1:14), but He still grew in that grace when He walked the earth. It doesn’t mean God’s love or favor toward Jesus ever wavered, but the measure of the Father’s grace operating in and through Jesus grew throughout His life! If Jesus can grow in grace, so can we.
3. Earthly wisdom contradicts the grace of God.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1:12:
“For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God…”
You cannot live according to earthly wisdom and God’s grace at the same time. God’s undeserved grace contradicts the world’s logic, wisdom, and systems. It doesn’t make sense that Jesus would give His life for the unworthy, but He did.
2 Corinthians 8:9 says,
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich.”
Ephesians 1:7 says,
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace…”
Hebrews 2:9 says,
“But we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.”
4. God’s grace can be wasted in our lives. This is a sad and sobering truth, but the Word of God makes it clear.
2 Corinthians 6:1 says,
“Working together with Him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.”
Galatians 2:21 says,
“I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”
We have to choose to lay down our selfish efforts, our ideas, and our control, and surrender to the grace of God. We have to learn to stand, live, and grow in the favor He’s given us! It’s only in that place that we will find victory!
5. God’s grace gives us strength. It’s His goodness operating in our lives, because of His character and love, not because of anything we’ve done to deserve it.
2 Timothy 2:1 says to “be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus…”
6. God’s grace is intended to touch every area of our lives.
2 Corinthians 9:8 says,
“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.”
7. The final thought I want to share is the one that captured my heart most profoundly, this week: God’s grace trains us to be like Jesus.
Titus 2:11-12 says,
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age…”
I have read this verse many times and never seen this truth. The grace of God isn’t just His gift of salvation, but His gift of constant training in righteousness. Read the verse again. Grace teaches us how not to live and how to live—how to “renounce ungodliness,” and how to “live godly lives.” It’s grace that does that! When you are saved, you are washed completely clean by the blood of Jesus, but you are not immediately mature. There is a renewing, training, and growing that must take place in all of our lives, for all of our lives. Grace is often taught as though it contradicts God’s law, but the word train in the Scripture above means “to instruct, to discipline, to correct and to punish.” It is God’s grace—through His law, His Word, Jesus Christ Himself, and every word of Scripture He’s written down for us—that allows us to walk and grow in holiness and righteousness. The same word used for “train” in Titus 2:12 is also translated “discipline” in Hebrews 12:6 which says,
“For the Lord disciplines the one He loves and chastises every son whom He receives.”
God’s grace is not separate from His discipline, because His discipline and His instruction are His love. As we said earlier, God’s grace, in both the Old and New Testament, refers to God extending Himself to us because He wants to. It’s His extended love in choosing to forgive us; adopt us into His family; cleanse us by His own Son’s blood; robe us in His own righteousness; teach us how to live; and allow us to share in what we could never earn. To misunderstand God’s grace is to misunderstand His heart. He’s a good, good Father and He has extended His grace to you today. Will you receive it? Will you walk in favor you don’t deserve because the God of heaven loves you more than you’ll ever know? Will you receive His love and instruction and discipline, when necessary, because He’s made you His own child? Will you learn to stand and be strengthened in His undeserved goodness? How He loves us!
As A. W. Tozer said,
“From God’s being and nature, love flows out unceasingly in an infinite number of ways, and grace is one of the ways in which His love has been manifested to us.”
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