In my 43 years as a Seventh-day Adventist, one of the many things I’ve come across in the church is born-and-bred members of my age making remarks along the lines of, "In the old days there was no love in the church”—referring mostly to their formative years during the 1950s and ‘60s. Having not been in the church in those days, it is difficult for me to ascertain if this "lack of love" was a reality or just a perception. As children growing up in those years, they may have mistaken the restrictions of the Adventist lifestyle for a “lack of love” in contrast to the perceived freedoms the children of the world experienced in those days. On the other hand, it is possible there genuinely was a deficiency in understanding the love of God and replacing it with a rules-based way of salvation. I somehow suspect a bit of both may have come into play. Whichever it may have been, that generation of Adventists seem to have struggled with a true understanding of what grace is, often rushing to embrace outside books on the subject by authors like Phillip Yancey.
This has caused me to pause and think about grace—a topic I have generally avoided because of its popular association with unscriptural definitions.
Grace Sermons Galore
Because of the perception of so many as to the deficiency of grace-awareness in the church, for four decades I have found myself subjected to a plethora of sermons on the topic. But somehow, almost all those sermons have left me cold. Though each these sermons have included numerous Bible texts, somehow I feel almost none of them have given a true Biblical picture of grace. In addition to all those Bible texts there have been many catchy phrases thrown about, such as "grace is unmerited favor," "grace is getting what you absolutely don't deserve," etc. While these phrases aren’t necessarily inaccurate, by themselves they don’t give the full picture.
All of which leads me to ask, What in fact is true Biblical grace
Biblical Grace
Before I begin, I need to define which aspect of grace I am looking at. The dictionary has many definitions of grace, such as "the quality of being pleasantly polite, or a willingness to be fair and honest", "with good grace - They accepted their defeat with good grace", "ways of behaving that are considered polite and pleasant" or "approval or kindness, especially (in the Christian religion) [dict]. In summary, goodness. In the Bible we find many texts apply grace being a property of God. For example:
And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him (Luke 2:40).
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord (Acts 11:23).
And many others. That is, there are many texts that tell us simply, God is good - in the fullest sense of goodness.
Grace and Salvation
If grace, or goodness, is a property of God, then how do we relate this to the methods of our salvation?
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised [us] up together, and made [us] sit together in 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 through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast (Eph. 2:5-9).
So here we talk of salvific grace as distinct from grace that is simply an attribute of God. If we explore the topic of salvific grace, we find it has three important dimensions to it.
Forgiveness
The first is forgiveness. Such passages as the following bear witness to this understanding:
Him hath God exalted with his right hand [to be] a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins (Acts 5:31).
Be it known unto you therefore, men [and] brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins (Acts 13:38).
And many others. One that links forgiveness and grace is the following:
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace (Eph. 1:7; see also Col. 1:14)
Reconciliation
Reconciliation is another product of Biblical grace, as seen in the following passages:
And all things [are] of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech [you] by us: we pray [you] in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God (II Cor. 5:18-20).
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, [even] the law of commandments [contained] in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, [so] making peace;
And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby (Eph. 2:15-16).
And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, [I say], whether [they be] things in earth, or things in heaven (Col. 1:20).
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life (Rom. 5:10).
And all things [are] of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation (II Cor. 5:18).
Transformation
Forgiveness and reconciliation, as Scripture presents them, involve transformation as well. The following passages make this clear:
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God (Rom. 12:2)..
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God (I Cor. 6:9-11).
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness (Rom. 8:5-10, NIV).
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord (II Cor. 8:18, NKJV).
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law (Gal. 5:22-23).
Fractured Grace
But the moment we remove or marginalize one or more of these elements of grace, we encounter major problems, which in the end produces a gospel that is not the gospel of Scripture:
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! (Gal. 1:6-8).
Removing forgiveness and/or reconciliation leaves us with a fear-filled, cold, and harsh religion such as prevailed during the centuries of papal supremacy in medieval and early modern Europe. The God of the medieval Church was similar to pagan deities that constantly had to be appeased in order to divert their wrath and incur any of their blessings. In modern times that distortion of grace, though not entirely absent, has largely been supplanted by an equally hurtful distortion—one that promotes forgiveness and reconciliation without the imperative of power for holy living.
The Biblical Balance
The modern trend has been to retain and even heavily promote the forgiveness and conciliatory dimensions of grace, but to drop (or at least marginalize) the transformative, empowering dimension. This has led to a powerless and largely emasculated gospel which is producing spiritual death in so many contemporary churches. But the following verses underscore that aspect of grace which so much of modern and postmodern Christianity has forgotten—the promise of power to overcome sin:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek (Rom. 1:16).
My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me (II Cor. 12:9).
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men; teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world (Titus 2:11-12).
Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear (Heb. 12:28).
Tony Rigden, a former atheist/deist, came into the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1980 as the result of a miraculous conversion and the reading of the book The Great Controversy by Ellen G White. He has since been a regular Sabbath School teacher, very part-time lay preacher, elder and briefly head elder. Formerly an electronics technician and computer programmer, Tony is currently still part-time programming but mostly retired. Former hobbies included diving and private flying. Currently he is a volunteer guard (train conductor) for one of New Zealand's leading vintage railways.