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.