By Rollin Grams, Bible and Mission. (Image: Unsplash)
Introduction
I would like to reflect on two ways to speak of the Gospel of our salvation. The first is the more common way that has to do with justification by grace through faith. I call this Forgiving Grace. The second is in terms of understanding and bearing fruit. I call this Transforming Grace. (Martin Luther, known particularly for his theology of forgiving grace, nonetheless early on preached a similar message, ‘Two Kinds of Righteousness’.)
Forgiving Grace
So, first, let’s cover familiar territory and speak of justification by grace through faith. We Christians, particularly we Evangelicals, will very often describe the Christian life by speaking of God’s saving us by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, our Saviour. When we explain what it means for Jesus to be our Saviour, we continue with saying that Jesus’ death on the cross was for our sins, a free gift from God to people still in their sins. We cannot earn our salvation. We are not ‘good enough’ for God to give us a pass. Instead, as Paul says in Ephesians 2.4-5, ‘God, being rich in mercy, because of the great mercy with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved’ (ESV, and throughout).
Now, this is, indeed, the Gospel, the Good News. It is not only a message in the New Testament, as though the Old Testament was a book of Law and the New Testament a book of Grace. The Old Testament again and again points Israelites to God’s grace and salvation and the need to have faith in Him, not in our own righteousness. The New Testament part of the Gospel is simply in saying that God’s grace, His salvation, comes through Jesus Christ, and that our faith in God comes through faith in Jesus Christ as our Saviour. The whole Bible, Old and New Testaments, proclaim the Gospel: God is our Saviour.