Does Grace Cover Sin? Understanding what God’s grace is…

 

Does grace cover sin?  The grace of God has great power, but to the surprise of many and contrary to many teachings the power of God’s grace does NOT cover sin. Therefore, it is important for us to know what God’s grace is and what it is not.

Grace Is Not Mercy-

does grace cover sinMany confuse grace with mercy. They often use the words grace and mercy as if they are interchangeable. Indeed both words are found together in several passages of scripture but, they are not the same. I hear people say things like, “God’s grace will cover them” or “relax grace has you covered’. That is not what grace does.

Does Grace Cover Sin

Grace does not cover your sins. God’s grace empowers you so you won’t sin. “Where sin abounds grace much more abounds” (Romans 5:20)  This is not saying that when your caught in great sin there is enough grace to cover it. What it is saying is there is more than enough grace available for you to be able to resist the sin regardless of how strong the temptation.

If we sin, mess up, or miss it what we need is God’s mercy.  His mercy is always extended toward us as believers after we sin.  The blood of Jesus has made us white as snow.  I am very thankful for God’s mercy. I need His mercy and forgiveness. Lamentations tells us , “His mercies are new every morning.” In other words you can never run out of God’s mercy. Mercy can be defined as “not getting what you deserve”. We deserve God’s wrath and judgment because of our sins but, God who is rich in mercy does not execute His wrath and judgment on us – that is MERCY.

GRACE is what God gives us so we have the ability and power to do what is right, to resist temptation, overcome obstacles and to be able to live for Him and serve Him.  Grace can be defined as “getting what you do not deserve”. We deserve His judgment and wrath but instead we get His love, goodness, righteousness, ability, power and blessings none of which we deserve regardless of how “good” we think we’ve been. Wow – how amazing is grace!

Grace to Stand and Grace to Serve-

Ephesians 2:6-7 tells us, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”  Notice Paul describes God’s grace as – “INCOMPARABLE RICHES”. The value of God’s grace in our lives is immeasurable. Therefore, it is important that we understand what grace is and how to apply it in our lives.

God’s grace empowers us to be saved, to stand, and to serve Him.  Most of us know that we are saved “by grace through faith” (Ephesians 2:8) but, very few understand there is more of God’s grace available to them after being saved. You can have grace that empowers you to live the life God has for you and to serve Him. In other words after receiving God’s saving grace there is grace to stand (Romans 5:2), that is to live a holy & righteous life for God and a grace to serve Him with the gifts and abilities He has given you. (Romans 12:6 & Hebrews 12:28)  (Read my teaching on “How to get more grace” CLICK HERE)

Grace Is a Gift-

Grace is often defined as God’s “unmerited favor” that is because grace is a gift – you can not buy it, work for it, earn it or do you deserve it. Grace is God showing His love to you even though you don’t deserve it. God gives us grace which is His ability working in us to act on His Word. Grace is the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call. Grace is “favor”.  God favors us!.  However, we must respond to the grace given us and by faith move to action.

Put Grace in Action-

We have to put grace into action by faith. Faith means believing in our heart and acting on what God promises in His Word. For example He promised salvation to all who would believe in and call on the name of Jesus. God has given us the ability (grace) to receive that promise but we have to respond by believing in our heart and confessing with our mouth that Jesus is Lord. (Romans 10:9)

Hebrews 4:16 tells us, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” As believers we have access to the throne of God through Christ we can come boldly into His presence and receive more grace – grace to stand and grace to serve. God gives us more grace, His ability and power to live our life by faith, fulfilling purpose and being fruitful. Grace enables us to put the Word of God into action to be the salt and light He has called us to be. His grace also enables us to resist the works of the flesh and enforce the defeat of the devil. You are more than a conqueror through Jesus. Romans 8:37. That is GRACE.

God’s Grace is Sufficient-

Another definition for grace is an acronym God’s Riches At Christ Expense. Grace is available through Christ and through Him we receive God‘s riches. God’s grace is the key to overcoming trials and troubles and living the abundant life Jesus came to give us. No matter what your facing or going through His GRACE is sufficient. All you need for breakthrough and victory is God’s grace. 2 Corinthians 12: 19 says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness” Here is the reassurance that no matter what our circumstances, as we call upon God even in our weakest moment His grace is enough to sustain us and take us through.

The following analogy may help us to better understand God’s plan of grace…

Imagine not being able to make the payments on your house mortgage so, you go to see your banker.. He sympathizes with you and suggest ways to refinance, take a second job, sell some of your things, etc. – all good advice to help you get through on your own – but you leave the bank still with a big debt.

Now imagine going back to your bank the next day and the president says: “I have good news. Someone came into the bank after you left yesterday and paid off your mortgage in full. Even better, he left $10 million in your account to cover all your needs for the rest of your life!”

Now that is GOOD NEWS! That’s way beyond just sympathy and advice to help yourself.

Religions and religious people have all kinds of suggestions and advice … but Jesus is good news! He has paid the price in full for you so that you are free of all sin-debt. More than that, he has put in your account the full deposit of his own righteousness and power to enable you to live your life for Him.

That is God’s Grace.  Grace to save you and grace for the rest of your life as a follower of Christ. 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.