What do you think of when you hear the words grace and mercy? Are they synonyms in your mind, or do they mean something different?
A few weeks ago, I looked into these 2 words. While the words are similar, they are 2 very different words. Here are their brief definitions:
Mercy: Not getting what you deserve
Grace: Getting what you don’t deserve
Now let’s take a look at Titus 2: 11-12
“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age”
For starters, teach in this passage doesn’t mean to simply instruct or inform. The Greek word literally translates to ‘strike with a rod’. It isn’t some light suggestion of ‘hey, you should probably do this’. There is force behind this command. It is tied to disciplining.
And guess what?! Do you notice those last 4 words? Grace that leads us to upright and godly lives isn’t just for some day when we make it to heaven. It isn’t that sin defines our lives until we die and go to heaven. This grace is for the PRESENT AGE.
But nobody is free from sin, right? Well good thing we have grace. Good thing we have been given this incredible gift that we haven’t earned. The ability to resist temptation. The ability to do everything that God has called us into.
The Gospel isn’t just about God withholding wrath, but equally releasing grace for us to be able to do far more than we ever could in our own strength… and the whole point of that being to bring Him glory… to make Him known in the Earth.
It goes back to a blog I wrote a while back on identity. We have to get rid of the saying that is, ‘I’m just a sinner saved by grace’. Which one is it? Are you a sinner? Or have you been saved by grace? Which one are you going to let define you?
Because guess what? If you have been washed in the blood of Jesus, you are called a son or daughter of the most high King. It is the reason that Paul opens every epistle with dear saints or holy people. It is not ‘Dear sinners, stop sinning’. It is ‘Dear holy people, remember who you are. Choose freedom’.
Mercy came at the cross. Mercy was Jesus standing in our place… taking the full wrath of God upon Himself for our sake. Mercy was the Father not giving us what we deserve. But Grace. Grace is what was released in the resurrection and furthermore when Jesus gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is this gift that we don’t deserve that enables God to be actively involved in empowering believers to accomplish everything He has called them to.
The goal of the Christian life isn’t to just be pardoned for our sin. The goal is to glorify Him. To make Him known in the Earth. We need His help if our lives have any hope of ever glorifying Him. And that is the gift of the Holy Spirit through grace.
Side note: What does it even mean to glorify Him. Here is a simple definition: Glory is when a characteristic of God is revealed accurately.
The Father didn’t stop at just getting us out of prison. He didn’t just break the gates down and say figure it out. He broke the gates down, grabbed us by the hand, and invites us to walk with Him… for His excellence and glory… and for our GOOD.
Grace isn’t about getting you into heaven. Mercy alone could do that. Grace is about glorifying Him while on Earth.
By no means am I claiming to be perfect. What I am saying is that I think it is really easy to fall into the excuse of using the identity of being a sinner. We would rather tickle people’s ears with feel-good words, but the truth is that we actually have been given grace to walk in purity. Grace enables us to come out of what we call comfortable.
So, what is the pushback on this? The answer is Romans 7, right? Paul talks about this struggle where he does what he doesn’t want to, and he doesn’t do what he wants to. He is lamenting his own humanity.
But guess what? That entire rant is a set up. It all leads to Paul’s question in verse 24, ‘Who will rescue me from this body of death?’ Then comes verse 25, ‘Thanks be to God who delivers me through our Lord Jesus Christ’. And then we jump to the start of Romans 8 where we are told that therefore there is now no condemnation. We are told that we have been set free. We are told that we have access to what the law was powerless to do, through the gift of grace and Holy Spirit.
Context time again: Body of death wasn’t just some phrasing Paul used to describe his feeling. The phrase body of death was known to every single one of his readers. Body of death was a torture method that the Romans used. They would literally nail a dead body onto the person being tortured. This person would carry the weight of this corpse around for a few days. The corpse would start rotting. They had to live smelling this rotting body… there was this constant presence of death and decay. Eventually the person being tortured would die from infection, as the rotting would spread.
Paul isn’t just talking about temptations. He is painting the picture of a man who has been condemned to die. A man who is simply waiting for the death in that corpse to spread to him and kill him. Paul is crying out with the question of, ‘can anybody save me from this body of death?!’
And there is an answer. I thank God for Jesus.
God’s desire isn’t for us to just hide behind our shield of faith forever. Yes we are called to endure, but His desire is for us to walk in freedom through the gift of grace. The gift that gives us what we don’t deserve.
A man named John Newton wrote the song Amazing Grace. This man was not initially a pastor. He was an unbeliever and slave trader. He kidnapped, stole, raped, and pillaged. He was known for brutality. When he would sail through storms, he was known for literally cutting the arms off of his slaves to free them from their shackles and then throwing them overboard to lighten the ship. He was an absolutely brutal, vicious, violent man.
Then one day a storm came where John thought he was going to die. He barely survived. He later said that at least half a dozen times he should have died. The boat should have capsized, but it was like some invisible hand was holding the boat up.
In a moment, this brutal man who is opposed to everything that God stands for has a revelation of mercy and grace. That God would protect him despite being deserving of death in every way. John gave up his entire life and became a pastor. It is then that he writes this song amazing grace. It is a song of awe over the mercy of God, but also over the grace of God that ‘taught my heart to fear’, ‘relieved my fears’, ‘made me see’, etc.
God’s plan is grace. The Gospel isn’t just God’s amazing ability to ignore our sin. It is His furious, relentless passion to see us set FREE. To see us walking in an upright, godly life IN THE PRESENT AGE.
His grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9). That doesn’t mean, ‘if all you ever have is my mercy, you should be happy to settle for that’. It is God saying, ‘You. With all of your compromises and brokenness. I will finish what I started in your life. My grace is sufficient to set you FREE. And nothing can stand in the way… not your thorns or struggles… nothing’
Thanks be to God for both mercy and grace!
