Articles
Grace and Obedience
Grace is a topic often discussed among those claiming to believe in the Bible. The Bible teaches grace is essential to our salvation from sin. Ephesians 2:4-9 says, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (NKJV). It is impossible for those who have sinned to be saved without God granting us grace and being willing to forgive our sins. We cannot do enough good things to outweigh even one sin we have committed against God. Doing everything God commands us to do does not pay off our sins because we were expected to keep God’s commandments anyway (Luke 17:10). Keeping God’s commandments does not earn us anything but is simply doing our duty.
While grace is a topic many people claiming to believe in the Bible talk about, obedience is a topic not many people who claim to believe the Bible want to talk about. Obedience, though, is a Bible topic and is just as essential to our salvation as God’s grace is. Hebrews 5:8-9 says of Jesus, “though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (NKJV). Jesus will only save those who obey Him according to this passage. It is dangerous to minimize the importance of grace in salvation but it is equally dangerous to minimize the importance of obedience in salvation.
Romans 5:1-2 tells about the results of being justified by faith. It says, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (NKJV). Access into God’s grace comes by faith. Faith which leads us justification is a faith accompanied by works of obedience (James 2:14-26). Therefore, a person can see how grace and obedience are connected in resulting in our salvation. Grace is essential to salvation but obedience from faith is the only way to access such grace.
Noah is a great example of an individual who was saved by God’s grace. Genesis 6:8 tells us, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (NKJV). Noah’s deliverance is attributed to God’s grace. Part of God’s grace included giving Noah instructions about what to do in order to be saved from the flood. Noah, then, had faith in God’s command which caused him to move and built the ark according to God’s instructions (Hebrews 11:7; Genesis 6:22). Just as Noah’s deliverance from the flood involved God’s grace as well as his faith and obedience, so it is with our salvation from sin. We are saved by God’s grace along with our faith and obedience.
Sometimes people want to think God’s grace will excuse continued disobedience to God’s commands. Romans 6:1-2 addresses this concept, saying, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (NKJV). Jude 4 addresses what might be a similar concept too, saying, “For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ” (NKJV). God’s grace clearly should not be used as an excuse to keep on sinning or as a license to sin. God’s grace instead should teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age (Titus 2:11-12). God’s grace is available to provide forgiveness when we sin as we comply with God’s laws of pardon but it should never be used as a reason to continue in rebellion to God’s law. A person who refuses to repent and seek God’s forgiveness through baptism for the non-Christian (Acts 2:38) or through prayer for the Christian (Acts 8:22) cannot think God’s grace will just somehow automatically cover their sin.
