What Everyone Should Know About Being Saved!

When "Grace Is No More Grace"

Chapter Eight

When "Grace Is No More Grace"

"Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. 

But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work." Romans 11:5, 6 

There is a "grace movement" today that ignores Paul's application here of "grace" to "election," wrests it from its context and applies "grace" to the entire Christian life. They allege that God accepts the sinner unconditionally in Jesus. They tell sinners that though their sins are as "scarlet" they shall be as "white as snow" (Isaiah 1:18). Then going further, they say if God can remove sin easily when the sinner accepts Christ, God can continue to do so. Hence, the sins of Christians after their acceptance of Christ are no problem for God.

One does not make an instantaneous change from a life of sin to a life of holiness. First, the sinner must repent of his sins and sinful condition. Second, he must be converted or turn from practicing or sympathizing with sin. Third, he must reform and remake his lifestyle from sin to seeking to feed upon the Lord's word. Fourth, this must lead to discipleship or consecration to do the will of God. These four steps may be made quickly or they may take weeks, months or years to bring about the condition of heart needed before God will grant justification by faith in the sacrifice of Christ. 

God receives those who come to him through Jesus unconditionally only after the sinner has repented of sin, converted, reformed his heart and mind and finally consecrates to be a disciple of Christ. To assume that God accepts the sinner while still living a life of sin would be a mistake. The whole purpose in God's election and grace is not to sustain sinners. No one needs God's grace to sin. Sin comes naturally to sinners. Even after one receives God's grace, Paul exhorts, "We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain" (2 Corinthians 6:1). Grace received from God that does not draw the Christian to God is "grace received in vain." 

The "election of grace" is not of works. God did not choose or elect anyone to be drawn to his son because his or her works met God's approval. Paul is arguing that "grace would not be grace" if God chose only those individuals capable of works that pleased him. God selects by "grace" those whom he chooses to be "conformed to the image of his Son" (Romans 8:29). God chooses people like the potter selects clay that he wishes to make a vessel of honor. The clay has little value in itself. The potter's interest in the clay is that he knows what his skill and workmanship can make of that unseemly clay. By grace of the potter, the clay is molded, shaped, baked and finally glazed into a vessel of rare beauty. 

God, the great potter, loves us not alone for what we are, but for what he sees he can make of us. If the clay becomes marred in his hands, the potter may remold it or even cast it away. God has the same privileges as any potter; hence his "grace" is most evident in the selection of the clay.

God sent Jeremiah down to the potter's house to learn the way God deals with his people (Jeremiah 18:1-10). Jeremiah saw a potter working with clay, but then the clay "was marred in the hand of the potter." This is not supposed to happen in man's view of a divine potter. It is supposed that when God lays hands on the clay, it must respond to his sovereign power. The clay cannot be "marred" in his hand. That is not the lesson Jeremiah learned. 

God informed Jeremiah that, when he promised to "build and plant" a kingdom and those to whom he made such promises disobey, God would repent of the good he promised. He also taught Jeremiah that God's judgment to "pull down, and to destroy" a kingdom was not irrevocable, for if that nation repented and did what was right he would "repent" of his judgment against them. The lesson shows that God factors in the response of people and nations in both judgments and blessings.