Saved by Grace in God’s Love

In our society, we are taught that from an early age, we are to work hard and we’ll have success. According to God, His love cannot be earned.

Romans 3:23 NIV “ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

“Fall short”, means our works can never be good enough. Are we perfect like Him?

The good news? God’s love isn’t based on our performance.

He gave us Jesus Christ to die for our sin and He is all we need. We don’t have to have “good works” to be saved.

Galatians 2:16 NIV “know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.”

What does “justified” mean according to the Bible? “Simply put, to justify is to declare righteous. Justification is an act of God whereby He pronounces a sinner to be righteous because of that sinner’s faith in Christ.”  Got Questions.org

Our “good works” do not make us righteous, salvation through God’s Son Jesus Christ makes us righteous.

This is the reason why you don’t have to earn God’s love. We are going to break it down and look at it more closely:

• God Loved Us from the Beginning
• Jesus Christ is Our Righteousness
• God’s Love Never Ceases
• We are Forgiven
• Conclusion

God Loved Us from the Beginning

Romans 5:8 NIV “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

This verse tells us that God loved us so much He provided a way we could have fellowship with Him. It doesn’t say He loved us because of our “good works” because at the point of salvation, there are no good works.

Romans 3:10-12 NIV “As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

No one is righteous. We are all dead in our sin before we accept Jesus Christ as our salvation.

Ephesians 2:2-5 NIV “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”

We are saved by grace because God loved us so much He sent His Son to die for our sin, so we could have fellowship with Him both now and forever. Grace-justified by faith, not works.

Jesus Christ is Our Righteousness

1 Corinthians 5:20-21 NIV “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Jesus Christ is without sin, yet He died for our sin so we could have His righteousness. When God looks at Christians, He doesn’t see our sin, He sees Jesus Christ’s righteousness.

If we are depending on our works, we cannot have fellowship with God. We are not good enough.

Philippians 3:8-9 NIV “What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”

Paul didn’t care about what He lost for witnessing for His Savior, Jesus Christ. His faith was in Him, not works of the Law.

God’s Love Never Ceases

We all have moments when we sin, that we feel like God may not love us anymore. Remember, He loved you in spite of your sin. God’s love never goes away.

Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

God is unchanging. That covers every one of His attributes, including love. He will always love you. Nothing separates you from His love.

Romans 8:38-39 NIV “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We are Forgiven in Jesus Christ

Ephesians 1:7-8 NIV “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding,”

Not only are we redeemed and justified, we are forgiven.

Whenever I have wronged someone, their forgiveness is wonderful. It puts me at peace, because I love that person and want our relationship to be good.

Isn’t it great, that God Himself has forgiven us through what His Son, Jesus Christ did for us on the cross, and finished it with proof, His resurrection.

Conclusion

Trying to be “good enough” for God is the same as trying to earn His love. It just doesn’t work that way according to God’s Word.

Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God ^_ not by works, so that no one can boast.”

• By grace- Unmerited favor
• Through faith- Acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior
• Not from yourself- not by works, so no one can boast, it is God’s gift

Salvation is God’s loving gift to us-just accept it. You will have a peace you have never experienced.

This week, go over the verses in this lesson. For a deeper study, spend time looking up more verses about justification. Some Bibles have a concordance in the back where you can find a list of verses under different subjects. If yours doesn’t have one, go to Bible Study Tools. If you need help, please comment, I will be happy to.