Grace is hard work.

The Bible draws a sharp distinction between Grace and Works when speaking about the doctrine of Justification : We are justified only by God’s grace apart from our works. (Romans 3:20, Galatians 2:16).
Because of this, it is easy to overlook the truth that grace itself is work.

Grace means hard work.

Grace means: the Father’s love TO me

Berkhof notes that:

“In the first place grace is an attribute of God, one of the divine perfections. It is God’s free, sovereign, undeserved favour or love to man, in his state of sin and guilt, which manifests itself in the forgiveness of sin and deliverance from its penalty. It is connected with the mercy of God as distinguished from His justice.”

He adds:

“It is the ultimate cause of God’s elective purpose…”

Grace means the Father chose me to salvation from all eternity.
God chose to love me!

In marriage a man and a woman choose to love each other. They (usually) have the advantage of first being “in love”, because they find each other lovable. But ultimately, marriage is a covenant in which the couple choose each other. This means they choose they will love each other, whether in the future they are “in love” or “out of love”.
Sometimes this is easy; sometimes it is hard. “Love is patient, love is kind” (1 Corinthians 13:4). Eileen will tell you that sometimes she finds being patient or kind to me, when I am being obnoxious, is hard work. (“No surprise there!” I hear you say.) Yes, love can (sometimes) be hard work in marriage. And that is even where two people were first (and hopefully, often are) in love, and find each other lovable.

Such was not the case with God and us: we were not lovable. God found me, as Berkhof says, “in [my] state of sin and guilt”.
When God chose to love me, I was “powerless”, a “sinner”, His “enemy” (Romans 5:6-10).

“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us…” (1 John 4:10).

“He chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.” (Ephesians 1:5-6)

Because of the Father’s love to me He willingly sent His Son into this world to die on the cross. This was the hardest work of all:

“God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

“It was God who refused to spare his Son, but rather ‘delivered him up for us all’ (Rom. 8:32). It was God who was ‘pleased’ to ‘bruise’ the Lord Jesus and put him to ‘grief’ (Isa. 53:10). Yes, it was God who sent his Son to the cross.” (Roger Ellsworth)

“In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10)

Which brings us to:

Grace means: the Son’s work FOR me

Again, Berkhof:

“In the second place the term ‘grace’ is used as a designation of the objective provision which God made in Christ for the salvation of man. Christ as the Mediator is the living embodiment of the grace of God.”

He adds:

“But the term is applied not only to what Christ is, but also to what He merited for sinners.”

We speak of this as the work of Christ FOR us.
And work it was: it was prophesied that on the cross, “He shall see the labour of His soul, and be satisfied.” (Isaiah 53:11. See also my post here)

We think of grace as “free” – and it is, to us. But it is not free to Christ.
An acronym that sums up well the deeper meaning of G.R.A.C.E. is:

God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense

“Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” (1 Peter 1:18-19)

It is this grace that secured for us forgiveness of sins and a right relationship with God (“justification”)

It is this grace – the grace of Christ’s work for us on the cross – that is contrasted with our works. This grace stands apart from our works: there is nothing we can add to the work of Christ to contribute towards our justification.

“By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:20,23)

“By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

In the cross we see, as well as the love of the Father, the great love of Christ.
One of my favourite verses is Galatians 2:20, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

I pray too:

“…that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:16-19)

Grace means: the Spirit’s work IN me

Berkhof says:

“In the third place the word “grace” is used to designate the favour of God as it is manifested in the application of the work of redemption by the Holy Spirit.”

This is the Spirit’s work IN us.
The Spirit’s work in us begins with:

• conviction of sin: “He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8)
• and regeneration: “According to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.” (Titus 3:5; see also John 3:3-8)

The Spirit’s work continues as we live in Him (Romans 8:5).
God (1 John 4:13) and Christ (1 John 3:24) abide in us by the Spirit who dwells in us.

Dwelling in us, the Spirit:

• seals us as a guarantee (1 Corinthians 2:22, Ephesians 1:13-14)
• leads us (Romans 8:14)
• pours out the love of God in our hearts (Romans 5:5)
• bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:16)
• is transforming us into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18)
• fills us with peace and joy (Romans 14:17, 1 Thessalonians 1:6) and hope (Romans 15:13)
• bears fruit in our lives (Galatians 5:22-23)
• reveals truth (John 16:13, 1 Corinthians 2:10)
• distributes gifts to each of us (1 Corinthians 12:7, Ephesians 4:7)
• unites us (1 Corinthians 12:13-114, Ephesians 4:3-4)

In addition:

• the Spirit empowers (puts power into) us.

Which brings me to:

Grace means: I work – by Christ, through the Spirit, for the glory of God

Thus far we are entirely passive. I do nothing to contribute to the Father’s electing love to me, the Son’s work for me, or the Spirit’s work in me.

But the Spirit does not empower us with grace so that we remain idle.
He empowers us to work for the glory of God.
This is termed “co-operating grace”.

In 1 Corinthians 15:10, the apostle Paul put it this way:

“By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”

Jonathan Parnell asks the question: “Does grace like this set us up for a ‘couch and potato chips’ kind of life?” – and he answers his question:

“No. Absolutely not. Not grace like this. Not God’s grace. Paul goes on to say that he worked harder than anyone else. He really worked. And yet it was not him, but the grace of God. God’s grace is the bookends to this passage. Grace makes Paul who he is and grace accomplishes in Paul the crazy-eyed, joy-filled labour for the gospel of which we Gentiles are all beneficiaries.”

Paul acknowledges that it was only by the grace of God; but it was still he himself that worked – by the grace of God.
We are not to absolve ourselves of responsibility for our actions by imagining that somehow Jesus takes over our body and it is now He, not us, doing what we do, i.e. a Christianised version of the invasion of the body-snatchers.

In Philippians 2:12-13 we see that God “works”, to give power to us to “work”, so that we then do “work” and “obey”:

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones puts it like this:

“The New Testament calls upon us to take action; it does not tell us that the work of sanctification is going to be done for us…
We are in the ‘good fight of faith’, and we have to do the fighting. But, thank God, we are enabled to do it; for the moment we believe, and are justified by faith, and are born again of the Spirit of God, we have the ability. So the New Testament method of sanctification is to remind us of that; and having reminded us of it, it says, ‘Now then, go and do it’.” (cited by Kevin DeYoung The Hole in Our Holiness)

The grace the Holy Spirit gives empowers us to work.
John Piper comments: “The grace, the power of His grace, in the heart of the humble believer who depends utterly upon God, produces in him incredible energy and industry.”

Here are some things the Holy Spirit specifically empowers you to do – and you must do them:

• you resist the flesh and put to death the deeds of the body (Romans 8:12-13, Galatians 5:16, Titus 2:11-12)
• you actively pursue holiness (Galatians 5:16, Titus 2:11-12, Hebrews 12:14)
• you purify your soul and obey the truth (1 Peter 1:22)
• you labour in prayer (Romans 8:26, Romans 15:30, Colossians 4:12, Jude 19) cf “The hard-working prayer of a righteous man has power” (James 5:16)
• you exercise the gifts grace has given you (Romans 12:6-8)
• you consientiously pursue unity with brethren (Ephesians 4:1-3)
• you actively worship God (Philippians 3:3)
• you work to bear witness (Acts 1:8, Colossians 1:28)

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” 2 Corinthians 13:14