Grace is a word that most people have heard, but many do not understand.  If I were to ask a group of people for their definition of grace, I would get many different answers.  Although grace is talked about and preached often, many people fail to have a good understanding of what it really is.  Today I would like to share some truths from the Bible that will help us understand that it is God’s grace that offers us all that we need from Him.

Possibly the most common definition of grace is “unmerited favor”, and that is a good definition of grace.  Grace is certainly unearned and undeserved.  But in order to understand grace more fully we must understand that grace is more than favor, it is also power.

Grace may also be defined as “God-given ability to overcome.”  I like that definition!  Grace is God doing for mankind what man could not do for himself.  I like to describe it as God reaching down to man, while faith is man reaching up to God.

The greatest thing God has done for mankind was to send His Son to redeem us.  John 1:16-17 says, “And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

This shows us that grace is more than God’s impersonal favor.  It is God meeting us at the point of our need in the person of Jesus Christ, including all of His power and provision made available to us!  Through Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, God did for man what we could not do for ourselves.

Now notice another verse of scripture with me.  Titus 2:11 says, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.”  The grace of God is now made available to all men!  All we have to do is receive by faith what God has already done.

Notice the word “salvation” in this verse.  it comes from a word in the original language that means much more than we understand from the English word used here. Vines Dictionary of New Testament Words gives us the literal definition of the word.  The definition includes all of the following meanings, “deliverance, preservation, salvation, and safety.”

It is unfortunate that so much of the meaning is lost in the translation.  We begin to understand that the grace of God is available to bring us deliverance, help, safety, preservation as well as eternal salvation when we die!

So, the question then is, if this grace is given to all men, why aren’t all men saved?  The answer is that all men do not receive the grace of God.  The provision of God’s grace must be received by faith.  All that Jesus purchased for us is now offered to us by grace.  In order to have it and experience it in our lives, we must receive it by faith.

Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”  God has provided all this is necessary for your salvation by His grace.  Now it must be received by faith.  Faith is your positive response to what God has already done.  You must first believe what God has said in His Word and then act upon it by obeying it and applying it to your life.

Many fail to understand the power that has been made available to them through His grace.  There is not anything that you could need that God hasn’t already provided by His grace.  And it is freely given and undeserved.  He has provided for the forgiveness of our sin, and our right standing with Him.

It’s not necessary that you try to “clean up” before you come to Him.  He already accepts you and loves you.  You may come to Him, as you are, to receive His grace!  That’s what makes His grace so amazing!

©Mike McComb Ministries  2026