You would almost think that grace was a new concept in the body of Christ today given the frequency by which it is being utilized. It seems that every message preached and every song being sung today is promoting grace. I wouldn’t be that concerned about it but some of the rhetoric being thrown around pertaining to grace is erroneous at best and reckless at worst. What seems to be at the center of the confusion is the difference between positional grace and functional grace.
Grace can easily be understood as that spiritual resource that Yahweh supplies that you can’t supply for yourself-a gift. Grace is the divine presence and subsequent empowerment of the Holy Spirit within a person that causes change within and flows through that same person to others-glorifying Yahshua.
So, yes, Yahweh must first extend grace to everyone for your position (lineage and subsequent nature associated with that lineage) in Christ to change. You cannot ‘save’, or deliver yourself from your sin condition that is generationally connected to Adam…you cannot make yourself righteous, acceptable and valuable to Yahweh apart from Yahshua’s sacrifice and shed blood on the cross. Yahweh Himself must give this gift of salvation that transfers your family lineage from Adam to Christ. One’s simple response to this gift is repentance-a true expression of the contrition of one’s heart!! Then, by faith (agreement with Yahweh), receive the finished work of Yahshua, completed on the cross. Instantly, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of grace, responds to your heart’s desire to belong and be reconciled to Yahweh through the gift given and received. HalleluYAH!!!
But notice these two passages that reference grace in the New Testament:
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8-10
4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8 This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men. Titus 3:4-8
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
So grace cannot be understood solely linked to salvation, but must also be present and active in our lives as Kingdom change agents and sons of Yahweh in the earth today. Romans 8:14 states that the sons of Yahweh are those who are ‘continually’ led by the Holy Spirit. Later Paul explains that even the earth is groaning and travailing for the sons of Yahweh to take their place mightily in the earth so that the earth can glorify Christ as it was originally designed. Man cannot fulfill his divinely given purpose without the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of grace, functioning in and through him. If we stop at positional grace, we change lineages from Adam to Christ without the nature change and without fulfilling the Yahweh-given mandates unique to every believer. As Paul states emphatically, “We are His workmanship, recreated in Christ Yahshua for good works.”
Therefore, there exists a distinct balance and relationship between the spoken Word, the Holy Spirit and man, who is uniquely designed to hear Yahweh’s voice and release his faith, which grants the Holy Spirit access to the spoken Word and brings about manifestation of that Word.
How much of what is being done in the name of Yahshua, the Christ, is actually being accomplished without the Holy Spirit’s empowerment within and through man? How much of Yahshua’s earthly ministry was accomplished without the Holy Spirit? Exactly, my point!