Is Grace a "Substance" or a Relationship with God?

     The view of Grace which the New Testament teaches, and which was rediscovered by the Reformers is that grace is a relationship with God. The Roman Catholic system teaches that grace is more like a substance with which one is infused at baptism. It is a power that works within the Christian and makes the person righteous by the working of grace or the Spirit within. This may seem a caricature of the Roman Catholic teaching, but they primarily speak of grace as something that works within a person. The Reformers, following the Apostle Paul, discovered that grace was not a thing in itself. They disagreed with Rome. It is not a substance, force or power, taken internally, which makes us worthy salvation. Grace was not primarily something working in a person, but it was how God as a person relates to them. For them grace was the Favor Dei - the favor of God.

    The reason that grace is a relationship is because God is a Person. Grace is the way that God relates to us as the Supreme Holy Righteous Person who created and rules the Universe. God is righteous in His essence. It is not just what God does, it is who He is. As creations of God, our righteousness is determined or defined outside of us by the character of God. If we are rightly related to God we are righteous. If not, we are wrongly related or unrighteous. Romans one through three tells that Humanity is unrighteous because it is wrongly related to God:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:18-21 NKJ)

Sin Is A Personal Thing

    The foundational reality from which the message of Romans flows is God's righteousness. When Humanity rejected God as God, they fell from right relationship vertically. Sin is a personal thing. I mean that the nature of sin as pictured by Paul in Romans chapter one as nothing less than Humanity's attack on God's person. If we read the descriptions of sinfulness Paul sets forth we see that Sin is a personal assault on God himself:

who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, (v. 18 ESV)

"For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, (v. 21 ESV)

They . . . exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal men and . . . animals . . . (v. 23 ESV)

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, (v. 25 ESV)

They did not see fit to acknowledge God . . . (v. 28 ESV)

    Sin in essence is personal offense against God. It is failing to treat God right. The sin of Humanity is to treat God in a manner of which He is less than worthy. God is God. He is worthy of being respected and adored as God. Isn't this the recurring theme of Scripture? He is worthy of all honor, glory, respect, obedience, trust, supremacy and authority in our lives and throughout the Cosmos. When we fail to treat God right, we sin. This sin is unrighteous. The way to be right with God is to relate to Him in a manner He considers right. That is why God gave us the Law. It is a blueprint for how we are to relate to God and in turn others. At the heart of the Law is totally reverence and obedience to God as God.

    Jesus said the essence of the Law is to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. This means to treat God right would be to do all that He asks of us, all the time, every fraction of every second, every day of the week, every week of our lives, without ever doing something less than for the total glory, honor and adoration of God. For example, if you did one thing this week that was not solely for the direct glory of God, you failed to treat God right. Did you spend every moment, of every single day and night for the last month to say and do nothing but that which gives all recognition, honor and glory to God? Let us go a little further. Did you think one single thought over the last year, in which you thought of yourself and your interests and self-preservation, rather than 100% thinking only of God and what He desired for you? We could go on with these questions. But, the point I wish to make is that unrighteousness is more than having several vices, breaking a commandment, or violating a church policy or protocol. Those are only the result of unrighteousness. Being unrighteous is relating to God in the slightest degree less than He deserves from us. This is what Adam did and it is that for which all Humanity is indicted before God. That is why Paul concluded: "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

    Dishonoring God did not hurt God, but brought disastrous consequences upon the whole Human race. As a result of Humanity's attack on Him, God "gave them up"⁽¹⁾ to corrupted and perverted horizontal relationships. Why? Because they violated their vertical relationship (unrighteousness) with Him. To be unrighteous in the deepest sense is to be wrongly, offensively related to God. God stands righteous, but being in wrong relationship with Him we are hopelessly unrighteous.

Righteousness Saves Us

    How ironic it is, then, that it is the very righteousness of God that saves us? Paul teaches that the righteousness that saves the Christian is the righteousness of God. This righteousness does not become saving because it is put into the believer. It is effective to save because it is revealed outside the believer in Jesus.

    Whose righteousness are we talking about? Is it the believer's righteousness? Is it the saints' or the angels' righteousness? No! It is the very righteousness that belongs to God Himself:

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; (Rom. 3:21, 22 NAS)

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." (Romans 1:17 NAS)

. . . being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Rom. 3:24-26 NAS)

How is God's righteousness revealed or presented to us?

