Understanding Grace: Introduction 1/13/11

Understanding Grace: An Introduction

In our first week of a brand new series, we spent some talking about the different ways that we can misunderstand grace and how those misunderstandings can affect our confidence in what Christ has done. Here are the three common misconceptions we looked at last night.

Grace is...

1.God Soap- A common misconception about what God has done for us is that He has become our soap. Our day to day lives get us dirty, smelly, and nasty, so we go to God who showers us off and cleans us up again, but only temporarily. This viewpoint of Grace robs us of confidence in our standing with God, because it is dependent upon how recently we have gone to the shower. If you believe in Christ and what He has done, but yet you constantly wonder if each sin has taken that away, it is probably because of this view of Grace. We will talk more about this in Romans 4-7.

2.Potpourri- Another misconception about what God does for us is that He wants to separate us from the world and our purpose therein. Often we see pine cones and acorns used in potpourri. They are collected from the ground and covered with nice smelling scents and then put in a bowl or vase where they sit until they are discarded. While Martha Stewart may appreciate this, it inherently prevents the seeds (what pine cones and acorns are) from living out their purpose... to bring life to something new. If you believe in Christ and what He has done, but find yourself separated from non-believers, you may be struggling with this view of Grace. Death to sin is incomplete if we have not been made alive to a new purpose. We will talk more about this in Romans 7-10.

3.Digital Camera vs. Polaroid Picture- Another heartbreaking misconception about what God does for us is that He instantly changes our lives into His own. Digital Cameras work like this. The picture is taken and you can instantly see it. However, what we find in Christ is the reality that work is still happening. We are not just saved, but continually being saved. It is more like a Polaroid Picture. The instant of salvation, the work has begun, but the film takes a long time to show us the picture we are waiting on. If you believe in Christ and what He has done, but continually find yourself discouraged by the process of continual salvation, you may be wrestling with this view of Grace. When we expect instant change and instant results, we rob ourselves of the blessings of learning to trust in God and His work in us. We will talk more about this in Romans 12-15.


We started off this series talking about our own misconceptions about Grace because it is important that we know what we believe, right or wrong. As we jump into the book of Romans, we will discover a letter written to a group of people who believed in Christ, but had very little understanding of what He actually had done for them or what He was continuing to do in them. Paul, knowing that these people were called to be light in the darkness, spends 15 chapters of the book of Romans explaining, in detail, exactly what Christ's death and resurrection have done for us and how the Holy Spirit is daily continuing that work inside of us.

This is Grace.

My prayer for us this year is that we would walk away from this series with overwhelming confidence that God has done and continues to do for us exactly what His Word says.