Free and Undeserved

And since it is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is—free and undeserved.

Romans 11:6 NLT

I love the apostle Paul’s description of God’s grace: free and undeserved! When you truly experience this free and undeserved favor and love from God, you don’t have to worry about performing. His love and unmerited favor within you will flush out all the wrong thinking and wrong believing, and you will produce good works—true fruits of righteousness that are lasting, sustainable, and enduring!

You may have heard a teaching going around where grace is defined as “divine empowerment.” Be careful about defining grace as merely empowerment—that is diluting and reducing what grace truly is.

Grace produces divine empowerment, but in and of itself, the essence of grace is His undeserved, unmerited, and unearned favor. When are you in your most undeserving state? When you have failed.

Unmerited favor means that when you have failed and are in your most undeserving state, you can receive Jesus’ favor, blessings, love, and perfect acceptance in your life. Let me tell you, when you understand and receive grace as God’s unmerited favor, not only will you be empowered, you will be healed, and you will be changed from the inside out.

The real danger with defining grace as just divine empowerment is that we can unconsciously flip grace around and instead of seeing it as God’s work in our life, we make it our work. From being centered on what Jesus has done, the erroneous definition of grace as “empowerment” swings it to being about what you must do and how you must perform now that you have received this grace, this “divine empowerment.”

Can you see this? With such a definition of grace, the onus to live the Christ life falls back squarely on your shoulders.

My friend, make sure that what you believe in your heart always points you back to Jesus and Jesus alone and not to yourself. Remember, it is all about His work, His doing, His performance, and His love in our lives. It never points back to you.

Don’t be hoodwinked by those who move away from the pristine definition of grace as God’s unmerited favor and end up making it all about you and what you need to do. That’s not grace. Grace is God’s doing—from inception and all the way to the end.

Today, receive His abundant grace—see that God has already started a good work in your life and He alone will lead you to and give you the victory in your area of need.

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Right Believing—Daily Readings from The Power of Right Believing.