Grace is talked about often in the Christian community. “We have God’s grace”, “God’s grace is upon us”, we hear these phrases often. But what does grace mean? What is grace? To have a firm foundation of faith, I believe we must have a firm understanding on what grace is, so let’s begin our study on grace.

In a general sense, “grace” is something that is given that is not deserved. Grace is not the same as mercy, however. Mercy is not getting something that we deserve. These two are often confused and they can be confused easily. But this time, we’re talking about grace and specifically, God’s grace. So how did God show us grace? That is what we are going to discover.

Titus 2:11-14 discusses grace. It reads, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” What was God’s grace? The grace of God was that He sent Jesus Christ our Savior to die for our salvation. That is the grace of God. He gave us something, a gift we did not deserve. And that gift was the hope of eternal life. What did we deserve? We deserved death according to Romans 6:23 which says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We deserve to die eternally for our sin, but the gift and grace of God allows us to have hope of eternal life as long as we remain faithful to Him. Grace is certainly a beautiful thing.

Another famous verse that comes to mind when thinking about grace is Ephesians 2:8 which says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,”. Paul is saying that if there was no grace, there would be no salvation. Why? Because the grace of God was the gift of salvation. Without the sacrifice of Jesus, there is no grace. But we must remember that grace alone does not save, it is by grace “through” our faith that also saves.

You may have heard the phrase, “God’s grace is enough”. Well, in terms of our weaknesses, God says it is sufficient for us. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 Paul writes, “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Where we are weak, his grace makes us strong. His power is perfect no matter where our weaknesses lie. No matter what sin we may struggle with, the grace of God makes us strong.

In conclusion, we don’t deserve eternal life. Because of our sin, we deserve death. But the grace of God gave us something we don’t deserve and that is eternal life. God’s grace is enough to overcome our weaknesses and without the grace of God, there would be no eternal life. But praise be to God that he has shown and continues to show us grace. James 4:6, “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.””