Sola Gratia | Created And Alive By Grace
Grace is perhaps, the simplest of all Christian doctrines and yet the one we have the most trouble believing. Grace, being the unmerited favor of God given to mankind for their salvation, remains the crux of doctrine. We contribute nothing to our salvation nor can we. Yet, we desperately want to be responsible in some manner for our salvation. Deep down, we carry a long to know we are good enough and attempt to prove it through the only way we know how to prove things; our actions. Yet, our actions produced only death within us and nothing more. On our own, our actions produce spiritual death which even goes so far to take a physical and emotional toil on our bodies. Yet Jesus Christ, by grace, as a random for our sin, died in our place in a manner only He could, so that we might obtain life.
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:20-23, ESV
From the beginning of time, life has been a grace of God, an unmerited favor that we could not earn or deserve. The bible talks of the first and second Adam. The first, the one in Genesis, brought sin into the world after having received the grace of God in the Garden of Eden. The second, Jesus Christ, brought the forgiveness of sin through His atoning sacrificial death on the cross. All this so that we might be redeemed by the grace of God and restored to our rightful creation. Life, at it’s core is a grace from God in which everyone experiences in some manner. Some, through their own merits will earn death, but those who put their faith in Jesus Christ will experience the eternal life that comes by grace.
Created By Grace
Philosophy questions the purpose of mankind. We question who made us and what we were created. Yet, in asking this question, we jump straight to action and bypass the first act of grace that mankind experiences. Rather than asking to what purposes did God create mankind to achieve (the ontological question) we must first wrestle with the question of why God created us to begin with (the existential question). Before we can fully understand what we were created to do, we must first wrestle with what we were created to be and why we were created in the first place. Every act of God towards mankind remains an act of grace as an unmerited act towards not only salvation but for life.
At the outset of creation, God created a paradise out of nothingness. For the first five days, God set everything in place, establishing the created order with food, water, animals, and every thing necessary for mankind to thrive. Then, on the fifth day, God created mankind, putting him in the Garden of Eden to enjoy the presence of God. But why create mankind, knowing all that would happen? In short, grace. God created mankind out of the outpouring of His love by grace. Just as a newborn baby does not earn the right to be conceived but rather enters into the world as an expression of the love of parents, we did not merit our own creation but instead are the result of the God’s outward expression of love. God created mankind as an act of grace to bless mankind with the presence of an eternal and loving God. Hence why we long for the presence of God deep within our soul whether we fully comprehend it or not.
Redemption as a Gift of Grace
Adam had the gift of the presence of God in paradise firmly within his grasps. Yet, by the merits of the works of the first Adam, sin came to be in the world, condemning the very fabric of nature and the leading to the justifiable death of mankind. The sins of man lead to their own downfall. Mankind, when seeking to earn life through their actions will always result in death. Only when the works of Jesus Christ are counted towards us as our own, can we find the life that we once were gifted by God.
Jesus Christ serves as the second Adam, the undoing of the works of the first Adam. By the works of Jesus Christ, as we have extensively discussed previously, He atones for the sins of mankind as our perfect Prophet, Priest, and King. While Christ remains uniquely qualified to provide salivation, mankind did not earn this honor. The works of the first Adam result in sin and death for all people and corrupt the life of man. Our actions are the same as Adam’s in that the result of our actions is death. Yet, the Second Adam completed the actions that we could not do and allowed the the ability to approach Him. We did not earn the forgiveness of God but instead Christ offers salvation through His unmerited favor. Mankind’s actions leave them condemned in need of a Savior but the actions of the God made flesh redeem man despite their sin and decay. Life offered to mankind has always been and continues to be an act of grace.
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[…] enough already. But God, desiring to pour out His love and affection on us through giving us life (also as a means of grace) sought us beyond a legality of innocence or guilt to bring us to Himself as dearly beloved family. […]