Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Hebrews 12:15 (NLT).

What is grace? Grace is God’s lavish kindness on undeserving sinners. It’s getting something we don’t deserve – receiving unmerited favour. Or, as my late father in law used to say, grace is God’s riches at Christ’s expense.

There are five things we should know about grace:

– Grace redeems us (Titus 2:11). We cannot save ourselves. We are lost and perishing in our sin. But God, knowing our plight, revealed His grace in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, for the salvation of everyone who confesses their sin and receives Him by faith.

– Grace reforms us (Titus 2:12). The grace that redeems us also reforms our lives. Salvation is not only a change in position (once I was lost but now I’m found), it is also a change in appetite, ambition, attitude and action. Put simply, when we get saved we get cleaned up.

– Grace rewards us (Titus 2:13). Grace gives us a future and a hope. Jesus Christ is coming again. He will one day appear and we’ll all see him face to face.

– Grace rescues us (Titus 2:14a). Christ gave Himself for us, i.e. became our substitute and set us free by paying the price we could never pay. We could not meet the just demands of God’s holy law, but thanks be to God, Christ has done for us what we could not do for ourselves – He’s rescued us from all wickedness.

– Grace restores us (Titus 2:14b). Grace purifies us. It makes us more like Jesus. The work of purification, being made holy, is called sanctification. Sanctification involves both a pulling away from sin and a coming together with God. It’s the process whereby we’re separated from sin and simultaneously growing in our devotion to God.

And with those thoughts about grace ringing in our ears “I entrust you to God and the message of his grace that is able to build you up and give you an inheritance with all those he has set apart for himself” Acts 20:32 (NLT).