Grace and Identity | Grace: The Gift That Changes Everything Series - The Way of Life Church

Most of us don’t struggle to believe that grace saves us.
We struggle to believe that grace is how we live.

Somewhere along the way, many Christians quietly adopt a myth:
Grace gets me in the door with God, but staying close to Him depends on how well I perform.

We would never say it out loud, but we live as if God saved us by grace and now keeps us by effort. The result is a life marked by pressure, insecurity, comparison, and spiritual exhaustion.

The apostle Paul confronts this thinking directly in Galatians 2.

Declared Right, Not Proven Right

Paul writes, “A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” Justification means being declared right before God, not proven right by performance. Our standing with God rests entirely on what Jesus has done, not what we do.

The “law” in Paul’s world included moral commands, religious practices, and identity markers that measured spiritual worth. In our world, the measuring systems may look different, but the instinct is the same. We measure ourselves by discipline, consistency, church involvement, or moral improvement. Even spiritual effort can quietly become self-salvation.

But if righteousness could be maintained by effort, faith would be unnecessary. Grace and self-justification cannot coexist. You cannot live in grace while trying to earn what only Christ can give.

The Same Trust That Makes Us Right Is How We Live Right

Paul anticipates the objection: If we stop relying on rules and performance, won’t that lead to more sin?

His answer is surprising. The problem is not too much grace. The problem is too much self-reliance.

Rules can restrain behavior, but only faith can reshape the heart. The law can expose sin, but it cannot produce holiness. Going back to performance doesn’t heal sin. It strengthens independence from God.

Paul says he “died to the law so that he might live to God.” A life pleasing to God flows from faith, not from constant self-pushing. Scripture says it plainly: without faith it is impossible to please God. Not without effort. Not without rules. Without faith.

Identity changes everything. My identity is not what I do for God. It is what Christ has done for me.

Grace Isn’t a Do-Over. It’s a Takeover.

Galatians 2:20 sits at the center of the Christian life:
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

This is not religious self-improvement. It is spiritual replacement.

The old self, the old system of proving worth, the old way of managing life has been crucified. Christ now lives in the believer. He becomes the new source, the new power, and the new center. The Christian life is not about trying harder. It is about trusting deeper.

Grace doesn’t add Jesus to our old identity. It crucifies the old identity and gives us a new one.

Employee or Child?

Many believers unknowingly live like spiritual employees instead of beloved children.

An employee works to stay in good standing. A child belongs before performance.
An employee hides failure. A child runs to the Father after failure.
An employee obeys to feel secure. A child obeys because they already are secure.

This difference is not personality. It reveals who is really living your life: you, or Christ in you.

Living as a child does not remove obedience or discipline. It removes earning. Grace doesn’t remove effort. It removes fear-driven performance.

When Performance Undermines the Cross

Paul gives a sober warning: if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. Whenever we try to earn what Jesus already paid for, we quietly suggest that His cross was insufficient.

Grace plus performance is not teamwork. It is contradiction.

Returning to self-effort rebuilds what the cross tore down.

What Living by Faith Actually Looks Like

Living by faith reshapes everyday life:

After failure, we return instead of retreating.
In obedience, we depend instead of performing.
In suffering, we trust instead of negotiating with God.

Faith is not improving yourself. It is surrendering yourself to Christ.

Jesus did not save you so you could manage your life better. He saved you so you could trust Him to live through you.

Grace did not give you a job to keep.
It gave you a life to live.

And that life begins by becoming who God already says you are.

Grace That Changes Everything | Grace: The Gift That Changes Everything Series - The Way of Life Church

Most people think they understand grace.

We hear the word in prayers, songs, and casual conversation. We associate it with kindness, patience, forgiveness, or second chances. But familiarity can quietly shrink our understanding. And small views of God always produce cheap views of grace.

The apostle Paul refuses to let us stay comfortable with shallow definitions. In Ephesians 2, he begins not with comfort, but with clarity. Before he tells us what grace does, he shows us why grace is necessary.

We Were Not Weak. We Were Dead.

Paul’s diagnosis of the human condition is blunt:
“You were dead in the trespasses and sins…”

Not wounded.
Not confused.
Not morally disadvantaged.
Dead.

A corpse cannot be coached into life. It cannot respond to encouragement, threats, or motivation. Spiritual death means we were incapable of moving ourselves toward God. We were shaped by the world’s values, deceived by spiritual forces we barely recognized, and driven by desires bent away from God. Left to ourselves, we did not drift toward life. We remained dead unless acted upon.

This confronts a popular assumption: that people mainly need better education, stronger motivation, or improved discipline. Paul says our problem was not reform. Our problem was resurrection.

If we underestimate sin, we will inevitably trivialize grace.

“But God…”

Two of the most hopeful words in Scripture interrupt the darkness of our condition:
“But God…”

Grace is not human effort reaching upward. It is divine mercy breaking in. God did not wait for spiritual improvement or cooperation. While we were dead, He made us alive together with Christ.

Grace does not improve the old life. It creates new life.

We did not initiate salvation. We did not assist in resurrection. We did not contribute power. We simply received life because God acted.

But grace does more than revive. Paul says God raised us with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly places. That language speaks of a new realm, a new allegiance, and a new security. We no longer belong to the dominion of sin and death. We belong to Christ’s victorious kingdom. Our future is not uncertain. Our standing is secure.

Grace does not first change what we do.
Grace changes where we stand.

Grace Alone Gets the Credit

Paul repeats himself: “By grace you have been saved.” Not because we forget the words, but because we resist the meaning. We instinctively want to earn what can only be received.

Faith is not our contribution. It is the empty hand that receives God’s gift. Even our believing is sustained by grace. Works are excluded so that boasting is eliminated. No one stands before God with a résumé of spiritual accomplishments. Salvation magnifies God’s mercy, not human achievement.

Yet grace is not passive. We are God’s workmanship, created for good works prepared by Him. Good works are not the root of salvation. They are the result of it. Grace rescues us and then reshapes us.

Grace finds people as it finds them.
But it never leaves them as it finds them.

Why God Saves by Grace

Paul gives us three reasons grace operates this way:

• Because of God’s love. Salvation flows from His affection, not our attractiveness.
• To display God’s glory. Grace is a display of God’s goodness, not a transaction between equals.
• To eliminate boasting. Grace humbles the sinner and magnifies the Savior.

Grace does not merely rescue us from death. It redefines who we are, where we belong, and how we now live.

Grace That Keeps Changing Everything

Imagine waking up in a hospital bed after being clinically dead. Heart stopped. Breath gone. You did not revive yourself. You did not assist the doctor. You simply woke up alive.

From that moment forward, everything in your life is shaped by one truth:
I am alive because someone else acted.

That is grace.

And the only fitting response to grace like that is not pride, fear, or striving. It is gratitude and trust.

Grace is not something we needed only in the past. Grace is shaping everything now. Because the grace that raises the dead truly changes everything.