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; (Romans 3:21f. NKJ)

    The righteousness of God is revealed in Jesus Christ. Jesus perfectly maintained the right relationship, of which God most worthy, which we failed to keep. Jesus gave his life, which includes His righteousness, on the Cross to take the place of our unrighteousness before God. The righteousness of our salvation is nothing less than Christ's righteousness. "It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." (Romans 3:26 ESV)

Jesus' Righteousness Is Mine

    But the righteousness is in Jesus so how does it become mine? It is counted to you when you trust in Christ. By faith I am in Christ. Just as I am a sinner because God counted me as in unrighteous Adam, so I am righteous because considers me in righteous Christ by faith. How can it be then that we are considered just or right in God's sight if all the righteousness is in Jesus? Because we are counted or considered righteous by faith:

... and he received the sign of circumcision, a seat of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be reckoned to them, (Romans 4:11 NAS )

It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. (Romans 4:13 NIV)

What shalt we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; (Romans 9:30 NAS)

But the righteousness based on faith speaks thus, "DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, 'WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?' (that is, to bring Christ down), (Romans 10:6 NAS)

For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. (Galatians 5:5 KJV)

and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, (Philippians 3:9 NAS)

By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith (Hebrews 11:7 KJV)

    How could Jesus' righteousness be enough for the whole world? Because Jesus was God incarnate. He was infinitely righteous, because He was God enfleshed:

The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14 KJV)

For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, (Colossians 2:9 NAS)

Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM." (John 8:58 NKJ)

Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? (John 14:9 NIV)

Jesus Christ was not only perfect, but infinitely perfect. His life was of infinite value because He was the embodiment of divine life and righteousness⁽²⁾

How Much Righteousness?

    Approached another way, we might ask, "How much righteousness does it take to restore us to right relationship with God?" "How much grace or righteousness do we need?" The answer is: we need all the grace or righteousness of God. Nothing less will do. God alone could save us. He came in Christ. Jesus Christ is God incarnate. Christ possessed all the righteousness of God. Christ offered a perfect sacrifice for our sins. That's because He is perfectly righteous. Thus, God's righteousness was necessary to save us. We were saved by God's righteousness:

If one could collect all the righteousness of all the angels and all the saints, it would be nothing compared to the incomprehensible and infinite righteousness poured out for the salvation of guilty sinners.⁽³⁾

    Now think about this - what is greater than God? Nothing! Then the righteousness of God is the greatest thing in the Universe. If justification is having the righteousness of God "poured into us" as Rome and others teach, how, might we ask, could the human soul hold it? It would be like standing before the mighty Amazon River and being deluded into thinking that one could drink it. No one could hold those thousands of tons of water in a human stomach. It is an even greater delusion to think that our human hearts could hold all the righteousness we need to make us right with God. God's righteousness is greater than all the waters of all the streams, lakes, seas and oceans of Earth. Even more, all the waters of every planet in the Universe. None of us could ever take in enough righteousness to be acceptable to God. We could never do enough righteous things.

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. (Isaiah 64:6-7 KJV)

    Notice that the prophet does not say, "all our sins are as filthy rags." He says it is their righteousness which was as a filthy rag. In the Hebrew, the "filthy rag" is the menstrual cloth used by Jewish women during their menstrual cycle. A woman during this time was considered unclean and was quarantined from her family so that they would not run the risk of being contaminated from her blood. If they were, they could not offer sacrifices for atonement. That is the picture Isaiah gives Israel to show them how worthless their personal righteous was. It is a picture for us today. I seriously submit that many holiness groups today make a fatal error of believing that their personal righteousness is more effective before God than it truly is. When a group or person fails to grasp the depth of their personal sin and the absolute futility of their own righteousness, they tend to legalism and various forms of works righteousness. This directly undercuts the Gospel and its power.

    We could never have enough righteousness - in thought, deeds, or experiences. The offense of our sin is on God's side. It is his honor that must be appeased. Nothing less than a righteousness as great as His dishonor can heal the offense. This is the righteousness that God requires.

    That is why we need Jesus - outside of us, not merely inside us - to be our righteousness. He is the only one who possesses all the righteousness we need. Miraculously and mercifully, Jesus now offers that righteousness to all who relate to God through Him alone. He is the way to rightly relate to God. "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6 KJV)

^{"Two Views of Grace" Part Four}

FOOTNOTES

1. From paradidomi (paradidwmi) which means to hand over or permit. It can refer to a judicial process as delivering one up to judicial authorities. In this case God handed Humanity over to their own sinful desires and corrupted horizontal relationships as punishment for the dishonoring their vertical relationship with God.

2. Brinsmead, p. 29.

3. Brinsmead, p. 30.