mercy, not merit

Grace. God’s Grace.  It seems grace is most needed and best understood in the middle of pain, sin, suffering, and brokenness. Part of the world today is all about  gaining and earning and power and worthiness and deserving. Deserve what? Absolutely nothing. Nothing at all... Yet, God...

When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we recognize we need His grace and love and are accepting of what He offers because we were in a helpless condition before.  But, we can’t continue to live in a helpless state, totally dependent on God’s grace to cover our lives.

The remaining paragraphs were found in part and in whole on several different websites:

A shorthand for what grace is - “mercy, not merit.” which is all about getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you don’t deserve, and not getting what you do deserve. Christianity teaches that what we deserve is death with no hope of resurrection.

While everyone desperately needs it, grace is not about us. Grace is fundamentally a word about God: His un-coerced initiative and pervasive, extravagant demonstrations of care and favor. Michael Horton writes, “In grace, God gives nothing less than Himself. Grace, then, is not a third thing or substance mediating between God and sinners, but is Jesus Christ in redeeming action.”

Christians live every day by the grace of God. We receive forgiveness according to the riches of God’s grace, and grace drives our sanctification. Spiritual growth doesn’t happen overnight; we “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” Grace transforms our desires, motivations, and behavior.