Is God's Grace For Me?

Maybe you've heard about grace your whole life and still wonder if it really covers you. Your past, the people you've hurt, the mistakes you keep making. It does. Grace comes from who God is, not from how well you've done, and you never outgrow your need for it. It covers what's behind you and gives you power for what's ahead.

Where does grace come from?

Grace comes from God's own character. It isn't something you produce. It's something you receive from Him and then reflect to others.

You can see this in 2 Samuel 9. King David asks if anyone is left from Saul's family so he can show them kindness. Notice how he phrases it.

The king asked, "Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness?"

2 Samuel 9:3

David isn't offering his own kindness. He's passing on kindness he first received from God. The New Testament word for grace, charis, carries the idea of beauty. It also has a reflective quality. Grace is God's undeserved favor, and it reflects who He is.

Pastor Landon Sloan says that's the only way to explain how powerful grace is: it's simply God's nature. In other religions, people work their way toward God or try to measure up. In Christianity, God pursues you. He comes after people with grace that is more than enough.

The Beyond Sunday host adds that Thomas Aquinas described grace as placing something of God within the soul. When you receive grace, there's a deposit of God's character in you.

Does grace only cover your past?

No. Grace covers your past, your present, and your future failures too. You are in constant need of it.

The early church dealt with this question directly. Church councils rejected the idea that people can get by without grace. They also rejected the idea that grace covers only what you did before you were forgiven and then stops. You don't receive grace once and then carry on in your own strength.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:23

That verse describes believers too. Everyone keeps falling short, and grace keeps meeting you there.

Which character in the story are you?

You might find yourself in more than one place in the story of David and Mephibosheth. The weekend message pointed to several characters you could see yourself in.

• David, the one extending kindness he first received from God.
• Mephibosheth, Jonathan's son. The nurse fleeing with him dropped him as a child, and he lived with that injury for the rest of his life.
• The nurse, the one who dropped someone.

That last one is uncomfortable, and it matters. Plenty of people carry church hurt. Pastor Landon admits that the fear of falling short intimidated him when he started in ministry. It felt like people were waiting for leaders to fail. Yet even the best leaders he knows have dropped someone at some point.

The real question isn't whether you'll fall short. It's how you respond when you do, and whether you keep running back to God's grace. If you've been dropped, grace is for you. If you've done the dropping, grace is for you too.

Do you have to do anything to receive grace?

Grace is freely given, but you still have to step into it. You receive it by turning back to God in humility.

For example, Pastor Landon describes the last few years of his own life this way. When he chased his own plans without listening to the Holy Spirit, things stalled. When he repented and came back under God's grace, things began to open up. Questions were answered and promises kept. Family and work situations improved, and he saw his own life more clearly.

The natural response to grace is gratitude, and gratitude needs humility. It's hard to be grateful without being humble. Worship is humble thanksgiving offered back to God.

If grace is free, does it matter how you live?

It matters, because grace doesn't just set you free from something. It sets you free to something. Because of grace, you can.

Some people worry that if you really understand grace, you'll treat it as permission to live however you want. The hosts push back. People who truly receive grace are changed by it. It brings humility, gratitude, and dependence on God. That shows up in how they live.

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 to 9

Grace also empowers. Pastor Landon says his strength in ministry doesn't come from his own willpower. It comes from knowing God has a plan for him and has set him apart. And he believes God has a plan for everyone.

You come to God by grace, and you live for God by grace. That includes giving yourself grace, because you still won't do this perfectly. You are already God's child, even though you're not yet everything you will be.

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

1 John 3:2

Common questions

What is grace in the Bible?

Grace is God's undeserved favor and kindness. The Greek word charis carries the idea of beauty, and grace reflects God's own character. Ephesians 2:8 to 9 says we are saved by grace through faith, as a gift.

Does God's grace cover my future mistakes too?

Yes. The early church rejected the idea that grace only covers the past. We keep falling short, and God keeps giving grace.

If I am saved by grace, does it matter how I live?

It does. Grace that is truly received changes people. It produces humility, gratitude, and dependence on God, and it gives you power to live for Him.

Who was Mephibosheth?

He was Jonathan's son and King Saul's grandson. He was injured as a child when his nurse dropped him while fleeing, and King David later showed him kindness for Jonathan's sake (2 Samuel 4 and 9).