What is saving grace?

The Bible tells us that we are all by nature sinful and separated from God.  The "seemingly" smallest sin we have committed demands from the One and Only altogether pure and Holy God - His judgment and eternal wrath.

The Bible tells us that our most righteous acts are as filthy rags before an all knowing and Holy God. So in short all men, are all by nature sinners, separated and condemned before almighty God.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) "For the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23); "But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God" (Isaiah 59:2).

Can God overlook anyone's sin? The answer in His Word is always "no", because if He did, He would not be a pure and Holy God. God is both holy and just, and is bound by His very nature to thus punish sin.

Yet He has told us that He is also Sovereign, and in that nature of His Sovereignty He has so decreed to save some people. We may ask "Is this unfair - do not all people really deserve to be saved"  The answer of course is "no one deserves to be saved"

Someone once said "God gives to most men what they most surely and richly deserve namely damnation while to others He gives the wholly unmerited gift of salvation - through the only Saviour Jesus Christ".

God saves these people not because there is or was, anything good, worthy or commendable in them at all, but rather they are just like all other people - sinners!

He saves them because He is sovereign and in this He also demonstrates His love.

So how can God condemn their sin yet pardon them in love and mercy? 

The Bible makes this matter abundantly clear from the very beginning to the end and especially in the verses below quoted from the Bible.

Romans 5:8-10 "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life".

The answer therefore is in the death of a perfect man, the God Man, His only Begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Who lived a perfect sinless life, he lived the life we should have lived.  He was executed on the cross, He died in our place, the Bible tells us that He took the place of those that would believe in Him. On the cross, He bore their sins.

In short nothing else, no other faith, no religion no religious act can save any person from the wrath of God concerning their own personal sin.

Jesus said In John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father (God) except through Me"

Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved”

"Jesus was delivered over to death for our sins" Romans 4:25

Some 700 years before Jesus Christ came to die and pay the penalty for the sins of those who would believe and put their trust in Him, the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament was moved by God's Holy Spirit to write and Prophesy these words concerning the Lord Jesus Christ's coming, and the result of His atoning death for sinners.

Isaiah 53:5-6
“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all”

This above prophetic verse shows the desperate condition of lost humanities state in sin and secondly God's gracious provision for sin.

Many details of Jesus Christ's death are foretold in the Old Testament, hundreds of years before His crucifixion in the New Testament. The Lord Jesus Christ is referred to as "the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world".Revelation 13:8.

Mental assent to these truths is one thing, but the Bible teaches that true belief will always be characterised by a repentant heart and a changed person. The Lord Jesus Christ said "But why do you call me Lord and do not do as I say"

The Bible clearly teaches that we must individually receive and follow the Lord Jesus Christ as both Lord and Saviour. As saviour we believe that He is the only way to God, heaven and eternal life. As Lord through His Word must have absolute authority over our lives.

"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name" (John 1:12); "if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved" (Rom. 10:9); "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8).

What should we do?

God says "Seek the LORD while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near."  Isaiah 55:6.

What If we do nothing?

John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
In short God will everlastingly punish and condemn sinners that have not trusted in Christ, as their only provision for their sin.

Dear reader do not give yourself rest until you have come to God through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. In praying to Him and acknowledging what His Word the Bible has to say and respond to Him in genuine repentance and faith, which is marked by trust and obedience to His Word.

Moreover please feel free to contact us by telephone, write to us or email us from the contacts page, we would be greatly encouraged to be able to point you to the Saviour.

In the work of the Lord Jesus Christ

Chalan Hetherington