Grace is the word that we use to mean undeserved favor. We have done nothing to earn God’s grace and yet he gives it freely through Jesus Christ.

 

God is holy. This means that God has done nothing wrong. God is pure. God sees right through our impurities. For example, in the Old Testament of the Bible when God appeared to Moses, God hid him in a rock so that he wouldn’t die. Moses saw God’s back after he had passed by. He didn’t see God’s face.

 

Some people think it’s unfair when someone ‘gets away’ with a lot of bad things, if they get to go to heaven having done wrong on the earth. They look at criminals and other ‘bad’ people who become Christian and then go to heaven. They also see people who they think are good, according to their own definition of righteousness. In their eyes, these people deserve to go heaven because of what they have done. However, we need to think about the way God sees the world. We should think about why Jesus died. We must come to accept that we are in need of grace ourselves. We should try to see ourselves compared to God’s holiness.  God is very good. However, we are not so good really, if we’re honest.

 

Think about somebody who has committed murder. This person may have found Jesus in prison. This person needs to hear that they can change. This person needs hope. The only way out of this position is for them to have a complete change of life. This person needs to change their thinking. This person needs to change their behaviour and believe that Jesus himself took the punishment for them.  When they choose Christ then their sin is completely gone, they are new creation in Christ. The same is true for us. If we think that we don’t need Christ then our pride gets in the way. As difficult as it is, we need to come to the place where we accept that we aren’t better than anybody else. The Bible says that if we get angry we are guilty of murder, or if a man looks at a woman lustfully he woman is be guilty of adultery. We too need to get the grace of Jesus Christ.

 

So, how do faith and behaviour relate to one another? Luther wrote: “Love is a witness to faith, gives us confidence, and makes us stand securely on the mercy of God.  And we are commanded to make our calling sure through good works. And when works follow then it is clear that we have faith.” So faith in Christ comes first, and then our behaviour changes.