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.