"My grace is sufficient"

The outrageous thing about God is His grace. Everything about God's grace is free. You can never earn it, it is for everyone, you can reject it if you want to and you can throw it away at any point. God is not only gracious, but He is a gracious Gentleman; He will never force His grace upon you.

The term "grace" has often been used in an obtuse manner, so I am going to try to clarify the four different parts of God's grace.


Common Grace - This part of grace is the cause of anything good in the world. Beauty in creation, kind acts of others and all the other blessings we see around us are because of God's grace. This part of grace also limits the evil in the world. Authorities are God's ministers (Romans 13:6) and while they are fallible, they are part of God's plan to restrain evil in the world. Common grace is the reason there are "good" sinners; while the world is fallen, there is still a sense of right and wrong and everyone can choose to do right. Sinners have the propensity for good acts, and while this alone won't get anyone into heaven, if it weren't for common grace the evil of the world would be unimaginable. Everyone can take that grace or reject it. Much of this grace works through the conscience, so people do have the ability to ignore their conscience and go right ahead with whatever they please. James 1:17 Romans 13:6

Prevenient Grace - Without this we are without hope. The separation that occurred at The Fall is much greater than we sometimes realize. There is nothing in us that can get to God, He had to come to us. God's prevenient grace is the calling grace. A decision to follow Christ never occurs without first being preceded by prevenient grace. It is what enables us to choose salvation. For you to even want to want God in your life is His prevenient grace. We don't just have a conviction switch in us that we can turn off or on at will; don't be so smug as to think you can somehow come to God at any point whenever you want. God has to call us. This part of grace is what  makes us want to seek God. John 6:44 John 1:9

Saving (Justifying) Grace - This is what the prevenient grace recognizes. It was made possible by Jesus' death and resurrection. It is what ushers us back into a right relationship with God and the means by which a person makes it to heaven. This part of grace forgives sin. It doesn't just cover your sin, it erases it. This is the transforming part of grace, it makes you into a "new creature". This grace is capable of making a prostitute pure, a liar truthful, and a murderer kind. If you choose to accept this grace into your life, it will radically revolutionize you. 2 Corinthians 5:17 John 14:6 Romans 10:9

Keeping (Sanctifying) Grace - The keeping part of God's grace is what gives us the ability to walk with Him and finally make it to heaven. It is no less important than the other parts because if God merely saved us then left us to our own devices we would be a frustrated mess; knowing there was something better but unable to achieve it. What kind of God would He be if He had the power to forgive past sins but couldn't help us overcome sin in the present? This part of grace is the little voice that guides the new Christian. It draws us closer to Christ and makes us more like Him. When we are faced with temptation, the strength we find to fight it comes from this keeping grace. God has promised that no temptation would overtake us for which He doesn't have an escape route planned. 1 Corinthians 10:13 Isaiah 58:11 Psalms 48:14


Do not abase the grace of God by confining it to the sinner at the altar, His grace is so much more than that.
God has given us blessings and the ability to be up-standing citizens even without being in a relationship with Him, He has come down to us and called us to Him because we were helpless on our own, He forgives and provides a way of salvation for us, and He has promised to stay with us to make us holy until the end of our journey.