What’s Is God’s Grace?

This summary, optimized for Google’s SEO standards, is based on Dr. Adrian Rogers’ teaching on God’s Amazing Grace, drawing foundational principles primarily from the Book of Titus. Rogers emphasizes that salvation is entirely the work of God, received as a gift, and standing in stark contrast to human efforts to achieve righteousness (legalism). The message defines grace as the source of true liberty and the foundation for living a purposeful Christian life.

I. Defining Grace: God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense

Dr. Rogers defines grace succinctly using an acrostic: G.R.A.C.E. stands for God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Grace is God’s unmerited favor—the kindness of God shown to one who doesn’t deserve it and can never earn it.

Salvation, therefore, is not about human performance. It is not spelled D-O (do) or D-O-N-‘T (don’t); it is spelled D-O-N-E (done).

Grace vs. Mercy

It is a beautiful trinity when Paul links grace with mercy and peace.

• Grace is God giving us what we don’t deserve (His goodness and salvation).
• Mercy is God not giving us what we do deserve (judgment and Hell).

When you receive grace and mercy, you experience peace. You cannot find peace until you know grace; therefore, the Bible always presents the order as Grace and Peace, never Peace and Grace.

II. The Sovereign Nature of Grace

Grace gives liberty because it is sovereign, seeking, saving, and securing.

Sovereign Grace (God Takes the Initiative)

Grace is sovereign because God elects and chooses believers. If you are saved, it is because God elected you; He loved you, sought you, and brought you.

However, this truth does not exclude anyone who desires salvation. Jesus stated that “All that the Father hath given me will come to me” (Sovereign Grace), but also, “and him that cometh unto me, I will in nowise cast out”. Rogers affirms, “Whosoever will may come“.

Seeking Grace (God’s Love Note)

Salvation did not start with humanity; it began with God. The reason anyone seeks God is because He first sought them. The Bible is described as God’s love note, where He communicates, “I love you, I desire to be your Lord. I desire to be your Savior”. Any thirst or desire for God is something God put in the person.

Saving Grace (A Gift, Not a Work)

Salvation is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. If salvation were earned by works, it would destroy the principle of grace. When Paul discussed grace, he had to address the idea of adding works to it.

Securing Grace (Eternal Assurance)

Grace is securing grace. The word “hope” in the Bible means bedrock assurance based on the word of God, not simply “maybe it will happen”. God, who cannot lie, promised eternal life before the world began. Your salvation was not an “ambulance brought to a wreck”; it was in the heart and mind of God before anything happened.

III. The Delight, Denial, and Distortion of Grace

The devil seeks to tarnish the “trophy of grace” that believers are. The road of grace has two ditches: legalism and license.

1. The Delight of Grace: Liberty

The delight of grace is liberty. Jesus came to set the captives free, and if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. We are commanded to stand fast in the liberty Christ has given us and “be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage”.

2. The Denial of Grace: Legalism

The denial of grace is legalism. Legalists, often referenced as “those of the circumcision” (Judaizers), attempted to force Gentile believers to put themselves back under the Jewish Law (Mosaic Law) to be accepted by God.

• Legalism’s Trap: Legalism lays down rules, rituals, and laws. Babes in Christ are susceptible to legalists because they feel secure in the “playpen of legalism,” even though it is a form of bondage.
• Futility: A person who tries to be saved or sanctified by rules is like someone trying to get out of quicksand—the more they struggle, the more they sink. Ten thousand rules will not make you one bit more like Jesus.
• The Law as Master: In legalism, the law is the master.

3. The Distortion of Grace: License

The distortion of grace is license. License is the philosophy that since we are saved by grace and not works, we have permission to live anyway we like and still go to Heaven.

• God Forbid: Paul confronted this idea directly: “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid”.
• The Need for a New “Wanter”: If a person still genuinely wants to sin, they need to be born again; they need a new “wanter”. When a person is saved, they die to sin in their heart, even if they still stumble and fail.
• The Law as Enemy: In license, the law is the enemy.

In Grace, the law is the friend, and the believer keeps the Law of God because Jesus Christ is in their heart, not in order to be saved, but because they have been saved.

IV. Trophies of Grace: The Great Commission

Paul refers to Titus, a young Greek whom Paul won to Christ, as a trophy of grace. Paul used Titus as evidence that Gentiles were saved by grace alone, not by keeping the Jewish Law.