Have you ever considered the events in your “Grace Journey”? Your Grace Journey is like a roadmap through your spiritual life in Christ. It marks the milestones, events, and twists and turns that we all experience in our spiritual journey. Specifically, such a record is meant to identify all the ways in which the grace of God has been extended to you. Consider these major categories:

• Pre-Christian life. Did you do anything before coming to know Christ that would have been an affront to the holiness of God or violated His standards of righteousness? Of course you did! Every one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). And the standard for such behavior is ultimately death (Romans 6:23.). But did you die for those sins? If you’re reading these words, you obviously did not. And why not? Because of the grace of God extended to you.
• Salvation. How did you come to know Christ and receive salvation? You and I were “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). And it was not because we were such outstanding examples of righteousness that we received God’s grace. In fact, “we were enemies” of God when we were “reconciled to [Him] through the death of His Son” (Romans 5:10).
• Witting and unwitting sins as a Christian. All our sins as Christians fall into one of two categories: witting (conscious, deliberate, premeditated) or unwitting (not planned, unintentional, impulsive). The General Confession prayer used in the liturgy of the Anglican Church uses two different categories: “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.” However we categorize sins, we have committed many since coming to know Christ. In fact, the apostle John wrote, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). But here is the question: Have you died as a result of committing any of those sins? Again, the answer is no—because of the grace of God.

The leaders of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation adopted the Latin phrase sola gratia when they realized that there was nothing they could do to contribute to their standing before God. That Latin phrase means “grace alone.” It was a departure from the doctrine of the established church at the time which taught that human works accompanied God’s grace. But after studying the Scriptures, the Reformers—like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others—rejected that doctrine when they realized that it is all by grace. We are saved by grace, and we live by grace—grace alone.

If you take time to consider the record of your own Grace Journey, you may be reminded of all the ways that the grace of God has covered your life. It is important that we never forget that our life is a demonstration of God’s grace to us. Why? Because the degree to which we recognize God’s grace to us is the degree to which we will extend grace to others. Because we have received grace from God, we are to be givers of grace and demonstrators of grace to others. As we have received God’s grace, so are we to give and demonstrate God’s grace to those around us.

Grace Receiver

Let’s define grace before we continue so as to be clear about what we have received and what we are to give. Most definitions of biblical grace will be similar to this: “the free and unmerited favor of God.” “Free” means we pay nothing to receive God’s grace. “Unmerited” means we cannot earn God’s grace. A popular acronym for grace reflects this definition: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Let’s look at two verses that highlight grace in our salvation and our ongoing Christian life.

Salvation: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Grace is the source of salvation while faith is the means. But the whole experience—source and means—is a “gift of God.” There is no boasting when it comes to receiving a gift.

Christian Life: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Though grace is not mentioned in this verse, it is certainly implied. A little Greek grammar explains why. When a Greek sentence begins with “If,” followed by the Greek form of the verb “is,” it sets up a condition that expects something to happen. So if we continually “confess our sins,” we can expect that God will forgive us and cleanse us of those sins. The verbs “forgive” and “cleanse” are of a form that means a momentary action. When we continue to confess our sins, God will forgive us and cleanse us each time.

The moment we received Christ, all our sins—past, present, and future—were covered by God’s grace. And His grace continues to restore us to intimacy with Him each time we sin—wittingly or unwittingly. That is what makes us a grace receiver.

Grace Giver

Now we come to the challenging part—giving away that which we received as a gift from God. But that is exactly what we are called to do. But before I make that point, let me remind you again of what grace is: It is free, unconditional, unmerited, and inexhaustible. That is why we continue to be forgiven of our sins as a Christian believer. That is exactly the kind of grace we are to give to others.

Paul makes this point in Ephesians 4:32: “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (emphasis added). That last phrase, that I highlighted in italics, is the key. The very same way that God has extended kindness, tenderness, and forgiveness—that is, grace—to us is the way we are to extend it to others.

That sounds easy enough—until it isn’t. What if you have a family member, a friend, a coworker, or a neighbor who continues to sin. You are to extend the same grace—kindness and forgiveness—to them that God has extended to you throughout your Christian life. And without counting!

Remember what Jesus said when Peter asked if seven times was enough when it came to forgiving his “brother”: “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22). Did Jesus mean that 490 times was the limit? No—seventy times seven was an expression that indicated there should be no limit, no counting. God doesn’t count our sins, and we are not to count the sins of others. Rather, we are to forgive “even as God in Christ [has forgiven us].”

But extending grace is not just a mental transaction whereby we erase sins from another’s account. We are to demonstrate God’s grace in acts of service.

Grace Demonstrator

A perfect verse for this point is Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God demonstrated (proved) His love for us in a tangible way. And He didn’t do it after we had cleaned up our lives and reformed our ways. He did it “while we were still sinners.” That’s the very opposite of what a performance-based mentality would do. From a human perspective we would say, “I’m not going to demonstrate love or forgiveness to that person. Look what they have done; look how they are living!” That is exactly the opposite of what God has done for us and the opposite of what we should do for others.

Think of the ways you can demonstrate grace to others in tangible ways through acts of kindness, generosity, encouragement, or forgiveness. It is one thing to say, “I love you,” but another to demonstrate that love (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). As John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave” (emphasis added).

Demonstrating grace to others begins with remembering the grace God has given to us. Never forget to graciously give what you have graciously received.