Foundation Series  – Episode 13 - What Grace is – Grace is an unearnable gift

[00:00:00] Hello, welcome to your daily Grace by Timothy Wilder Foundation Series Episode 13 what Grace Is Grace is an unearnable gift. [00:00:13] What if the thing you're trying hardest to earn is the one thing that can only be received? [00:00:18] Grace, by its very nature, cannot be earned. The moment we begin to attach effort, merit or performance to grace, we we quietly redefine it into something else entirely. What was once a gift becomes a transaction, and what was freely given becomes something to be achieved. [00:00:37] This is not a small theological nuance. It is a boundary that must remain clear. [00:00:43] Grace ceases to be grace the moment it is earned. The Apostle Paul speaks directly to this tension when he writes, and if by grace, then it cannot be based on works. If it were, grace would no longer be Grace. [00:00:58] 6 His words leave no middle ground. There is no hybrid system where grace and merit coexist as equal partners. [00:01:07] One cancels out the other. If even a fraction of our standing before God is rooted in our own performance, then grace has been displaced. This cuts against the instinct of the human heart. We naturally want to contribute something, to feel that we have in some way made ourselves worthy or. But Scripture consistently dismantles that idea. [00:01:31] Now, to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation. [00:01:36] However, to the one who does not work but trusts God, who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. [00:01:47] The contrast is striking. Wages are earned. Grace is given. They operate on entirely different principles. [00:01:55] Paul reinforces this again when he reminds us that our standing with God rests entirely outside of ourselves. [00:02:02] God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. [00:02:12] Our righteousness is not achieved, it is received. [00:02:15] It is not the result of our consistency, but the result of Christ's finished work. [00:02:21] Grace then does not come as a reward for effort. It comes as a rescue for the undeserving. It meets us not at the height of our spiritual achievement, but in the reality of our need. [00:02:34] 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. Ephesians 2:8 9. The purpose is clear. To remove every ground for boasting and to anchor our confidence entirely in what God has done. [00:02:55] And this truth doesn't just define how we begin the Christian life, it defines how we continue in it. We don't graduate from grace into self effort. So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him Colossians 2. 6 the same grace that saves is the grace that sustains. [00:03:16] This is the non negotiable boundary. Grace is either completely undeserved or it is no longer grace. [00:03:23] And in that truth lies both its offense and its beauty. It humbles us because we cannot earn it, but it also frees us because we no longer have to. [00:03:35] Thanks for listening. If you are being fed and or uplifted by these messages, we encourage you to like, comment, share and subscribe. [00:03:44] These things help us spread the message of grace.