Home  Articles  Site map

Grace and God's approval

by Jacob Ninan

God raised up Martin Luther and others to bring out the emphasis on the fact that it was not by doing things to earn favour with God that we could receive salvation, but that it was by grace, an undeserved favour from God (Ep.2:8,9). God is able to show us that favour because He has already punished our sins by letting His Son Jesus die in our place. Now all of us can receive this salvation freely, if we go to God through Jesus, admitting our sins honestly and sincerely and asking Him for help to turn from them.

However, some people have exaggerated grace so much that now many think that there is nothing at all we need to do on our side. Of course, there is nothing we can do to earn our salvation. But, once we have come to God in repentance and faith, He wants us to live in such a way that will increasingly demonstrate this salvation in a practical sense (Php.2:12,13). We will realise immediately, that in order to be able to do this, we will need the power of the Holy Spirit in our life (Ro.8:13). Theologically speaking, this process is known as sanctification, which is a lifelong experience for us, which helps us to experience in a practical way being set apart more and more for God and becoming like Jesus. God knows that no one makes it through this process without failures, and so He has provided for our forgiveness if we slip and fall along the way (1Jn.2:1).

We see soon that sanctification will not progress without our cooperation. As someone said, we will only be as holy as we really want to be! There are differences in the way each of us goes after it. As a result, all of us experience holiness to different levels. God is going to reward us according to what each of us has actually done (2Co.5:10).

Many Christians do not speak about this, and they talk only about grace and faith. It is a fact that our acceptance before God is based only on God's grace towards us and our faith in Him. But now we are talking about our life beyond that acceptance. When we realise that God has graciously forgiven all our sins and accepted us even with all our imperfections, our hearts will overflow with gratitude and we will want to be pleasing to Him (2Co.5:14,15). How much we love God and how faithful we will be in keeping His commandments will differ among us, and that will make the difference in our rewards.

We are all accepted into the kingdom of God on an equal basis; the worst sinners and the more decent looking sinners are accepted after washing us with the blood of Jesus. Then all of us will be clothed with the same robe of the righteousness of Christ credited to us (Is.61:10;1Co.1:30). From this, some assume that we will all be the same in heaven. But that is not true. Jesus made it very clear in the parable in Lk.19, where a master called his ten slaves and gave one mina to each, that those who showed more faithfulness with the opportunities they got received greater rewards. The way God gives rewards is not always transparent to our human eyes – He takes into consideration each man's circumstances, opportunities and limitations, and His rewards will be absolutely fair. For example, we see from the parable in Mt.25 that the man who got 5 talents and the man who got 2 talents got the same commendation from the master. The man with five talents did not have an advantage over the man with two. So our reward will not be based on how many talents God has given to us but on how faithful we have been with what we have received. The man with five talents obviously had more results to show than the man with the two, but the reward was based on faithfulness with what each one had, rather than how much results each produced! That is why Jesus said that we would have some surprises on the judgment day, when someone we thought would get a great reward would get less and someone we never imagined would be worthy of any reward would get great rewards (Lk.13:30). The 'glory' we would share in heaven will be different, according to the faithfulness we have shown in our life on earth (1Co.15:41).

The judgment day for those who have been accepted as children of God through faith in Jesus is not to decide whether they would go to heaven or hell. That judgment was over when we came to Jesus and we received our forgiveness as a result of Jesus taking our punishment. But there is another judgment we have to face when we are going to be assessed about what we have done with the salvation we were given (2Co.5:10). That is for determining the rewards we should get. Just imagine our shock on that judgment day if we had never expected having to face that judgment, and we had taken grace for granted! Imagine also, for example, world famous Christian leaders who had not bothered to be faithful with their money or time finding themselves without reward, and many unknown believers receiving great rewards because they were faithful with the little talents and the little opportunities they had received! Imagine also when we see those who were very impressive in their ministries, who attracted great admiration from the crowds, watching their so-called accomplishments burning up to nothing, when unknown people who had worked silently and without fanfare with a sincere desire to serve God receive recognition from God.

For a true servant of God, the motto is, "Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven" (Mt.6:9,10). It is not even rewards that we are after, but to give our life for the One who gave His life for us.

When God was fed up with humanity's wickedness and He was about to destroy the whole world, Noah found 'favour' with God. This favour was not about an undeserved mercy from God, but it was a recognition for being the only man on earth at that time who was righteous and blameless (Ge.6:8,9). God anointed Jesus with the oil of gladness above others, not as an undeserved favour but because He loved righteousness and hated lawlessness (He.1:9). Even though Paul was formerly a blasphemer and persecutor, God chose him and entrusted him with a ministry because God considered him faithful (1Ti.1:12,13).

We also need to know another side to this. If we have become children of God through His grace, we must not forget that whatever we sow we will still reap (Ga.6:7,8). We can't fool God by quoting 'grace' and expect Him to set aside this law for us because we are His children. If we go on sinning wilfully after being born again, there is going to be no more mercy waiting for us (He.10:26,27). God is willing to accept everyone who comes to Him, when they repent from their sins and place their trust in Jesus. But if we continue to be unrighteous, we cannot expect that we can still be a part of the kingdom of God (1Co.6:9-11).

The whole purpose of salvation is to deliver us from sin and to restore us to the plan God had for us (1Pe.1:2). It begins with God accepting us through grace. If we have come to experience that salvation through the grace of God, then we are to learn to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and live sensibly, righteously and godly in this life (Ti.2:11,12). There will be many trials for us in this life, but there are great rewards waiting for those who find God's approval (Jas.1:12).

Table of articles
Home page