Saved By Grace: God’s Undeserved Gift
- Ottawa Gospel Hall
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Grace is God’s undeserved love and kindness toward people who have sinned and cannot save themselves. This message looks at who God’s grace is for, why we need it, how God has shown it at the cross, and how you can personally receive this gift of salvation.
Grace: God’s undeserved love and kindness
We began by reading a short but powerful verse from God’s Word:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8 (NKJV)
Read it again and let that one word sink in: grace.
Grace is undeserved love and kindness. We could also say: undeserved favour. It is kindness shown to someone who does not deserve it and cannot earn it.
To help us understand, think of a simple driving story. A new driver, with the “student driver” sign on top, is instructed to turn. The signal is on, the mirror is checked—but the blind spot is forgotten. Another vehicle is sitting exactly where it shouldn’t be. The instructor panics, yanks the wheel back, and a collision is narrowly avoided.
If you were in that vehicle, you might lean on the horn, throw your hands up, and shout, “What are you doing? You almost hit me!” But the driver in that van doesn’t do that. He quietly backs up to give space and lets the nervous learner in. Undeserved kindness. Grace.
That is just a small picture, but we are thinking on a much larger scale: God’s undeserved love and kindness toward sinners. Scripture speaks of it again and again: “the grace of God,” “God’s grace,” “the gospel of the grace of God.”
We read from this Book, the Bible, because it is the true Word of God. It is God’s own message about His grace.
God’s grace is not a vague feeling. It is a real, concrete kindness that brings salvation. To understand it, we will ask four simple questions:
Who is God’s grace to?
What is sin, and who has sinned?
What do we deserve in our sin?
How has God shown His grace, and how can we accept it?
Who is God’s grace to?
Grace must always be shown toward someone. The family member's kindness in traffic was towards a nervous learner. In a far greater way, God’s grace is directed toward people. But which people?
We read it already:
“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.” Titus 2:11
God’s grace that brings salvation has appeared to all.
“All” is a big word. It is inclusive. It means every kind of person is included:
Every height
Every background and ethnicity
Every language
Every personality and life story
God’s grace is to all people, without exception. That means it is to you.
What is sin, and who has sinned?
To understand grace, we must understand why we need it. That brings us to the Bible’s word: sin.
“Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.” 1 John 3:4
Sin is lawlessness. We do not use that word much today, but it means breaking God’s law, stepping outside of His perfect standard. Think of it this way:
Perfection and sin are complete opposites.
If you are perfect, you are sinless.
If you have sin, you are not perfect.
And Scripture leaves no room for exceptions.
“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23
The same “all” that appears in Titus 2:11 appears here. All have sinned. Every single person has broken God’s law of perfection. We see it in:
Wrong thoughts
Wrong words
Disobedient actions
We do not have to teach children how to disobey. It comes naturally. That is sin. And the Bible says all have sinned—no exceptions.
What do we deserve in our sin?
If all of us have sinned, the next question is serious: What are we deserving in this condition?
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23
Focus on the first part for a moment: “The wages of sin is death.”
Wages are what you earn. Sin pays out death. That includes:
Physical death
And beyond physical death, if still unsaved, eternal separation from God
In our sin, we are not deserving reward, but judgment—death and separation from a holy God.
If that were the end of the story, life would be hopeless. There would be no real purpose, no real joy—only a waiting for judgment.
But the gospel does not end there.
How has God shown His grace?
In the early chapters of Romans, God explains the gospel and unfolds His grace to guilty people. God showed His grace by sending His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God became man. We sometimes use the word “incarnate”—God coming into the world in a real body, living among us, and going to the cross.
There, at the cross, the Lord Jesus paid the price we were deserving. Death and judgment should have fallen on us. Instead, He took it. He was the only One who could:
The only perfectly sinless Man
The only One whose life had no stain
The only One fit to bear the judgment for others
What an amazing thing that we have a Saviour that went and died on our behalf. He paid the price. That is grace. Undeserved kindness.
How do we accept God’s grace?
We come back now to the verse we started with (Ephesians 2:8). God’s grace is described as a gift. Salvation is not “your own doing.” You cannot earn it, work for it, or pay God back for it. It is the gift of God.
God calls you to trust Him. He offers you salvation by grace. He tells you that the work is finished, the price is paid, and the debt can be canceled. Your responsibility is to take Him at His word—turn from your sin and rest on what Christ has done.
Will you accept God’s grace?
This is eternity we are speaking about. This is separation from God forever if you remain in your sins. And yet all that God calls you to do is to accept His grace—His undeserved loving kindness—like a gift.
Like accepting a canceled debt, like a child taking a present, you are called to:
Turn from your sin
Simply trust what God has said about His Son
Rest in the finished work of Christ at the cross
“For by grace you have been saved through faith… it is the gift of God.”
Will you accept God’s grace? Will you accept it simply as a gift, as this verse calls you to do?
